Insects – Page 14

Three Rivers

An account of a walk in and around King’s Lynn. This particular variation on a favourite walking theme of mine took place yesterday late morning. There are plenty of photographs.

It is no secret to followers of this blog that I do a lot of walking, and that I go nowhere without my camera. This post looks in detail at a recent walk.

WALKING IN AND AROUND KING’S LYNN

One of my favourite themes around which to construct walking routes in and around King’s Lynn is what I call the ‘three rivers’. The three rivers of that title are the Gaywood, multiple sections of which are encompassed, the Nar, which is crossed twice at different points, and Great Ouse, the main river in this part of the world, alongside which some of the walk takes place. The particular walk that this post uses for detail took place yesterday, when the weather was bright and sunny but cold.

THE WALK

I started by leaving my house by the back door, as I was heading at first in the general direction of the town centre. The road that runs behind the row of houses in which I live is a private road and is unnamed. It disgorges on to Raby Avenue, which I crossed, and then headed down Townshend Terrace, a side road which forms a right angle, running from Raby Avenue to a pond at which point it swings 90 degrees and disgorges onto another road. However, as you will see I was not going that way. The pond usually yields pictures, and it did so this day as well…

While Townshend Terrace goes on way, a footpath leads in the opposite direction, through to Loke Road. On the far side of Loke Road, almost directly across from this footpath is a side road called Harewood Parade, which leads round the side of a second pond, until it terminates and is replaced by footpath which heads into a section of greenery flanked on one side by a section of the Gaywood River and on the other by Kettlewell Lane. Although the second pond did not yield anything for the camera on this occasion, the rest of this segment of the walk did…

Kettlewell Lane leads out on to what at that stage is Littleport Street, though a little way north it becomes Gaywood Road. By this stage one is very close to the town centre, but one is not committed to main roads. I crossed Littleport Street at the light controlled crossing on Eastgate Bridge, and headed down Highgate, past a little patch of greenery that sometimes yields pictures though not on this occasion, and down a little side passage that leads to a small bridge back over the Gaywood to the town side and another little section of greenery, which I exited on to Wyatt Street at the other side. I then crossed Wyatt Street, and took a footpath that runs alongside Eastgate primary school before coming out on Blackfriars Road, the road that runs past King’s Lynn station. At this point, for a brief period there are no further options for main road avoidance, so I followed the road round past the station, and shortly after the station headed into the park called The Walks. I headed alongside another section of the Gaywood (heavily sculpted at this stage of its route) until I reached the white metal bridge that leads in to the Vancouver Garden wherein is located the bandstand. I exited the Vancouver Garden by the other bridge from it, crossed the Broadwalk, and headed for the Seven Sisters exit. This section did not yield many pictures, but there were a few…

From the Seven Sisters exit I headed to where a passage leads through to London Road, joining that road at a light controlled crossing, which I availed myself of. I then headed away from town, passing the South Gate and then turning down the road that crosses the Nar, which I exited on to Hardings Way before taking a footpath through Hardings Pits to the Great Ouse at a point south of the town.

The next port of call was ‘Cormorant Platform’, although none of the birds that led me to give it that name were present on this occasion. There was a heron there however…

The heron and platform in the foreground, West Lynn church in the background.

From here I headed on to a dike which can be muddy, but as we have had little rain of late I knew would be fine, and followed it until the path bifurcated – one route led to more of the Great Ouse, and the possibility of following that river as far as Purfleet Quay, but on this occasion i took the other, heading across another part of Hardings Way, through a gateway and down a side road which leads to play area that is at the meeting point of several roads, one of which leads to All Saints Church, reckoned to be the oldest church in King’s Lynn and then by way of Hillington Square to Millfleet.

I crossed Millfleet at a light controlled crossing, headed up past the library, though on this occasion I did not visit that establishment as I already had a number of books out. I then went past the war memorial and Greyfriars Tower, before heading on to Tower Street and thence to the bus station, though I was merely passing through, not intending to catch a bus. From the bus station I headed along Railway Road, crossed at a light controlled crossing and walked along the northernmost section of Norfolk Street to arrived a triangular road crossing that invariably involves two waits if you are a pedestrian, followed Littleport Street until the junction with Kettlewell Lane, passing through the greenery to the second of the two ponds mentioned earlier in this piece, but I now did not entirely duplicated the starting route, instead heading along Loke Road, on to Columbia Way, and then availed myself of a recently opened cut through to the private road behind my house and thus got home.

I hope you have enjoyed this account of a variation on one of my favourite walking themes, that of the three rivers.

A New Talent Emerges

A look back at the latest WBBL action, including the spectacular emergence of an 18 year old fast bowler, and a large photo gallery.

Starting very early this morning UK time there was a double header in the WBBL. As the schedulers planned it the warm up act was a game between Brisbane Heat and Melbourne Stars, while the main event was the ‘Sydney Smash’ – Sydney Sixers against Sydney Thunder. This post looks at what actually eventuated.

HEAT v STARS

I was ready for the start of this game, but there was a never-explained problem with the BBC hook up to the Aussie commentary, so I missed a massive chunk of the first innings, but due to another circumstance of which more later I got hear everything I had missed later on. Stars batted first, and Yastika Bhatia and Annabel Sutherland led off with a stand of 31 in 4.2 overs before Lucy Hamilton, an 18 year old left arm fast bowler, made her first mark on the match by bowling Bhatia. One run later Sutherland was also on her way back, caught by Shikha Pandey off Hamilton. Meg Lanning and Marizanne Kapp took Stars past 50, but then came a double body blow for the Stars. Off the last ball of the eighth over Kapp edged one from leg spinner Grace Parsons through to Redmayne to make it 53-3. Then off the first ball of the ninth over Hamilton secured her third scalp, inducing an edge from Lanning which Redmayne snaffled to make it 53-4. Tess Flintoff has something of a reputation for big hitting, but there was little sign of that this innings. Having had one piece of luck when a risky shot off Hamilton went just too high for Heat skipper Jess Jonassen to reach Flintoff proceeded to pick out Jonassen off the very next ball to fall for 7 (10) and make it 67-5, and four wickets to Hamilton, at a cost of just eight runs, and she still had an over to come. Rhys McKenna and Deepti Sharma were now together. They added 14 together before McKenna was run out, which brought Kim Garth into join Sharma. The score had risen to 89 by the start of the 15th over, Hamilton’s fourth. After four successive dot balls Sharma was pinned LBW to give Hamilton her first ever WBBL five-for, and the first five-for by a pacer in this year’s tournament. Sasha Moloney survived the last ball of the over, but it was another dot, meaning that Hamilton had finished her allocation with a wicket maiden, and the barely credible figures of 4-1-8-5 (reads more like a PIN than a genuine bowling analysis!), with Stars reeling at 96-8. The ninth wicket pair, helped by Hamilton being finished, produced the best Stars partnership other than the opening effort, putting on 28 together before Shikha Pandey got Maisy Gibson with the aid of a catch by Charli Knott. Sophie Day provided further support for Kim Garth, and the last pair added a further 14 before Day was run out off the last ball of the innings. Kim Garth had top scored with 31 not out from number eight in the order, with only Sutherland (21) and McKenna (20) of the others in the line up reaching 20.

Grace Harris was out cheaply for Heat, but a good partnership between Georgia Redmayne and Jemimah Rodrigues took them past 50 at a good rate. Rodrigues and Charli Knott then put on 50 more together for the third wicket. Laura Harris contributed a rapid 10, and then skipper Jess Jonasses joined Knott and this pair were still in residence when Heat crossed the finish line with 2.3 overs and six wickets to spare. Heat thus moved up to 10 points and third in the table, while Stars joined Adelaide Strikers as a team known to be eliminated from the tournament. Hamilton, whose bowling had wrecked the Stars innings was named Player of the Match. Scorecard here.

THE SYDNEY SMASH

Sixers won the bat flip, and in spite of their shocking record as a chasing side Perry decided to put Thunder in to bat. Perry’s reason for doing this was a reckoning that DLS would intervene and that if that happened it would gacour the side that batted second.

Thunder never really got going with the bat, though Georgia Voll, fresh from a match winning effort, scored 29 off 21 balls. Phoebe Litchfield scored 28 off 25 balls. The only other double figure scores were 19 off 26 balls by Georgia Adams and 14 off 16 balls by Sammy-Jo Johnson. The biggest disappointment was Sri Lankan star Chamari Athapaththu who took 17 balls to amass a score of 7. Thunder were 121 all out from 19.5 overs, with the last two wickets run outs, the victim of the latter, Samantha Bates, not even getting to face a ball. Amelia Kerr, star of the recent Women’s T20 World Cup, had 3-16 from her four overs and also pouched three catches.

Sixers would have felt confident of chasing such a modest score, but the weather gods intervened rather more decisively than even Ellyse Perry had budgeted for. Two overs into the Sixers reply with the score at 9-1, Bates having just had Perry caught by Voll, the left arm spinner’s 17th scalp of the tournament, number three Ashleigh Gardner having negotiated the final two balls of the second over, the heavens opened. The rain didn’t relent, and eventually, with lightning in the area creating extra safety concerns, the match was abandoned, meaning that each side took one point. For Thunder that moved them at least temporarily to the top of the table on 11 points. For Sixers, on seven points with two group games to go it leaves them drinking in the last chance saloon. 11 Points would qualify them, 10 would give them a chance (another washout and a win), but nine or fewer would definitely mean curtains for them. The Sixers have a stellar collection of players on their books, but somehow seem to end up adding up to much less than the sum of their parts. Scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

These photographs come from yesterday. I have a second post coming to showcase todays photographs.

Strikers Eliminated

An account of the match that confirmed Adelaide Strikers’ elimination from the WBBL and an explanation of why I am turning my back on twitter after ten years. Also a huge photo gallery.

The main subject of this post is today’s WBBL match, which featured Hobart Hurricanes and Adelaide Strikers. However, before I get onto that I have one other thing to do first…

A FINAL PARTING OF WAYS

After just over ten years of being on there I have finally made the decision to end my involvement with twitter. Today will be my last day on there, and I will deactivate my account today. This decision has been over a year in the making. The final provocation came yesterday morning when I saw that from November 15th (Friday) twitter posts will be used to train AI with staying on twitter being taken as automatic consent to do so. I may or may not have agreed for this happen with my own posts had it been broached in proper consultative fashion, with people being given the option to refuse, but the high handed decision to force this on all of us means that as a matter of principle I am dissenting in the only way left to me by Elon the Execrable: by leaving twitter. For those of my followers on here who are also interested in social media, I am on Mastodon, and will be posting there regularly: https://mas.to/@autisticphotographer

HOW THE STRIKERS LOST

Adelaide Strikers arrived in Hobart for what is officially their ‘derby’ fixture (Melbourne, the closest city on mainland Australia to Tasmania, has two teams, so that is their derby) with just one win in six matches. The Hobart Hurricanes were far better placed, having won three of their six games. Strikers had been thrashed after batting first in their previous match, so when they won the toss they opted to bowl in the hope of faring better chasing than they had setting.

Megan Schutt was her usual reliable self with the ball, but Orla Prendergast, given the new ball alongside her, had an absolute shocker of an evening. Strikers also dropped several catches, two off Lizelle Lee, fresh from a record breaking 150*, along the way. Lee cashed in on the reprieves, becoming the first ever to score back to back centuries in the WBBL. Her dismissal for 103 off 57 balls was something of a freak – her partner Nicola Carey essayed a fierce drive and the bowler, ambidextrous spinner Jemma Barsby, deflected the ball into the stumps with Lee out of her ground. Carey was now joined by Elyse Villani, and they maintained the tempo of the innings pretty well. With two overs left they had reached 174-2 and a score of 200 looked within the realms of possibility. Schutt put paid to that, conceding a mere five from the 19th over, meaning that in an otherwise very fast scoring innings she had 4-0-21-1. The only other wicket was the Lee run out, so with 12 coming from the final over to boost Hurricanes tally to 191-2 the other bowlers had taken 0-170 from 16 overs.

A target of 192 was daunting – had Strikers been successful it would have been their highest ever winning chase. While Smriti Mandhana was there, timing the ball with absolute precision and scoring at an incredible rate it looked a possibility – Strikers were ahead of the rate of their four over opening Power Play. It was the arrival of Amy and Lauren Smith and the easing of field restrictions after four overs that slowed Strikers progress. Mandhana completed a splendid 50 off 31 balls, but then immediately got out, caught by Chloe Tryon off Lauren Smith to make it 67-1 in the eighth over. Amy Smith had bowled a superbly tight seventh over, and Lauren Smith was continuing the good work in the eighth. Laura Wolvaardt joined Katie Mack. Mack never got going at any stage of her innings, and her dismissal for 14 off 20, caught by Carey off Amy Smith to make it 83-2 in the 11th over was not necessarily bad news for the Strikers. Tahlia McGrath, the Strikers captain, was in next, and she too struggled, managing just four before her eighth ball was caught by Callie Wilson off Molly Strano to make it 93-3 after 12.4 overs. With 99 needed off 44 balls big things needed to happen, and Bridget Patterson the new batter had some form behind her. However, Wolvaardt and Patterson dropped further and further behind the rate, even though the Hurricanes fielders started dropping catches during their stand. Eventually midway through the 19th over the asking rate became greater than six runs per ball. At this point, far too late, Wolvaardt finally really got going. It was into the 20th over that she completed her 50, a landmark greeted with a smattering of in my opinion undeserved applause. She finished the match with a flurry of meaningless boundaries – having reached 50 off 37 balls she ended on 63* from 40. The margin was still 28 runs, and in any case because of the position they were in coming into this match anything less than a win was useless for them. They now have two points from seven matches, and are guaranteed to end up with an overall losing record, which even with four teams out of eight progressing to the knockouts will ensure that they do not qualify. Hurricanes sit top of the table for the moment, though they are there only on net run rate, and the teams in second and third both have a game in hand on them.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

We start with some pictures from Monday afternoon.

Strikers Struck Down

An account of today’s WBBL fixture, between Adelaide Strikers and Melbourne Renegades. Also a large photo gallery.

Today the WBBL saw Adelaide Strikers take on Melbourne Renegades at the Karen Rolton Oval. Strikers, winners of both the previous two editions of the WBBL had won only one of their five games, so they knew that defeat would effectively end their qualification hopes. The Renegades, wooden spooners last year, were looking to put themselves right in the mix near the top of table. This post looks back at the match.

THE STRIKERS INNINGS

Major scores from Tahlia McGrath, 49 off 24 balls, and Smriti Mandhana, 40 off 25 balls were supported by Laura Wolvaardt, 27 off 26 balls and Katie Mack 19 off 19 balls. At times it seemed likely that Strikers would top the 200 mark, which even at a ground as batting friendly as the Rolton Oval would have been a formidable total. However they lost wickets in the later stages of their innings, and in the end it took a wonderful cameo of 24 off 12 balls from the young Irishwoman Orla Prendergast to get Strikers to their final total of 185-8. Prendergast was run out off the last ball of the innings, correctly going for the extra run. .

Hayley Matthews, of whom there will be a lot more later, had 2-28 from four overs, and Sarah Coyte 1-19 from three overs.

THE RENEGADES CHASE

Hayley Matthews and Courtney Webb scored well, though at a little less than the required rate. Webb retired hurt for 37, with the Renegades score on 90. The first actual wicket was that of Capsey, who replaced Webb at the crease, and scored 4 before being caught by Prendergast off Darcie Brown to make it 101-1. That brought Deandra Dottin in to join fellow West Indian Matthews. This pair took complete control of proceedings. At one stage it looked like a century was a possibility for Matthews, but then a blitz by Dottin killed that possibility but brough the possibility of a 50 for her into the equation. Matthews ended the chase off the first ball of the 18th over, the boundary she hit taking to 85* off 54 balls, while Dottin had 46* off just 18 balls. Megan Schutt bowled three overs for 21 amidst the carnage. Madeline Penna, brought on as a white flag gesture with the game well and truly lost, has I suspect set a new record for the worst ER in a WBBL innings – her first delivery was a wide which did not go to the boundary, but off which Matthews and Dottin ran two extra runs, to make the damage three, and her second was the match winning boundary, meaning that her official figures read 0.1-0-7-0 for an ER of 42.00. Matthews was unsurprisingly named Player of the Match for her magnificent performance.

This hammering leaves Strikers adrift at the foot of the table on two points from six matches. Even if they win every remaining match they will have an exactly even win/loss record, and given how bad their net RR is, even with four teams qualifying for the KOs they are unlikely to make it. Anything less than four straight wins from here will definitely confirm their elimination. I consider having four teams out of eight qualify for KOs a trifle generous, but it is not as ludicrous as the men’s equivalent tournament, where five teams out of eight qualify, which means that you genuinely can make it through with an overall losing record. Renegades meanwhile are up into second place for the present, and are highly likely to qualify for the knockouts. Scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Today has been a sunny day, and as a result the insects have been out in force…

WBBL10 Double Header

A look back at today’s WBBL10 double header and a large photo gallery.

There were two back to back Women’s Big Bash League games starting early this morning UK time. This post looks back at both.

THE MELBOURNE DERBY

Melbourne Renegades won this match by 15 runs – 146-6 for them, 131-9 for the Stars. The big story of the game was the performance of WBBL debutant Charis Bekker. The 20 year old leg spinner was only playing because of an injury to Sophie Molineux, but I suspect that her place is now secure. She recorded figures of 4-0-9-1, quite astonishingly economical in this tournament – and that wicket was the key one of Meg Lanning. Bekker was correctly named Player of the Match for this performance. Alice Capsey for the Renegades played the innings of the contest, a blistering 33 (15) that gave her side a much needed injection of pace. Naomi Stalenberg (26 not out off 17) and Nicole Faltum (29 off 23) helped to ensure that the momentum provided by Capsey wasn’t entirely dissipated. For the Stars the only batters who came close to doing the needful were Deepti Sharma (23 off 20) and Marizanne Kapp (16 off eight). Kapp was also the best of the Stars bowlers with 2-22 from her four overs. Scorecard here.

HEAT v STRIKERS

This was a real rarity – a WBBL game at The Gabba (Brisbane Heat are normally confined to Allan Border Field for home matches). Adelaide Strikers won the toss and put Brisbane Heat in to bat. Indian star Jemimah Rodrigues hit 61 off 40 balls, backed up by Grace Harris (33 off 22 balls), Jess Jonassen (32 off 21 balls) and Nadine de Klerk (23 not out off 10 balls at the death). With these key contributions Brisbane Heat tallied 175-6 from their 20 overs.

Strikers made a disastrous start to the chase, being 15-3 with all of their top three (Katie Mack, Smriti Mandhana and Laura Wolvaardt) out for single figure scores. Shikha Pandey, Charli Knott and Nicola Hancock had a wicket a piece. Tahlia McGrath and Bridget Patterson stopped the collapse, but scoring remained slow. McGrath suffered a credulity testing dismissal – medium pacer Nadine de Klerk bowled a wide, and Georgia Redmayne pulled off a spectacular stumping. That was 54-4 after 9.4 overs, so 122 needed off 10.2 overs – and cricinfo’s Win Predictor had Heat on 95%.

Madeline Penna joined Patterson, and the pair fared well, though not quite as well as they needed to. With five overs to go Strikers were up to 105-4, 71 short of victory, meaning that the fifth wicket stand was worth 51 in 5.2 overs. The pendulum swung one way and then another through overs 16, 17 and 18. By the end of the 18th Penna and Patterson were still together, and they needed 35 off the last two overs.

The 19th over, often crucial in chases of an magnitude, yielded 16 of those runs. The meant that Strikers needed 19 off the final over. As well as having plenty to defend Heat had one further advantage – the experienced Indian Shikha Pandey was available to bowl that over. With two balls to go Strikers needed 11 to pull off a spectacular heist. Pandey kept her nerve and bowled two excellent deliveries, from each of which a single accrued meaning that Heat were home by eight runs. For the record Patterson ended up with 61 not out off 47 balls, and Penna who was chiefly responsible for keeping the match alive until deep in the final over had 59 not out off just 30 balls. Rodrigues, whose 61 off 40 had helped Heat to what proved to be a winning total benefitted from her team’s success and was named Player of the Match.

This result leaves Strikers cut adrift at the foot of the table, with just two points from five games. Heat have played a game more and are one of five teams to have amassed six points, while Melbourne Stars and Hobart Hurricanes each have four points from five games. With there being only ten games in the group stage Strikers are in definite jeopardy. Scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

WBBL Logjam

A look at the WBBL table, and a bit about the latest ,match which took place earlier today between Hobart Hurricanes and Sydney Sixers. Also a photo gallery.

After today’s WBBL match between Hobart Hurricanes and Sydney Sixers the WBBL10 table is more congested than London during rush hour. This post looks both at today’s match and at the competition as a whole.

THE TABLE

Women’s Big Bash League

Team	M	W	L	PT	NRR
ST-W	3	2	1	4	1.158
MS-W	3	2	1	4	0.775
PS-W	3	2	1	4	0.352
BH-W	4	2	2	4	0.133
MR-W	4	2	2	4	-0.156
HH-W	5	2	3	4	-0.227
SS-W	4	2	2	4	-0.407
AS-W	4	1	3	2	-0.900

The above table is courtesy of cricinfo, and a more detailed version can be viewed here.

With the exception of the Strikers, with one win and three losses, every team has four points, and only the Hurricanes, having played a game more than all their rivals are noticeably worse off, while the Scorchers, with a game in hand on everyone and two in hand on the Hurricanes are probably best placed of the sides to progress. Each side plays ten group matches, and at the moment it looks like most, if not all, will have some sort of qualification chance as the competition reaches its business end.

TODAY’S MATCH

Today’s game was largely dominated by one single performance. In a match in no other batter got past 30 (two Englishwomen, Hollie Armitage for the Sixers and Danni Wyatt-Hodge for the Hurricanes scored exactly this number) Ellyse Perry, already the tournament’s leading run scorer heading into this match, scored 86 off 62 balls. Sixers 155-7 proved enough to win by six runs. Perry cemented an already fairly undeniable claim to the POTM award by adding two catches to her 86 runs. Most notable among the Sixers bowlers were Ecclestone, approaching her best form for the first time in this tournament, with 4-0-22-2, and the youngster Caoimhe Bray with 3-0-13-2. Bray has more in common with her idol, Perry, than merely being a pace bowling all rounder: Perry scored a world cup goal for the Matildas, and although Bray has not yet featured in a full squad for the football side, she has played age group internationals in that sport. As is often the case when she is at or near peak form no opposition batter ever looked remotely comfortable facing Ecclestone. The Hurricanes best bowler on the day was leg spinner Amy Smith, with 1-20 from three overs.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Deeply irresponsible by whoever set a fire here, so close to trees…

Livingstone, I Presume

An account of the second ODI between West Indies and England, which took place yesterday. Also a large photo gallery.

This post will tell the story of the second ODI between West Indies and England which took place yesterday afternoon and evening UK time (morning and afternoon Antigua time) at North Sound. Before I get to the main body of the post I have small chore to perform:

A CORRECTION TO MY PREVIOUS POST

In my previous post I named Jacob Bethell among England’s debutants in that match. This was not so – he had played five previous matches. The actual debutant I should have named among the four but did not was Jordan Cox, a top order batter and occasional keeper who started his career with Kent and now plays for Essex. In keeping with my policy on such matters I have ensured that this correction cannot be missed.

AN ODD BALANCE

John Turner came in for his international debut, having been in a number of England squads, without quite getting a cap. This meant that England had in effect seven multi-dimensional cricketers (although Cox played purely as a batter he is an occasional keeper) and four bowlers. As any reader of my all time XIs will be aware I am an ardent advocate of sides having a wide range of bowling options if such is possible. However, nine bowling options of varying degrees of seriousness does seem to be overdoing it a touch, especially given that it left the side with a fragile batting order.

LOTS OF OPTIONS, NO PLAN

In the course of the 50 overs of the West Indies innings England skipper Livingstone used all nine of his genuine bowling options. There was no obvious sign of a plan in his usage of his bowlers, and he certainly overused his own mixed spin – 7-0-56-1 is testament to that. West Indies tallied 328 from their 50 overs, a record score for North Sound.

A CAPTAIN’S INNINGS

Phil Salt started well for England. Unfortunately Will Jacks and Jordan Cox both went cheaply. Bethell and Salt had a good partnership, before Salt was dismissed for 59 to make it 107-3. Livingstone now joined Bethell. Bethell joined Salt in reaching 50, but shortly thereafter was fourth out at 160. That brought Sam Curran to the crease, being treated by England as a genuine all rounder, but under suspicion in some quarters of actually not being up to the job in either department. With only Mousley of significance as batter among those still to come the onus was on Livingstone and Curran to do most of the heavy lifting. Livingstone and Curran batted sensibly together, and were still in residence at the end of the 40th over. The target at that point was precisely 100, a rate normally considered achievable in modern limited overs cricket. It was now that Livingstone changed gears. The first bowlers to feel the effects of this were spinners Chase and Motie, but the most dramatic sufferers were two of the quicks, Shamar Joseph and Jayden Seales, who each visibly wilted under the Livingstone onslaught. Both bowled wides as well as full tosses (each were trying and failing to nail a yorker), and Livingstone sent two balls clean out of the ground and another into a concrete fixture in one of the stands. Curran, playing a valuable supporting role, brought up a 50 that though in the shadow of Livingstone’s pyrotechnics still came at a run a ball. He was fifth out at exactly 300, ending a match turning stand of 140 with Livingstone. There were 4.3 overs remaining as Mousley joined Livingstone, with the latter on the verge of an extraordinary century. Livingstone reached the landmark, his maiden ODI century, off just 77 balls, and continued on his merry way. He was now in absolutely rampant mood, and precisely two overs after the dismissal of Curran, so with England still having 2.3 overs to spare, he scored the winning run, taking his own score to 124 not out off 85 balls. In total he hit nine sixes and five fours in this spectacular take down of the West Indies.

LOOKING AHEAD

This result means that the sides will head to Barbados with the series locked at 1-1. The West Indies players would of course have preferred to settle the series in this match, but I suspect their board will not be entirely unhappy that the series is level heading to Bridgetown. Livingstone’s amazing innings and the various supporting roles played by Salt, Bethell and Curran should not be allowed to paper over some rather obvious cracks. The England squad is fundamentally unbalanced, and for most of yesterday’s match they looked second best, as they did for the entirety of the first match. I congratulate England on the win, but they do need to look at the balance of future squads, and deepen that batting order. If Livingstone had got out at any stage of overs 41-44 inclusive, as anyone batting like that easily could, it would have been pretty much settled in West Indies favour – it was a much closer thing than the ultimate 2.3 overs to spare suggests.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

England Make Dreadful Start to ODI Series in West Indies

A look at the early stages of England’s ODI tour of the West Indies and a photo gallery.

An England men’s white ball squad is currently in the West Indies for a three match One Day International series. This series has been arranged because England owe West Indies a favour dating back to 2020, when it was West Indies who travelled to play in England under stringent covid restrictions, and have not been able to repay it until now. This post looks at what has happened so far.

THE ENGLAND SQUAD

England travelled with a necessarily experimental squad, the multi-format players being required for the upcoming tour of New Zealand the start of which overlaps with this one.

ENGLAND’S CHOSEN XI

England named four debutants in the XI – Jacob Bethell, a batter who bowls a bit of left arm spin, Dan Mousley, enough of an off spinner to be described as a batting all rounder, Jamie Overton, making an ODI debut at the age of 30 and down to bat at number eight an known to not be fit enough to bowl, and John Turner, a fast bowler and number 11 batter. The side as a whole was inexperienced, with Adil Rashid, a leg spinner officially listed to bat at number ten, having more career ODI runs than any of his team mates. However, no degree of inexperience could excuse the horror show of a batting performance that was about to unfold.

FAILURE TO ADAPT

West Indies won the toss and put England in to bat. For all that is named in honour of an all time batting great and one of the first players to truly master the art of limited overs batting, the Sir Viv Richards Stadium rarely provides pitches on which batting is straightforward. On that basis one might argue that a total of 204 in 45.2 of a possible 50 overs was not a terrible achievement. However, it was the manner in which the innings developed that was so very disappointing. Virtually every dismissal was self inflicted, and the mistakes leading to those dismissals were all of the same type – essaying cross batted shots on a pitch on which hitting the ball straight was a necessity. One or two such dismissals could possibly be allowed for, but the collective failure/ refusal to adapt to the nature of the pitch was inexcusable. Liam Livingstone and Sam Curran batted best in a poor display, but neither could get as far as 40.

The West Indies was delayed by rain, and then interrupted again by more rain, but there was not enough rain to save England. Evin Lewis played a superb innings which put the ‘efforts’ of the England batters into sharp perspective.

A large part of the problem (and something that the ECB are to blame for) is that the best English white ball players only now play 50 over cricket in an international setting – the English domestic One Day Cup because of when it takes place is basically a tournament for second team and youth cricketers. Thus they approach the game with a T20 type mindset and rapidly become impatient if they are not scoring at high speed. The second match of this series takes place today, starting at 1:30PM UK time.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The England Tour Party to New Zealand and Other Stuff

A look at the England Men’s touring party for New Zealand, an auction lots related photo gallery, an account of Heat v Renegades in the WBBL and a regular photo gallery.

In addition to the selection of the tour party to New Zealand I will be mentioning today’s WBBL match between Brisbane Heat and Melbourne Renegades. There will be two photo galleries, a small one separating the two cricket segments and the main one at the end.

THE ENGLAND TOUR PARTY TO NEW ZEALAND

The England men’s squad for their tour of New Zealand was announced yesterday:

Jamie Smith was known to be missing this tour as he is taking paternity leave. Jordan Cox is an odd choice as keeper, as he hardly ever does this job in domestic cricket. Oliver George Robinson, a superb keeper who has just had a season in which he scored 900 FC runs at an average of 48 is entitled to feel aggrieved. I have talked about Woakes overseas before, and I still consider him a waste of a spot. Jacob Bethell is a talented young player, but surely if England were looking to usher a youngster on to the international stage James Rew of Somerset would have been a better choice. I also feel, especially given that current number three Ollie Pope is coming off a shocking series in Pakistan (55 runs in five innings), that Josh Bohannon could have been considered. Finally, no one who has seen the selections of my all time XIs could suggest that I of all people do not appreciate spin bowling, but I find it hard to imagine a New Zealand strip on which the selection of even two out of Jack Leach, Rehan Ahmed and Shoaib Bashir is justified. At best I would say that the selectors deserve 5/10 for this effort, and that is probably erring on the side of generosity.

AUCTION PURCHASES

I mentioned lot 731 in my post about the coin/ banknote/ cheque element of James and Sons’ most recent sale (see here) but that was one of three lots (all very cheap) that I secured over the two days. Lots 369 and 374, railway postcards, went under the hammer while I was at work, but I had put in bids in advance. This gallery shows those lots, and my subsequent treatment of them.

Lot 369 – an outside view of St Pancras station

BRISBANE HEAT v MELBOURNE RENEGADES

Renegades won the toss at Allan Border Field, Brisbane and put the home side in to bat. Grace Harris made a brief but dramatic contribution: her first ball was the fifth of the opening over and she smacked it out of the park. She top edged the next delivery and the bowler, Sophie Molineux exacted revenge for the previous ball by taking a return catch. That was 7-1 after one over. Georgia Redmayne was now joined by Lauren Winfield-Hill and they had a good partnership for the second wicket. Molineux was involved in Winfield-Hill’s dismissal for 26, catching the number three’s clip off the bowling of Georgia Wareham to make it 73-2. Charli Knott managed a single before Emma de Broughe took a catch off Hayley Matthews first ball of the match to make it 78-3 after 9.1 overs. At that point drinks were taken, rather than wait for the end of the 10th over. New batter Jess Jonassen and Redmayne took six off the remaining five balls of the tenth over and Heat were 84-3 at the halfway stage of their innings. Off the last ball of the 11th over Dottin had Redmayne caught by her opposite number, Nicole Faltum, for 44, which made it 86-4. Laura Harris now played a brilliant innings, making full use of the Power Surge. Her 31 off 16 balls, along with a few other contributions, notably 11 not out off seven balls from Grace Parsons at the end of the innings got Heat to 169-8 from their 20 overs.

Renegades made a blazing start to the chase, largely through Hayley Matthews. However Grace Parsons now took centre stage with the ball. First she had Matthews caught by Laura Harris for 35 which made it 51-1, then three balls later she had Alice Capsey stumped for a duck to make it 52-2. Then in the eighth over, her second, she had Deandra Dottin given LBW which made 59-3. Courtney Webb was run out after a fine return from Grace Harris and some quick work from bowler Shikha Pandey caught her out of her ground. Thereafter Renegades were never in the hunt. Some late hitting by Naomi Stalenberg (38 off 23 balls) lessened the damage that Renegades’ net run rate took but did not affect the final result. Renegades ended on 141-9, giving Heat the win by 28 runs. Parsons, who even with her final over costing 13 had 3-22 from her four overs as well as that 11 not out in the Heat innings was a shoo-in for Player of the Match. Scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Walking back from the bus stop once the clocks have gone back (it was still absolutely full daylight last week).

Thunder Blown Away by Hurricanes

An account of today’s WBBL match (Hobart Hurricanes v Sydney Thunder) and a photo gallery.

Today’s match in the WBBL was between Hobart Hurricanes and Sydney Thunder.

THE HURRICANES INNINGS

Sydney Thunder won the bat flip and put Hobart Hurricanes in to bat. Lizelle Lee was out cheaply, but Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Nicola Carey had a good partnership for the second wicket, and then Elyse Villani offered Carey further support. At the halfway stage of their innings the Hurricanes were 64-2 and looking set for a big score. They took the Power Surge (in this competition sides get four overs of standard Power Play at the start of the innings and a two over Power Surge which must be taken in the second half of the innings) immediately, and scored 28 runs from the two overs. At 92-2 after 12 overs 170 looked to be possible and 160 to be no mare than par. Then came a horrendous collapse which started with the dismissal of Carey for a fine 52 and saw four wickets tumble for just 12 runs. Tabatha Saville batted well at number seven, and found some useful late support from Molly Strano, who scored 9 not out off just five balls. The spinners had fared far better than the seamers. Shabnim Ismail’s pace was ineffective, leaving her with 0-30 from four overs, while Hannah Darlington, thad a disastrous 2-0-28-0, although veteran Sammy-Jo Johnson went for just 19 from her four overs and took a wicket. Pick of the Thunder bowlers was left arm spinner Samantha Bates who had 3-20. Hurricanes had amassed 141-7 by the end of their innings, 92-2 off the first 12 overs and 49-5 off the last eight overs.

THE THUNDER REPLY

There are few better options when spin is going to be key than Molly Strano, and the Hurricanes entrusted her with the first over of the innings. The very first ball of the Thunder innings pinned Sri Lankan ace Chamari Athatpaththu who had earlier claimed 2-26 from four overs of off spin plumb LBW. Athapaththu was somewhat slow to leave the crease, but it was one of the plumbest LBWs you could ever see. Phoebe Litchfield survived the remaining five balls of the over, but was not able to score off any of them, thus giving Strano the first maiden of this year’s tournament. Kathryn Bryce, the Scottish all rounder who bowls medium pace, was given the second over and conceded 14, which ended her participation as a bowler. The third over was Strano’s second, and six runs accrued from it. Lauren Smith, another off spinner, bowled the fourth over, and Georgia Voll was dismissed, holing out to Chloe Tryon in the deep to make it 24-2. Tahlia Wilson and Georgia Adams fell for 3 a piece, off four and six balls respectively and it was 38-4 in the seventh over. Anika Learoyd now offered Litchfield, who was playing beautifully after her slow start, the only serious support she would enjoy all innings. Litchfield reached a magnificent 50 off 36 balls, but then suffered a remarkable dismissal – Heather Graham, a medium pacer, fired one wide of the stumps and Lizelle Lee executed a smart stumping. The delivery was signalled wide, but one can be stumped off a wide, and Litchfield had to go, making the score 91-5. Sammy-Jo Johnson, a big hitter on her day, fell cheaply to make it 96-6. Two runs later Nicola Carey effectively ended the contest by bowling Learoyd for 29 to make it 98-7. 44 runs of 5.4 overs is not difficult if you have front line batters available to score them, but when you down to numbers 8,9,10 and 11 it is a major ask. Ella Briscoe and Hannah Darlington added 10 runs together for the eighth wicket before Heather Graham ended what had been a horror day for Darlington by bowling her for four. That was 108-8, which immediately became 108-9 when a mix-up between Ismail and Briscoe saw Ismail suffer that rarity, a zero ball duck (run out 0, having not faced a ball). By this stage were Thunder were a long way behind the required run rate as well. Samantha Bates who had earlier bowled so well got a single, and Briscoe also added a single to her score before the last ball of the 18th over, bowled by Tryon with her left arm spin, clean bowled Bates to make 110 all out and victory to the Hurricanes by 31 runs. Other than Bryce’s single expensive over the most expensive Hurricanes bowler was Tryon with 2-19 from three overs for an ER of 6.33. Heather Graham had 3-19 from her full four overs. Nicola Carey, one of the two half centurions in the match and also the possessor of figures of 3-0-18-1, was named Player of the Match.

After the first 12 overs of this match had yielded 92-2 the last 26 produced a combined 159-15. Bryce in that one over apart the Hurricanes seamers had realized that pace on the ball on this pitch just asked to be hit and deliberately slowed themselves down.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

	Thomas on World T20 Cup Underway
	Anna on World T20 Cup Underway
	London Underground t… on Project Piccadilly
	Thomas on All Time XIs – Detective…
	Anna on All Time XIs – Detective…