Tag: Sophie Devine

An Unexpectedly Close Finish

A look back at this morning’s Hundred match between the Trent Rockets and Southern Brave women/s teams and a photo gallery.

The early match in The Hundred today featured Trent Rockets women playing host to Southern Brave women. This post looks back at the match.

LEFT ARM SPINNERS DOMINANT

The reason that this match becoming a close one was so unexpected was that Brave totally dominated the early exchanges. Tilly Corteen-Coleman, helped by some brilliant wicket keeping from Rhianna Southby (two stumpings, both beyond the capacities of a batter/keeper as opposed to a true keeper) took 4-13 from her 20 balls, all bowled in the first half of the innings. As well as bowling superbly the left arm-spinner also held two catches. At low water mark Rockets were 55-8. At this point another left arm spinner entered the picture, Kirstie Gordon. She and Alana King put on 51 together for the ninth wicket. That meant that Brave were 106 all out, the tenth wicket going to the 100th ball of their innings. Gordon top scored with 32 off 24 balls, Rockets skipper Ash Gardner had contributed 25 earlier in the innings, and King managed 24, with no else in double figures.

A CREDITABLE BOWLING EFFORT

It says much for the Trent Rockets bowlers that there were significant periods of the chase during which it felt like they might possibly defend this small score. It was the 95th ball of the innings, hit for four by Sophie Devine to reduce the ask to three off five balls that finally killed off the last hopes of a turnaround by the Rockets. Cassidy McCarthy accepted responsibility for bowling the last five balls of the match. Devine took a single off the first, the second was a dot, and Chloe Tryon hit the third for four to finally get Brave over the line. Maia Bouchier with 42 was top scorer, while Devine ended up on 41 not out. The margin was six wickets. Brave have now won four matches out of four, and the secret of their success is not hard to locate: their England seamer Lauren Bell is the leading wicket taker of the tournament so far, with Corteen-Coleman second on the list, and it is generally bowling resources that separate winners from also-rans. I could cite many examples from cricket’s long history to back this up, but will settle for reminding people of the history of RCB men in the IPL – for years they had devastating batting but comparatively second string bowling, and for all those years they never won the tournament, but in the most recent IPL they had for the first time assembled a properly balanced squad, and what you know, they won the thing. Scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Scorchers Win WBBL07

The final of the Women’s Big Bash League 2021 has just finished. Adelaide Strikers who annihilated Brisbane Heat and then Melbourne Renegades to qualify for the final came up just short against the Perth Scorchers, who qualified directly for the final by virtue of winning the league stage outright.

SCORCHERS INNINGS

Although Tahlia McGrath (4-0-14-1) and Megan Schutt (4-0-19-1) were typically economical, Scorchers posted a respectable 146-5 from their 20 overs with major contributions from Sophie Devine and Marizanne Kapp. Amanda-Jade Wellington, leading wicker of the tournament and joint lead wicket taker of any WBBL tournament had an off day for once.

STRIKERS REPLY

Strikers got off to a horribly slow start and although they subsequently revived their innings well they were always well behind the required rate. With four overs to go they needed 53, and although Madeline Penna counterattacked successfully in the 17th over, the 18th and 19th were both far too economical for that stage of an innings, and Strikers needed 22 off the last over. Peschel bowled two wides in the course of the final over, but the other deliveries were good enough that 14 were needed off the final ball. Only a single eventuated, and Scorchers were home by 12 runs.

A MULTI-TALENTED TEAM

Although she did not play the final today, this part of the post is inspired by an Adelaide Strikers player, all rounder Jemma Barsby. She bowls both off spin and left arm orthodox spin, which is a combination of talents I have not previously come across. I have put together an XI of players who had talents in multiple areas, which I list below in batting order with brief comments on their range of talents.

  1. *WG Grace – right handed opening batter, right arm bowler of various styles, captain.
  2. +George Brown – right handed batter, right arm fast bowler, wicket keeper. He was good enough as an opener to be selected for England in that role, he took a decent haul of wickets as a bowler, and Hampshire’s best bowler of his era, Alec Kennedy, rated him the best keeper who ever kept to him.
  3. Garry Sobers – left handed batter, left arm bowler of pretty much every type known to cricket. The most complete player the game has thus far seen.
  4. Wally Hammond – right handed batter, right arm medium fast bowler, occasional off spinner.
  5. Liam Livingstone – right handed batter, leg spinner, off spinner.
  6. Keith Miller – right handed batter, right arm fast bowler, occasional off spinner.
  7. Mike Procter – right handed batter, right arm fast bowler, occasional off spinner.
  8. Jemma Barsby – right handed batter, off spinner, left arm orthodox spinner.
  9. Alan Davidson – left handed batter, left arm fast bowler, occasional left arm orthodox spinner.
  10. Len Muncer – off spinner, leg spinner, right handed batter.
  11. Bill Johnston – left arm fast medium bowler, left arm orthodox spinner, left handed batter.

12th: Frank Worrell, RHB, LFM, occ SLA. Honourable mentions: Ellyse Perry, RHB, RFM, also a football international and Cecil Parkin, an off spinner with a raft of variations.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Brisbane Heat Retain WBBL

A brief account of the WBBL final which took place early this morning UK time.

INTRODUCTION

This post looks at the final of the Women’s Big Bash League, which took place in the early hours of this morning UK time.

A SPLENDID FINAL

Sophie Devine had had a dream season for the Adelaide Strikers but had a personal nightmare in the final. The Kiwi fell for just five, before her compatriot Suzie Bates and Tahlia McGrath righted things with a good second wicket stand. Both were out close together and Bridget Patterson and Kayleigh Mack both went cheaply, but Amanda–Jade Wellington whose previous competition best score was 23 made a splendid 55 off 33 balls to give the strikers a final total of 161-7 from their 20 overs. Maddy Green managed only 11 for Heat in the reply, but then Sammy–Jo Johnson blasted 27 off just 11 balls (including four sixes off Sophie Devine) to put Heat well ahead of the rate. Jess Jonassen made 33 off 28, and Laura Harris was unbeaten on 19, in partnership with player of the final Beth Mooney who anchored the innings with an unbeaten 56, Heat having 11 balls to spare (and six wickets, including Kiwi all-rounder Amelia Kerr, due to come in next) when they completed the chase. To win a big tournament is a fine achievement, but to do so twice running is particularly impressive because on the second occasion everyone else knows that you are the team to beat. Sophie Devine was player of the tournament, but in the final she could only produce five and figures of 1-46 from three overs. It was a highly enjoyable final, but ultimately Brisbane Heat were simply too good for Adelaide Strikers.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

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100 Cricketers: The 4th XI All-rounders and Introducing the 5th XI

The latest in my “100 cricketers” series – features the all-rounders from my 4th XI and introduces my fifth XI in batting order. Also includes some of my photographs.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest installment in my “100 cricketers” series. In this post we complete the examination of our fourth XI and present the fifth in batting order. The introductory post to the whole series can be found here, the post in which I introduced the 4th XI is here, and finally the most recent post in the series is here.

SOPHIE DEVINE

Her averages in ODIs are the wrong way round (32 with the bat and 37 with the ball), but in T20Is she averages 27.92 with the bat and 16.75 with the ball. She has had no test match experience to date, an issue in women’s cricket that have animadverted on before. I saw her as teenager, bowling fast and batting down the order, in the same series in which I saw a similarly young Ellyse Perry in action. As with Perry I suspected at the time that she would be moving up the order, and although she has not progressed as remarkably as he Aussie counterpart she has indeed moved up the order, and five ODI centuries with a best of 145 show that she has the capacity for big scores. She also makes big hits – in total across the formats in international cricket she has hit 121 sixes. Why have I got her at six and not seven in this batting order? The answer follows…

ADAM GILCHRIST

Although the search for wicketkeepers who could provide serious runs predated Adam Gilchrist he completely transformed the notion of what was possible in a wicketkeeper batting wise. For much of his test career he averaged over 50, and he ended at averaging 47.60. He always refused to move up from number seven, saying that playing there gave him licence to bat the way he did, and since I would want him to bat the way he did I am keeping him at number seven.

England suffered as brutally at his hands as anyone, notably when he scored a century off just 57 balls in Perth in 2006, helping to ensure the Ashes would change hands as rapidly as possible. However, in the previous Ashes series in 2005 England, chiefly through Hoggard and Flintoff, had so restricted him that he did not even manage a half-century. 

INTRODUCING THE 5TH XI

Here in batting order is the fifth XI:

  1. Punam Raut
  2. Laura Wolvaardt
  3. Rahul Dravid
  4. Viv Richards
  5. Daryll Cullinan
  6. +Jonathan Bairstow
  7. *Kapil Dev
  8. Adil Rashid
  9. Harbhajan Singh
  10. Brett Lee
  11. Glenn McGrath

PHOTOGRAPHS

Here are some of my photographs to finish with:

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The first of four shots taken early yesterday evening which feature a remarkable full moon.

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Full moon and bird.

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First attempted close up of full moon

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ducks outside my window

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Second close-up of full moon

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The first butterfly of 2019 – captured through the window

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The remaining pics, including this one were taken during the two short walks I did this afternoon (each one being a circuit of the grassy area outside my bungalow).

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