An account of todays match in the men’s Big Bash League, a pungent comment re England’s chosen XI for Adelaide tomorrow and a photo gallery.
The Women’s Big Bash League 11th edition finished on Saturday, and the 15th edition of the men’s tournament started yesterday. Today Melbourne Renegades faced Brisbane Heat in a night match in Geelong. This post looks back at that match.
RENEGADES RUNFEST
Things initially did not look overly bright for Renegades, with only Tim Seifert of the early batters looking good. Josh Brown managed 15 (13), which looked positively explosive compared to number three Mohammad Rizwan’s 3 (10). Jake Fraser-McGurk had just started to look like he might provide Seifert some decent support when he suffered a stupid dismissal, walking across his stumps against seamer Jack Wildermuth, missing and being bowled. This attempt to open up the leg side was particularly ill-judged given that Heat had stocked that side with plenty of fielders. Oliver Peake, 19 years old, came in at number five, and batted magnificently. He and Seifert put on 121 together in precisely nine overs (9.3 to 18.3) of the innings, Seifert reaching three figures. Wildermuth got them both in the space of three balls, 203-3 becoming 204-5. Shaheen Shah Afridi had a nightmare with the ball, which ended in bizarre fashion, when he was ordered away from the bowling crease after producing two dangerously high full tosses in a single over, the 18th over of the innings. His figures when his spell was compulsorily halted were 2.4.-0-43-0. Nathan McSweeney completed that 18th over. The 20th over was bowled by Xavier Bartlett, and in the circumstances he did well to only concede a further eight.
THE HEAT RESPONSE
At no stage were Heat close to being up with the rate, and as can happen in such circumstances that required rate climbed alarmingly in the second half of their innings. Only a late flourish between youngster Hugh Weibgen and veteran Jimmy Peirson, which produced 78 runs from 5.5 overs enabled them to keep the margin respectable. There was time in the dying embers of the game for Afridi to add a duck with the bat to his disaster class with the ball. Afridi’s dismissal, clean bowled by Gurinder Singh Sandhu, left Heat needing 17 from one ball, and they managed two off that final ball. Melbourne Renegades had won by 14 runs. Their best bowler on the day was Will Sutherland who took 3-33 from his four overs, while Jason Behrendorff had 2-34 from his four and Sandhu 2-35 from his four.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Tomorrow night UK time the third match of the Ashes series gets underway in Adelaide. England have confirmed their playing XI, with the only change from Brisbane being Tongue coming in for Atkinson. That means that Shoaib Bashir, fast tracked into the England team and kept there in spite of some less than convincing returns at test level with this specific series in mind may end up not participating until it has already been lost. However England’s actual selections work out they have made themselves look fools over Bashir. Now for my usual sign off…
These last few photos are of a massive fly past of migrating birds. There is virtually no overlap between the birds being photographed here. The pictures were taken on Columbia Way at about 3:30PM, as I returned from my post-lunch walk.
A look at the first two days of action is the pink ball test in Brisbane, and a photo gallery.
Having covered Tuesday’s auction I now turn to something else. Early yesterday morning UK tine a day-night test match got underway in Brisbane, the second match of the 2025-26 Ashes series. England had lost the first match by this same stage, so the fact that I am writing about a match that is still in progress is an improvement.
ROOT THE ALL TIME GREAT
Even before the events of this match no one seriously doubted that Joe Root was a great batter rather than merely a good or even very good one, but there were certain Aussies who would deny him the status of an all-time great because he had a blot on an otherwise stellar CV – he had never scored a test century in Australia. There seemed small chance of England having anything the celebrate when Root’s innings began – Duckett and Pope had both fallen cheaply, and the score was 5-2. Zak Crawley came back well from his pair in Perth, making an impressive 76 and sharing a century stand with Root. Harry Brook looked highly impressive in making 31, but his dismissal when he should have gone on to a properly big score was a shocking one, not just because the shot was one he should never have taken on, but because he did so against Starc, the only genuinely dangerous bowler Australia had. Stokes gave Root some support but got out before long. That brought Jamie Smith, facing a pink ball for the first time in his professional career (apparently it was not worthwhile to send him, and others in the same boat, such as Will Jacks, in for the injured Wood – a batting all rounder who bowls off-spin in for a specialist pacer – to Canberra to play in the President’s XI match) to the crease. Smith collected a duck to put England six down, and bring Jacks to the crease. I had to leave for work at this point, but a later check confirmed that Root, in the 70s when I left, had finally scored that first century on Aussie soil and removed any possible doubt about his status as an all time great. His best support after I had left came from number 11 Jofra Archer, who made into the 30s, and would be last out for 38 early this morning UK time. England amassed 334, Root with 135 not out being the person who made that total possible.
AUSTRALIA SO FAR
England produced a very variable bowling performance, and the fielding was far too fallible. Four clear-cut chances went down, Duckett culpable on two occasions to go with his duck, and Joe Root in the slips got a hand to ball that streaked away for four, though it would have been an absolute screamer of a catch had he held it. Brydon Carse took three wickets in the course of the day and had a chance shelled, but he was also absurdly expensive – at one stage he was leaking runs at a rate that would have raised eyebrows in a T20 league, and even by the end of the day he had 3-113 from 17 overs. Australia were 291-3 at high water mark, but then Green and Smith both fell to Carse very quicky. England got one further wicket in the day, but in the latter stages as they started to show obvious tiredness Australia got on top once again, ending the day on 378-6, 44 runs ahead on first innings with four wickets standing. England are not out of this yet – come the fourth innings the pitch will be very tricky, but they need to bowl well first thing tomorrow, and then bat well for the rest of tomorrow and well in to day four.
A look back at today’s WBBL match between Brisbane Heat and Melbourne Stars, and a photo gallery.
Today in the Women’s Big Bash League Brisbane Heat played host to Melbourne Stars at Allan Border Field in a game that had been scheduled as late-night fixture (coverage starting at 9AM UK time) because it was seen as being a kind of ‘dessert’ after the main meal of day three of the test match at Perth. However, some Kamikaze batting by England and a great innings from Travis Head (go here for more) meant that there was in point of fact no day three in Perth, so this match became the main event.
THE STARS INNINGS
Melbourne Stars won the bat flip and opted to bat first. Brisbane Heat’s captain Jess Jonassen was not unhappy about this. Heat had lost all four of their games this edition, so desperately needed a win. At first they looked absolutely certain to get that win, as they tore through the Stars top and middle order, reducing the visitor’s to 44-6 at one point. At that stage South African veteran Marizanne Kapp was joined in the middle by young English bowling all rounder Danielle Gibson. They launched a spirited revival, putting on 73 together, of which Gibson’s share was precisely 30, from 24 balls, ending when Nadine de Klerk trapped her LBW. Georgia Prestwidge scored 3 (7), but such was the devastating fusillade from Kapp at the other end that the eighth wicket stand yielded 43 in 2.5 overs! This briefly opened the possibility of a Kapp century, but even batting as she was by then time was against her, the final over being already underway. In the end she finished with 93 not out from 51 balls, including nine fours and five sixes, in a Stars total of 171-8.
THE HEAT REPLY
Heat started far better than Stars had, with Grace Harris and Charli Knott putting on 50 for the first wicket, a stand that ended when Sophie Day pinned Harris LBW. Jess Jonassen now promoted herself to number three, when Georgia Redmayne would probably have been a better choice there. In the eighth over Kapp’s medium pace provided the second breakthrough, Harris being caught by Danielle Gibson to make it 56-2. Chinelle Henry looked dangerous, smashing two sixes in the space of three balls in the ninth over, but off the last ball, immediately after hitting the second of those sixes, she went big again and was superbly caught by Kapp for 13 (8) to make it 74-3. Jonassen never really looked like justifying her decision to bat at number three, and in the 12th over she was caught in the deep by Georgia Prestwidge off Day for 15 (14)to make it 92-4. Four balls and three runs later Nadine de Klerk took on McKenna and Prestwidge again got underneath it to make it 95-5. Georgia Redmayne and Lauren Winfield-Hill shared a decent partnership, but they were never up with the rate, and Redmayne’s dismissal left Heat needing 40 runs to win off just 3.1 overs. They never got remotely close, and it was only a four hit by young fast bowler Lucy Hamilton off the final ball of the match with the result long since settled that even enabled Heat to top the 150 mark. The final margin was 18 runs. Marizanne Kapp with that thunderous 93 not out, 4-0-31-2 with the ball and a superb catch was the only possible candidate for Player of the Match, and was duly so named. The Stars now sit third in the table, while Heat, after seven successive seasons of making the knockouts now know that they will not be extending their season this time.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
I rarely photograph pigeons but I thought this one with the distinctive green neck patch was worth making an exception for.Triangulation, ornithological style – two egrets and a gull form the corners of a triangle in the Great Ouse.The old (Custom House) and new (an art gallery/shop only a few years old) juxtaposed.A low sun shining on the Great Ouse.
Today saw the start of the 2025-6 Ashes series between the Australia and England men’s teams, with England launching a bid to achieve something last pulled off by Ray Illingworth’s 1970-1 side – come to Australia without The Ashes and leave with them (Three subsequent England skippers, Brearley in 1978-9, Gatting in 1986-7 and Strauss in 2010-11 have retained as opposed to regaining The Ashes in Australia). Perth was the venue, a city in which England have only once won a test match, during Brearley’s 1978-9 triumph.
PRELIMINARIES
Both sides had in different ways caused eyebrows to rise in the run up to the series. Australia had lost skipper Pat Cummins and, right on the eve of the contest, fellow pacer Josh Hazlewood to injuries, and their top order was in a state of flux as well, with Jake Weatherald, at 31 years of age no youngster, earmarked for a debut in this match. The vacancy opened up by Hazlewood’s injury was filled by Brendan Doggett, also 31 years old and making his debut at the highest level.
England meanwhile were much more settled, but their preparation had raised eyebrows. They had played one preliminary fixture, at Lilac Hill, a venue with no similarities to Perth, and rather than a genuine match it was England v England Lions, with everyone getting involved rather than two sides of 11. Correctly in view of everyone actually being fit and the nature of the Perth pitch they had omitted Shoaib Bashir, going with a full battery of pacers – in batting order from 8-11 Atkinson, Carse, Archer and Wood, with Ben Stokes also fit to bowl. Australia, short of experience with the injuries to Cummins and Hazlewood, had opted to pick Nathan Lyon, the veteran off spinner who has just celebrated his 38th birthday, in their line up. Ben Stokes won the toss and opted to bat, probably aware that the side batting first has won every test match at this new venue.
THE ENGLAND INNINGS
Four years ago Mitchell Starc struck with the first ball of the series, removing Rory Burns. This time it took him until the last ball of the first over to make the breakthrough. The dismissal was the sort of dismissal that an AI bot asked to produce a typical Crawley dismissal would have come up with – a loose drive resulting in an edge and first slip being in business.
England scored at a rapid rate in spite of an outfield that was both large and slow (there were a number of threes and one all run four for shots where the ball stopped just inside the ropes). However they also lost wickets at a rapid rate. Harry Brook scored an impressive 50 but got himself out immediately after reaching that mark, while Ollie Pope and Jamie Smith both looked good but failed to go big, scoring 46 and 33 respectively. This was not a surface on which lower order batters were likely to prosper, and from 160-5 England fell away to 172 all out, Starc 7-58, a new test best. However, they still had the opportunity to bowl on a spicy deck, and had a bowling unit that looked both stronger and better suited to such a surface than Australia’s makeshift one…
THE AUSTRALIAN REPLY
Australia also lost their first wicket before scoring a run, Khawaja having left the field during the England innings and rendered himself unable to open the innings, a mishap that meant the debutant Weatherald would be on strike for the first ball of the reply, with Labuschagne at the other end. Archer’s first ball beat him, and the second pinned him LBW. Khawaja was still not allowed to bat at this point, and stand-in skipper Steve Smith (yes, he of sandpaper infamy) joined Labuschagne for a second wicket stand that soaked up a bit of time but not produce many runs. The second ball of the 15th over, bowled by Archer (by then into a second spell) rattled Labuschagne’s stumps to make it 28-2. Nine balls and two runs later Steve Smith edged one from Brydon Carse to be caught by Brook for 17 and that was 30-3. One run later Carse had Khawaja caught behind to make it 31-4. Travis Head and Cameron Green seemed to be seeing Australia through in a good partnership when Stokes introduced himself to the attack. With the score on 76 Travis Head fell to a catch by Carse off Stokes to end a 45 run partnership. Seven runs later Green edged through to Smith, leaving Carey and a precarious tail (Starc at least one place too high eight, Lyon two places too high at nine and genuine rabbits Doggett and Boland) to attempt to get Australia somewhere near parity. Starc and Carey fared well together for a time, until Starc, on 12, gave Carse another catch off Stokes. Three runs later came the dismissal that made it unequivocally England’s day, Carey becoming the third Aussie to be caught by Carse off Stokes, for 26 in his case. That was 121-8, and two balls later Boland, sent in ahead of Doggett for no apparent reason, was caught by Brook to make it 121-9 and give Stokes his fifth wicket of the innings. There was time for just one more over in this eventful day, and Australia survived it, adding two runs to their score as well. The day thus saw 295 runs scored and 19 wickets fall, and that with only 71.5 overs being bowled (32.5 for the England innings, 39 in the Australian innings). That 19 wickets was the most on an opening day of an Ashes match since Old Trafford in 1909 when both sides had completed their first innings by the end of day one. 51,531 people, a record crowd for a match in Perth, watched some or all of the day’s action at the ground (officially 10,000 of these were English, but there are also quite a few English migrants living in Perth who would have been counted as local sales). With this much happening on day one one can already strike out days four and five, and day three is far from certain to happen. In a day of two halves the brilliance of England’s bowlers, backed by some good catching, ultimately more than offset a rather slipshod batting effort, but the batters cannot expect the bowlers to dig them out of every hole like that.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
A pied wagtail exploring Fakenham Market yesterday as I walked through on my way to work (it was practically at my feet when I took this picture)“Red sky at night, Shepherd’s delight” – although whether that quite applies when said ‘night’ is falling at about 4PM is another matter!
A look back at today’s ‘Sydney Smash’ – Thunder v Sixers – in the WBBL, including a historic performance from Caoimhe Bray and a photo gallery featuring pictures taken with three cameras.
Today in the Women’s Big Bash League saw the Sydney Smash – Thunder hosting Sixers at Drummoyne, just west of Sydney. This post looks back at a bizarre game that ended up being dominated by the youngest player involved.
SIXERS SLUMP AFTER STRONG START
Sydney Thunder skipper Phoebe Litchfield won the toss and chose to bowl first, a decision that her cross-city counterpart Ashleigh Gardner would also have made had she been the one to win the toss. Each side had a youngster in the ranks, Thunder giving a debut to 18 year old all rounder Lucy Finn, while Sixers had 16 year old bowling all rounder Caiomhe Bray (that given name is pronounced like ‘Keeva’ just for the record).
Ellyse Perry was out fairly early, pinned LBW by Georgia Voll with just 16 on the board. Thereafter, with Sophia Dunkley in prime form, and Alyssa Healy taking full toll of a few loose balls things initially looked bright for the Sixers. Their innings took a dramatic turn when Healy tried to go after one from Shabnim Ismail and succeeded only in picking out Samantha Bates who made no mistake with the catch. That was 76-2, and off the last ball of the tenth over Dunkley fell for 43, pinned LBW by Sri Lankan veteran Chamari Athapaththu to make it 80-3 at the halfway stage of the innings. In the second half of the Sixers innings wickets tumbled regularly, with the shining exception of English spin bowling all rounder Mady Villiers who emerged as third top scorer of the innings, with an unbeaten 24. A final total of 142-9 looked on the meagre side, especially from that high water mark of 76-1 after 8.4 overs…
THUNDER TUMBLE
…Sixers needed to start well, and veteran seamer Lauren Cheatle struck with the fourth ball of the Thunder innings, having Voll caught by Villiers to make it 2-1. Then the other new ball bowler, Maitlan Brown, struck twice more, first accepting a soft return chance to dismiss the other opener Tahlia Wilson for 7, and then having the vastly experienced Heather Knight feather one through to Healy for 6 to make it 19-3 in the fourth over. Neither Phoebe Litchfield nor Anika Learoyd played fluently, but they held the fort together until the last ball of the seventh over, bowled by the youngster Bray. Litchfield, who had reached 8 from 14 balls tried to attack against Bray and succeeded in being caught by Gardner to make it 33-4. The next over yielded nine runs, before it was back to Bray, and the biggest events of the night. The first ball of the ninth over did for Learoyd, bowling her for 11 to make it 42-5. That brought the explosive Laura Harris to the crease. Harris tried to do her thing off her first ball and was brilliantly caught by a diving Erin Burns for 0 to give the 16 year old Bray a hat trick comprising three front line batters, some 175 years after All-England skipper Heathfield Harman Stephenson caused the term to be coined by dismissing three batters with successive balls in a match in Sheffield, which led to the crowd, impressed by the performance, to pass round a hat for a collection and present both hat and contents to Stephenson. Incidentally, though this match was flawless in this regard this edition of the WBBL had not overall been notable for catches being held. That was 42-6, and Lucy Finn came to the crease. Four balls into the second half of the innings Athapaththu holed out to Gardner to give Bray her fourth scalp of the innings and make it 49-3, the Sri Lankan managing only 3 (6). Bray had two balls of her allocation left to make it a five-for, but was not able to do so. However, her final 4-0-15-4 including the hat trick had settled who would be named Player of the Match. Thunder’s own youngster, Finn, now took centre stage, as she, with good support from tail enders Taneale Peschel and Shabnim Ismail (number 11 Samantha Bates not being required in the end) proceeded to produce an innings that exposed just how badly her supposed betters had handled their duties. She just missed on reaching 50, but her 49 not out, in the course of which she never looked in any trouble was the highest score of the match on either side – quite something for a debutant who came into the match considered more of a bowler than a batter (and though, like all else, it was overshadowed by Bray’s performance 3-0-27-1 on professional T20 debut is no one’s idea of a failure). Thunder with this late revival reached 118-8, beaten by 24 runs.
PHOTOGRAPHS
This gallery features images taken with three cameras – the Nikon Coolpix B500 that was my first choice camera until it died on Tuesday morning, the Canon EOS 4000D that is my reserve camera, and the Panasonic DC-FZ82D which I ordered on Wednesday and arrived yesterday and is now my new first choice camera…
This gallery consists of the last pictures with the Nikon.The pictures in this gallery were taken with the Canon……and starting with this one, the Panasonic.I used this Canadian train coin to test the Panasonic’s ability to handle detail.The Red Mount Chapel.
A look at Perth Scorchers v Sydney Sixers in WBBL11 and a photo gallery.
The 11th edition of the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) is now under way. Today there was live commentary on game three, between Perth Scorchers and Sydney Sixers at the WACA. This post looks back at the match.
THE SCORCHERS INNINGS
Perth Scorchers won the toss and chose to bat. They started reasonably well, being 27-1 after four overs, and 37-1 after 4.3 overs. The fourth ball of that over saw the end of Beth Mooney just as she was starting to look really dangerous. From that point the game changed, as Sixers applied considerable pressure. First there was a period of 2.3 overs immediately after the dismissal in which a mere seven runs were scored, and then came catastrophe for the Scorchers. First Sophie Devine suffered a barely credible dismissal, officially stumped by Emma Manix-Geeves off Ash Gardner, when a) the ball hit the stumps by way of the keeper rather than due to any good work on her part and b) the wicket keeper gloved the stumps herself without possession of the ball, but the ball had hit the stumps before her gloves did. That eventually brought Paige Scholfield to the crease, she immediately hit her first ball straight back to Gardner to make it 44-4. Freya Kemp now came in, and in company with Mikayala Hinkley seemed to be steadying the ship. Then Hinkley, who had made her to 31, was well caught by Coimhe Bray off Ellyse Perry (a transgenerational dismissal, Perry being 35 and Bray 16) to make it 83-5, which became 83-6 when DRS confirmed that Chloe Ainsworth’s pad was indeed in front of the stumps when her first ball thumped into it. Five balls later Freya Kemp became the third player dismissed with the score on 83 when Gardner bowled her for 16 with a peach of a yorker. That left Lilly Mills and Alana King together at the crease. Mills batted busily and effectively for a time, until Gardner struck yet again. First Mills was caught behind for 13, and then after Amy Edgar had scored a single off the next ball Alana King fell to a return catch for 5 to make it 102-9 and give Gardner her fifth wicket of the innings. The over ended without further incident, but Gardner, captaining the Sixers for the first tine, had recorded figures of 4-0-15-5, the best ever for the Sydney Sixers. Edgar and number 11 Ebony Hoskin did manage to take the Scorchers innings into the final over, before a second fine catch of the innings by Bray accounted for Edgar to make it 109 all out. On this occasion Bray’s seamers were surplus to requirement, but she had been worth her place purely as a fielder.
THE SIXERS INNINGS
A total of 109 was miles short of anything remotely defensible on a good surface (which this was), and an upset never looked likely. Sixers opening pair of Ellyse Perry and Sophia Dunkley made an easy task look quite ridiculously so. It took the pair a mere 12.5 overs to take their side to a ten wicket victory. Dunkley scored 61 not out from 40 balls with five sixes and four fours and Perry had 57 not out from 37 balls with nine fours. It remained only for Gardner, skipper and record breaking bowler for the Sixers, to be named Player of the Match as she duly was.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
A ‘waning gibbous’ moon in the morning sky.A squirrel tackles a large tree.looking down from in the branches.the lookout squirrel
An all time XI of England players whose finest hours came in Australia, and a photo gallery,
With an away Ashes series approaching I offer a variation on the all-time theme – an England side picked specifically with achievements IN Australia in mind (yes, sceptical Aussie readers, I can find 11, and that without too much difficulty).
THE XI IN BATTING ORDER
*Len Hutton (right handed opening batter, captain). England’s successful skipper both at home in 1953, when he was the first professional to lead England in a home Ashes series, and away in 1954-5, also recorded a series batting average of 88.83 on the unsuccessful 1950-1 tour.
Alastair Cook (left handed opening batter). 766 runs at 127.67 in the 2010-11 triumph, including 235 not out at Brisbane, 148 at Adelaide and 189 at Sydney. He also scored an unbeaten at 244 at Melbourne eight years later.
Ken Barrington (right handed batter, occasional leg spinner). The Surrey stalwart had racked up nine test centuries on various overseas tours, including 1962-3 in Australia, when he fared magnificently, before scoring one in a home test match (256 versus Australia at Old Trafford in 1964).
Wally Hammond (right handed batter, occasional right arm medium fast bowler). Almost a century after he set it his 905 runs at 113.125 in the 1928-9 Ashes remains a record for a series in Australia, and second on the all time list behind Don Bradman’s 974 at 139.14 in England in 1930. He was also joint leading run scorer four years later with 440 at 55.00, an aggregate an average exactly duplicated by Herbert Sutcliffe, and his scores in 1936-7 included an undefeated double century.
David Gower (left handed batter). Four Ashes tours in all (1978-9, 1982-3, 1986-7 and 1990-1), with two of them in winning cause. In 1978-9 at Perth he came in on the first day with England in trouble at 41-3 and proceeded to score his maiden Ashes ton, with Boycott blocking at the other end. England won that match, still the only time they have ever won a test match in western Australia, and took the series 5-1. He scored centuries on all four of his Ashes tours, including an innings on the last of them that Bradman rated among the top five he ever saw in Australia.
+Matthew Prior (right handed batter, wicket keeper). England’s keeper in the successful 2010-11 tour, and he was a big part of the reason for that success.
Ian Botham (right handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler). Crucial to England’s 1978-9 triumph, and the 1986-7 trip saw the last of his 14 test centuries, and a five-for later in the series.
Frank Foster (left arm fast medium bowler, right handed batter). A splendid all rounder until a motorcycle accident ended his career early, he was one of two bowling stars (the other is also in this XI) of the 1911-12 tour, when England lost the opener but won all four of the other test matches, with 32 wickets in the series.
Hedley Verity (left arm orthodox spinner, right handed batter). One of the greatest masters of his craft ever to play the game. and a useful lower order batter. His role in the 1932-3 triumph was acknowledged by his skipper Douglas Jardine. He was the only bowler Donald Bradman admitted to facing as an equal, and I had very little hesitation in selecting him for the spinners slot.
Frank Tyson (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). One of two choices for this slot, it was pretty much a coin toss as to who should get the nod. I went for his 1954-5 heroics over those of Larwood two decades previously.
Sydney Barnes (right arm fast medium bowler, right handed batter). 77 test wickets in Australia, in 12 matches in that country. At Melbourne in the 1911-12 series on a good track he had the top four Aussie batters back in the pavilion for a single between them in his new ball burst. England won that series 4-1, with Barnes claiming 34 wickets in the series.
This side has a very powerful top five, a keeper/ batter who succeeded down under, a legendary all rounder and four great and well varied bowlers. A bowling unit of Barnes, Foster, Tyson, Verity and Botham, with Hammond and Barrington available as back up options should be capable of functioning well on any surface.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
There were three main rivals to my chosen openers: Andrew Strauss, who opened and captained on the 2010-11 tour and the old firm of Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe. I wanted a right hander to go with Cook, which ruled out Strauss, and the need for a captain gave Hutton an additional advantage over the other contenders. Archie MacLaren had a great series in 1897-8, but that was a bit of a flash in the pan given his overall record, and England lost that series.
Eddie Paynter had a superb record against Australia and could have had David Gower’s slot. Among right handed players who might have featured in the middle order were KS Ranjitsinhji, Kevin Pietersen (whose test best of 227 was scored at Adelaide) and Ted Dexter, who electrified crowds in 1962-3. Colin Cowdrey made six tours of Australia, an England record, including answering an SOS call at the age of 42, 20 years after first travelling down under. I regretted not being able to include the left hander Frank Woolley. Denis Compton was never the player in Australia that he was elsewhere and had to be excluded. If Joe Root rights the one wrong on his stellar CV, the lack of a ton in Australia, he will merit consideration.
Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff’s only visit to Australia in 2006-7 was a personal nightmare for him and ruled him out of consideration, while Ben Stokes has not yet fully delivered down under.
Among the keepers who could have been considered were LEG Ames (1932-3), Alan Knott (1970-1, and in defeat in 1974-5) and Bob Taylor (1978-9).
Derek Underwood performed a similar role in 1970-1 to that of Verity in 1932-3, and Johnny Wardle and Bob Appleyard both fared well in 1954-5. Graeme Swann fulfilled his brief of bowling economically in 2010-11, but flying home halfway through the 2013-14 tour tells against him.
Among the faster bowlers there are three honourable mentions: Harold Larwood in 1932-3 did what Frank Tyson did a couple of decades later and might well have had that slot. John Snow had a phenomenal tour in 1970-1. In 2010-11 James Anderson had a wonderful series, and had his moments on other tours as well.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
I suspected that this series of cormorant/ heron pictures would provide today’s feature image…A jay using a piece of scaffolding as a perch.…until this Red Admiral appeared this afternoon.
An account of a somewhat convoluted path to a 300 lot banknote and coin auction that is now up and running, plus a photo gallery.
Yesterday, with a little assistance from the former colleague who used to do such things, I sent an auction live on both the platforms James and Sons regularly use, the-saleroom.com and easylive. This post explains about that auction and its somewhat less than straightforward origins.
A FALSE START
Ten days ago sale 2285 was as follows: Lots 1-50 books, all described and imaged, lots 51-105 ephemera, described and imaged, with an unknown number of further such lots to go in, Lots 451-500 Banknotes, described and imaged, Lots 501-737 coin and coin related lots, described and imaged, lots 738-800 yet to be filled, lots 801-900 postcards, described and imaged, and lots 901-1000 militaria, as yet unfilled. Then my employer decided he wanted the coin and banknote lots under the hammer. Originally, on Thursday of last week, we were going to do this a timed-bidding auction, and had sent it live on the-saleroom as such, but then my employer panicked and went back on that, and that sale had to be deleted.
THE REAL DEAL
On Tuesday of this week I prepared as much as I could for a launch on Thursday. On Thursday the auction finally did go live on both platforms, with 300 lots in total, which will go under the hammer on December 2nd (I also have a 1,000 lot, two-day stamp sale complete and ready to go, and sending that online should be much more straightforward) starting at 10AM. Owing to the fact that the images had originally been saved as lots 451-750, and with those numbers, the images files had to be renumbered appropriately before they could be uploaded, which is why the auction does not have all the images yet – I have renumbered and uploaded up to lot 180, and have renumbered lots 181-90 but had no time to upload them yesterday. Fortunately I will not need to renumber the much larger number of images in the stamp/ postal history auction – this auction features about 900 images in total, the larger one some 4,000. I will have the rest of the renumbering done at some point on Tuesday, and may be able to get an email out that same day, or that might have to wait until Thursday. The heart of this auction is a collection of Polish coins spanning about half a millennium. To see what the auction currently looks like on easylive go here, while the catalogue on the-saleroom is still pending approval.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
These sunset shots were taken from a bus that had broken down yesterday evening. We had a wait of about 20 minutes before the replacement arrived.
An account of events in Navi Mumbai today where India won the Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025, beating South Africa by 52 runs in the final. Also a photo gallery.
Today was the final of the Women’s ODI world cup, between India, who had chased down an Australian total of 338 to win their semi-final, and South Africa who had thrashed England by 125 runs in their semi-final. This post looks back at an amazing day.
RAIN DELAYS THE START
It started rainy in Navi Mumbai, but the delay was not long enough for any overs to be lost. It was long enough for the BBC’s Team of The Tournament to be publicly named. The selection methodology used by those who set up this poll was questionable, and some of the voters (it was the final result of an online poll) must have had little idea of what they were actually voting for. The single most shocking detail of this team was that collectively the users of the BBC website’s cricket section did not find a place for Deepti Sharma, who came into this final as the leading wicket taker of the tournament and scorer of two half centuries with the bat as well. I named my team in this post and modified it after the first semi-final in this one, and it is my contention that I did a better job than the collective efforts of the voters on the BBC website. TMS commentator Daniel Norcross was every bit as unimpressed with the omission of Deepti Sharma as I was by the way. When the toss finally happened South Africa won it, and unsurprisingly opted to bowl first.
THE INDIAN INNINGS
India started superbly, but did not quite keep the blistering momentum going. Still, in a final a score of 298-7 looked formidable. Shafali Verma made a career best ODI score of 87, and Deepti Sharma weighed in with 58, becoming the first player ever to score three half centuries and claim 10 or more wickets at a single edition of the world cup. Richa Ghosh produced a powerful 34 near the end to give an innings that had been faltering a late lift. Ayabonga Khaka took 3-58 from nine overs, while left arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba had the most economical figures, 1-47 from 10 overs.
TWO DIFFERENT CONTESTS
At one end India were working their way steadily through the South African batting order, while at the other Laura Wolvaardt batted with absolute authority. A big moment came when Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur called up part time spinner Shafali Verma as seventh bowler, and was quickly rewarded with the wickets of Sune Luus and Marizanne Kapp to make it 123-4. Sinalo Jafta yet again demonstrated the she is NOT, repeat NOT, an international number six, making 16 off 29 balls, which caused the RRR to climb to 7.5 an over. Annerie Dercksen came next and made a spirited 35 before Sharma, whose day this was becoming, bowled her with an absolute jaffa to make it 209-6. The decisive moment came 1.4 overs and 11 runs later, when Laura Wolvaardt, who had just followed her magnificent 169 in the semi-final by also clocking up three figures in the final, went big against Sharma and was well caught by Amanjot Kaur for 101 to make it 220-7. Twice in the group stages Nadine de Klerk had won South Africa games that looked lost when they were chasing, so some hope remained for South Africa. Three balls and one run later Tryon was given LBW, and a review did not save her. That left de Klerk to attempt to knock off 78 more runs with two rank tail enders for company. On the last ball of the 44th over Ayabonga Khaka, who should have known the de Klerk was desperate to retain the strike and would run almost no matter what failed to back up properly, and Deepti Sharma’s throw beat her to the wicket keeper’s end to make it 246-9. The first two balls of the 46th over, Sharma’s 10th and last were dots, but off the third Nadine de Klerk went aerial and picked out Indian skipper who accepted the chance, giving Deepti Sharma her fifth wicket of the innings and 22nd of the tournament, easily the most of anyone. In the end Verma, with 87 off 78balls and 2-36 from seven overs was named Player of the Match, while Sharma with 215 runs and 22 wickets across the tournament was a shoo-in for Player of the Tournament, making the failure of users of the cricket section of the BBC website to select her for Team of the Tournament look even more egregious than it had before the start of play. Full scorecard and other details here.
November in England is not generally noted as a prime time for insect sightings, but a combination of warmth and sun brought them out today.
I mentioned yesterday that it was unseasonably warm. The trend continued today, and unlike yesterday, which was virtually unremittingly grey, it has been sunny for much of today. The combination of sun and warm temperatures has brought the insects out in some force.
THE FIRST SIGN
The very first picture I took this morning was a portent of things to come…
A blurry picture of an insect on a green leaf. The tree, to which this leaf is still attached, is on the private road that runs behind my house.
THE FIRST HUGE SURPRISE: A BUMBLEBEE
It was during my second walk of the day, in the early afternoon that things really became strange for an English November (which month we are now into remember). In the Kettlewell Lane woods I spotted a large bumblebee, not a creature that one normally sees at this time of year in England.
A large bumblebee at rest on a big green leaf. In the bottom left of the picture as you look is a fly, large by the standards of such creatures but significantly smaller than the bee.
A RED ADMIRAL
Walking on the path alongside Bawsey Drain (the section between Losinga Road and Columbia Way) I was given another way off-kilter sighting – a Red Admiral Butterfly. Given its physical state it may possibly be a freakishly long lived survivor, but to see such a creature around in November is frankly ridiculous, and more than a little disturbing.
A red admiral butterfly resting against a wooden fence This one is in very poor physical condition, with major damage to its wings.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
The first of three good pictures I got of last night’s half moon. A hover fly on a leaf (see next pic for a closer up version)A squirrel on a tree trunk.A wasp and two flies on a tree trunk.The bumblebee.Hoverfly on a thistle flower.The first of three shots of the Red Admiral
aspiblog 