Tag: Manchester Originals

A Humdinger in the Hundred

A look back at today’s Hundred (women’s) match between Manchester Originals and Trent Rockets, with special focus on the final ten balls. Also a photo gallery.

Today the Hundred has matches between Manchester Originals and Trent Rockets. The men’s match will be starting in a quarter of an hour. This post looks back at a the women’s match.

THE MANCHESTER ORIGINALS INNINGS

Manchester Originals have come in for considerable stick over the make up of their squad. They have an overload of opening batters – todays playing XI featured four regular openers (Emma Lamb and Eve Jones being the two to come in down the order). Today however Eve Jones went a long way to addressing such concerns with a fine innings from number 5. Originals skipper Sophie Ecclestone hit 13 off just five balls to give the total a late boost. Even so, a total of 137 didn’t look exactly mountainous.

THE FIRST 90 BALLS OF THE ROCKETS CHASE

The Rockets lost three wickets fairly early in the chase, but then Nat Sciver-Brunt and Ash Gardner settled into a stand that looked to be moving things in their favour. With ten balls to go in the chase Rockets needed 22 to win, with Sciver-Brunt and Gardner still in residence.

THE LAST 10 BALLS

Lauren Filer was given responsibility for bowling balls 91-95, and she did an excellent job. Even with her final ball going for four the equation was 13 needed off the last five balls. Filer had 2-26 in total from her 20 balls. Kathryn Bryce was given responsibility for bowling the last five balls of the match. Gardner hit the first two of these balls for four to reduce the ask to five runs off three balls, and that point it looked like Rockets had done the job. Gardner went for glory off the 98th ball but hit it too high and Beth Mooney was able to get round underneath it, which meant the ask was now five off two balls with a brand new batter to face the first of them. Heather Graham, the new batter, did the sensible thing and grabbed a single, bringing Sciver-Brunt with an undefeated half century to her name down on strike with the task of hitting a four to win the match. Sciver-Brunt whipped the final ball towards midwicket, but while the shot had power it lacked for placement, failing to located a big enough gap in the field and Rockets only managed two runs of the final ball, meaning that Originals had hung on to win by one run. Filer was named Player of the Match for her bowling, and deservedly so. Scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

This may look a bit like a boiled sweet, but it is actually what is known depending on your source either as a ‘jewel bug’ or a ‘metallic shield bug’.
An ultra close-up of one of these bugs.

The Hundred Finals

A look back at yesterday’s finals of the Hundred and a huge photo gallery.

The final matches in this year’s Hundred took place yesterday. This post looks back at both matches.

SOUTHERN BRAVE V NORTHERN SUPERCHARGERS

Southern Brave recovered well from the loss of two early wickets, with Danni Wyatt playing a superb innings for them. They eventually managed 139-6 from their 100 balls, respectable rather than outstanding. Northern Superchargers struggled badly in reply. They didn’t hit very many boundaries, and they did an appallingly bad job of rotating the strike – Indian opener Jemimah Rodrigues, whose dismissal basically ended their hopes of success was out to the 73rd ball of the innings, and so badly had Superchargers failed at rotating the strike that she faced only 14 of those 73 balls. She was the only Superchargers batter scoring quickly enough to give her side a shot at chasing down the total, but her team mates simply could not get her enough of the strike. In the end Brave won by 34 runs, sending their skipper Anya Shrubsole into retirement on an appropriately high note. In 2017 Shrubsole was the star of the show when England won the World Cup final at Lord’s, where this match also took place. On that occasion Shrubsole took six Indian wickets to win England a game that looked to be going the other way for much of its duration. This time she was part of an excellent team bowling performance, and her team rarely looked anything other than 100% in control of the match. One other Brave player deserves special mention: wicket keeper Rhianna Southby, who was, as she has been for most of the tournament stellar behind the stumps. Highlights of her performance this match included three stumpings, at least one of which would have beyond most other keepers in this tournament. She is that increasingly rare player in the modern era – someone who gets picked specifically for her keeping skills – she was officially down to bat at number 10 had Brave lost that many wickets. Danni Wyatt’s sparkling 59 earned her Player of the Match, while Marizanne Kapp was named Player of the Tournament for the 147 runs and 11 wickets she managed.

OVAL INVINCIBLES V MANCHESTER ORIGINALS

This match featured one of the more astonishing turn arounds seen in a game of such short duration (long form cricket offers much more scope for truly spectacular turn arounds – check out Warwickshire v Hampshire in 1922 for a classic example). Invincibles were put into bat, no surprise given that Originals had made a chase of 196 look trivially easy only a day previously. The Invincibles were soon looking decidedly vincible, with the score reading 34-5. At that point Tom Curran joined Kiwi James Neesham and the turnaround began. This pair were still together at the end of the 100 balls, by which time they had put on 127 together, raising the total to 161-5. Tom Curran had 67* (34) to his name, and Neesham, only marginally less brutal, 57* (33). Originals made a bright start, but Invincibles’ three contrasting slow bowlers, Briggs (left arm orthodox), Sowter (leg spin) and Jacks (off spin) proved extremely hard to score off and picked up a number of wickets. Max Holden and Jamie Overton put on a good partnership for the sixth wicket, and then Tom Hartley continued the resistance in partnership with Overton, but Originals were hopelessly behind the required rate, and ended up 14 runs adrift. Tom Curran was Player of the Match, while Jamie Overton’s all round contributions (208 runs and 3 wickets across the tournament) saw him named Player of the Tournament.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have a massive photo gallery today – I have been on two substantial walks today, and both proved bountiful sources of pictures…

The Hundred Finals Weekend So Far

A look at what has happened in The Hundred finals weekend so far plus a photo galley.

With the final of The Hundred (women’s competition) under way this post looks back at the the action from yesterday. Before I go into it a note about the Hundred’s qualification rules: it is an eight team league, and in order to ensure that only teams who have been provably better than average qualify for the KO stages only three teams make it through. The team who finish top of the group qualify straight into the finals, while second and third place play off for the right to join them, with second place having the advantage that if the match gets rained out they progress based on league position.

THE WOMEN’S ELIMINATOR

This match, between Welsh Fire and Northern Superchargers, was the first scheduled for yesterday. Fire batted first and had reached 104-2 from 75 balls when the weather intervened, and did not let up in time for the match to be resumed. This meant that Superchargers, having finished second in the group, joined Southern Brave in the final, the match currently being contested. It also meant that Alex Hartley’s playing career, highlighted by being part of England’s 2017 World Cup winning side came to an end. Had Fire made the final she may have had another outing, but as it happened her time as a professional cricketer ended on the bench, not having being picked for the XI.

THE MEN’S ELIMINATOR

Southern Brave had a chance to make both finals, being joined in this Eliminator by Manchester Originals, with Oval Invincibles awaiting the winners. When they scored 196-1 from their 100 balls batting first this looked more than a possibility. Phil Salt (47 off just 17 balls) and Jos Buttler (82 off 46) had other ideas, and with other useful contributions along the way Originals, who were never at any point not ahead of the required rate won by seven wickets with four balls to spare. Jamie Overton made the winning hit, a six which meant that 196 balls had seen 397 runs scored. In view of the scoring rates elsewhere the approach of Brave opener Devon Conway (51* off 38) has to be questioned. Therefore tonight’s final of The Hundred (men’s competition) will be between Manchester Originals and Southern Brave.

THE WOMEN’S FINAL

Southern Brave are batting, and after the loss of two early wickets are mounting a decent recovery – they are currently 64-2 after 54 balls, Danni Wyatt 39*, Georgia Adams 16*. They will need to up the rate, but they are in decent shape.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…