Tag: rain

England’s Undeserved Point

A look back at the England Women’s cricket team’s luckiest ever day, escaping with a point from a match in which they were utterly outplayed, and a lot of photographs.

Today’s match in the women’s cricket world cup saw England facing Pakistan in Colombo (this tournament is officially being held in India, but the Indian government refuse to allow Pakistanis, even Pakistani international cricketers, into their country, so Pakistan are based in Colombo). Such action as there was took place in three stanzas. The photos in this post will come in three parts, in natural breaks in the format of the post.

INSWING FLOORS ENGLAND

Pakistan won the toss and put England in to bat. England had two changes, both caused by illness. Em Arlott replaced Lauren Bell while leg spinner Sarah Glenn was in for the world’s number one ranked ODI bowler Sophie Ecclestone.

Pakistan bowled beautifully, albeit with quite a few bad balls thrown in. England scored rapidly, but lost wickets even more rapidly. Both openers went cheaply, and so too did Heather Knight and Natalie Sciver-Brunt. At 39-4 England were in deep trouble, and it would get deeper. Emma Lamb, an opener in domestic cricket, has barely been able to buy a run since England crowbarred her into their middle order, and she failed again today. Sophia Dunkley tried to play left arm spinner Sadia Iqbal off the back foot and was LBW for 11 to make it 57-6. Charlie Dean dug in with typical determination, but with the score having inched up to 78 Alice Capsey was LBW – she reviewed it in desperation, but it was pretty much plumb. One more run came before with the completion of the 25th over rain forced the players from the field. England at this juncture were 79-7, and unlike Australia who had had a similar score line against Pakistan but had escaped there was no frontline batter left to play the Mooney role in any turnaround.

A MINI-REVIVAL AND DLS

When play was finally able to resume the match had been reduced to a 31 over per side match, meaning that England had six overs left to bat. Those six overs were England’s best period of play by far. They scored 54-2 from those six overs, giving them a final total of 133-9 from 31 overs. Quite rightly in view of the calamitous early part of their innings and the fact that only having six overs to bat had definitely worked in their favour this target was adjusted downwards. Pakistan would resume after a 10 minute innings break needing 113 to win. Charlie Dean with 33 from number eight in the order was the only English batter to even get as far as 20. Sarah Glenn with 18 from number nine was joint second top scorer alongside Knight.

These fungi (and I could have taken many more pictures of them than I actually did) are growing in St Peters Garden outside the church of St Peter and St Paul in Fakenham

PAKISTAN START WELL

Pakistan’s openers, Muneeba Ali and Omaima Sohail, started well. Not only were England not taking wickets as they needed to, they were not really threatening to do so. However with Pakistan 34-0 from 6.4 overs and in cruise control the rain returned and this time it did not let up, and the match was abandoned. That meant one of the most undeserved points you will ever see for England, official confirmation of Pakistan’s elimination, and a bad taste in the mouth of any genuine cricket fan who was following proceedings. I am English, but my sense of justice prevails here. The only emotions the England players should be feeling about today are shame and embarrassment – there have been few teams in any sport I would suggest who have been this humiliated and still emerged with a share of the spoils.

I spotted this enormous patch of fungi near a tree in The Walks, not too far from the Red Mount Chapel.
With their slender stalks and the shape of the caps these fungi put me in mind of little umbrellas.

OTHER LUCKY ESCAPES

England do not stand quite alone in escaping with a share of the spoils after being thoroughly humiliated – few events in the history of a sport as old as cricket are truly unique. In the 1992 men’s world cup Pakistan were bowled out for 74 in a group match against England, and then it rained and the points were shared. Pakistan pulled their socks up after that shocking performance against England and went on to win the tournament.

In 1907 Northamptonshire probably suffered the worst humiliation of any side to escape with a share of the spoils in professional cricket. They were playing Gloucestershire in Gloucestershire in a heavily rain affected match. Gloucestershire totalled 60 and 88, with Gilbert Jessop managing 22 and 24, a performance at least as valuable as twin tons on a good batting pitch, while Northamptonshire were all out for 12 in their first innings (George Dennett 8-9, that man Jessop 2-3) and 40-7 in their second innings (Dennett 7-12 including a hat trick) when the rain made its final intervention.

Cricket and Weather

Cricket and how to deal withe time being lost to the weather.

INTRODUCTION

The match at the Ageas bowl between England and Pakistan has been hammered by a combination of bad weather and excessive caution on the part of the umpires, and not a single one out of nine Bob Willis Trophy matches has escaped unscathed either. This post looks at the various matches and looks at reducing the toll poor weather takes of cricket.

THE TEST MATCH

The situation at the Ageas bowl is that the equivalent of over two whole days have been lost to the weather, and the teams are currently in their hotel sheltering from what is apparently quite heavy rain. In the play that has been possible Pakistan have amassed 236 in their first innings, with Mohammad Rizwan playing a fine innings, and Stuart Broad continuing his excellent summer with the ball. England in response are 7-1, with Burns out for a duck, and a little lucky to have lasted as long as he did, since his second ball was edged just short of the slip fielder before his fourth was caught in that region. Probably the only chance of a positive result in that game is if the teams broker a deal whereby England declare, Pakistan forfeit their second innings and England have a go at a target of 230, while Pakistan try to take 10 wickets.

THE BOB WILLIS TROPHY

  • Leeds has seen 79 overs in a day and a half, and Yorkshire are 288-4 against Derbyshire.
  • Birmingham has seen more play than most places, and Warwickshire were dismissed for 121 in the first innings, while Somerset are 134-5 off 45.2 overs in response.
  • At Hove there have been 61 overs of play and Sussex are 155-6 against Essex.
  • At Northampton Worcestershire made 219 in their first innings and Northamptonshire are 60-3 in response.
  • At Trent Bridge there have been 71.2 overs and Nottinghamshire are 268-2 against Lancashire.
  • The St Lawrence Ground at Canterbury has seen 46 overs so far, and Middlesex are 94-4 against Kent.
  • At the Arundel Castle Ground which Hampshire are using as a home venue since the Ageas Bowl is required for other purposes they have already given up on play for today, which means that two days have seen exactly 40 overs, off which Surrey have reached 130-8.
  • In the game I am currently listening to at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, Glamorgan are 68-4 off 40 overs against Gloucestershire.
  • Finally, at Grace Road there have been 72.2 overs thus far and Glamorgan are 224-4.

REDUCING LOSSES TO THE WEATHER

Firstly, abolish stoppages for the light altogether – play all matches using pink balls, so that the floodlights can be allowed to take complete control if necessary. Rain is harder to deal with, but I have an idea to float. It should be possible to construct a strong, lightweight but entirely waterproof canopy which could be attached to the tops of the floodlight pylons, enabling matches to be continued even if it is raining. It is just possible that an almighty miscue could send a ball pretty much vertically upwards (there was a shot that Ian Botham played off Terry Alderman at Old Trafford in 1981 that might have done this – Mike Whitney made a gallant effort to get underneath it to take the catch but could not quite do so) and cause it to hit the canopy, but I am sure that that could be dealt with.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

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