Tag: Swans

England Finish Season in Style

A look back at the last day of the 2026 English cricket season, headlined by an ODI series decider between England and Sri Lanka. Also a large photo gallery.

Yesterday saw the last knockings of the 2026 English cricket season, including the third and final ODI of a series between the England and Sri Lankan men’s sides, which this post looks back at.

THE PRELIMINARIES

Sri Lanka had levelled the series by winning the second match back on Thursday. Also in that match Jos Buttler had picked up an injury while batting and retired hurt, and he was absent from this match, his place as keeper being taken by Jordan Cox. England had a slightly less deep batting order than sometimes, but the presence of Gus Atkinson, with an international century to his name, at number nine is hardly indicative of a long tail. England won the toss and although the pitch was fairly green they opted to bat first, having realized that the layer of grass had been left in place because it was a fundamentally very dry surface and needed the presence of the grass to keep it together…

THE ENGLAND INNINGS

Ben Duckett floundered to a five ball duck, finally being beaten all ends up and bowled by a superb ball from Madushanka (it was also a poor shot by Duckett but that should not detract from a fine piece of bowling). Joe Root was never in great form either, but he hung around for a time in support of Tom Banton who was batting magnificently. Harry Brook came in at number four, and now England had in form batters together at the crease. Banton reached his first international hundred. Brook fell at 218, having scored a fluent 77, which brought Jordan Cox to the crease. Banton was fourth out at 242, having scored 126 from 105 balls. Will Jacks and Jamie Overton each provided useful support to Cox who batted brilliantly. Asitha Fernando ended the innings on a personal high, bowling Cox for 76 (52) and then Dawson for a first ball duck with the last two balls of the innings, but the damage was well and truly done by then, with England posting 355-7 from their 50 overs.

THE SRI LANKA INNINGS

Sri Lanka never looked like getting anywhere near the huge total they had been set. Kusal Mendis, century maker in the second match of the series, produced a fluent 35, but once he was out to the last ball of the ninth over to make it 53-3 no one did a great deal. The run out of Rathnayake by Archer, which caused a deal of confusion because Cox had actually dislodged a bail before the ball arrived, stood because Archer’s throw actually removed a stump from the ground. That was 77-4, and with Charith Asalanka and Dunith Wellalage following in short order it was soon 82-6. Sachindu Colombage and Janith Liyanage also one after the other, 104-6 becoming 106-8. None of Eshan Malinga, Asitha Fernando or Dilshan Madushanka, the three remaining Sri Lankan batters, have any batting pedigree whatsoever, and imagining that they might some score 250 between the three of them would have been fanciful to say the least. Malinga actually did reach double figures, a feat beyond the other two, who managed 8 between them. The match ended when Eshan Malinga swept at Will Jacks and Joe Root, soon to be named as England’s ODI player of the season, pouched a sharp catch at leg slip. The margin was 232 runs. Scorecard here.

Shortly before that Somerset and Surrey had shaken hands on a draw at Taunton, with Surrey five down in their second innings and almost 200 adrift. Somerset had built a first innings of 309 – 731 against 422, and had hoped that Leach and Vaughan could spin through Surrey’s second innings, but a couple of interruptions put paid to that. Tom Abell had scored 307 for Somerset, beaten among Somerset natives only by a 310 from Harold Gimblett many decades ago, although overseas stars Justin Langer and Viv Richards have also recorded higher scores for the county.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Warwickshire Champions

A look at how Warwickshire became county champions for the ninth time in their history and a large photo gallery.

The last round of county championship fixtures for the 2o26 season is going on. Although some matches will be going in to tomorrow we know where the county championship is going, and this post looks back at how that happened.

WARWICKSHIRE WITH THE STRONGEST FINISH

Going into the penultimate round of fixtures there were three teams seemingly duking it out for the title, Warwiwckshire, Nottinghamshire and Somerset. Both Nottinghamshire and Somerset slipped up in that round while Warwickshire won to take a 12 point lead into the final round.

In the final round Nottinghamshire faced Yorkshire, Somerset entertained Surrey and Warwickshire were at home to Leicestershire. It was obvious by the afternoon of day one (Thursday) that Warwickshire were faring better than the other two, and by the time day two ended Nottinghamshire’s challenge was also officially over, but Somerset were still theoretically in contention, though they would need to win and for Warwickshire to lose, and Warwickshire were in almost complete control of their match, having built a first innings advantage of 247 and already claimed three Leicestershire second innings wickets before the end of day two.

This morning belonged to Warwickshire, and by lunch time Leicestershire were eight down, a long way in arrears, and the title was as good as secure. Tom Scriven, the Leicestershire number nine, fought his way to 49, comfortably their highest individual score of the match, but then Ethan Bamber bowled him to claim his fifth scalp of the innings and ninth of the match and give Warwickshire the match by an innings and 79 runs and with it the county championship for the ninth time in their history. It was an appropriate way for the championship to be officially settled since Bamber, released by Middlesex in a ‘Decca Records’ like move by someone who questioned his temperament, has been superb as the spearhead of a very impressive Warwickshire bowling unit this season.

Just moments ago Yorkshire completed a one wicket win over Nottinghamshire. At Taunton the match is still ongoing, and Tom Abell for Somerset has reached a new career best of 228 not out, with Somerset now 174 ahead on first innings, which brings a win for them in to the picture should Surrey collapse in their second innings.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off (reminder – click on an image to view it at larger size)…

Two Very Different Matches

A look at two of the matches in this round of championship fixtures that have already finished and their implications for the table, plus a photo gallery.

There is a round of county championship matches in progress with today officially day three of four. The two matches in which I had most interest, Surrey v Yorkshire and Somerset v Glamorgan are both now finished. This post looks at what has been going on.

AN INNINGS WIN

This morning at decision time I opted to listen to Surrey v Yorkshire, since I thought that one was probably going to end before Somerset v Glamorgan. I had failed to account for just how spineless Glamorgan would prove to be. They slumped to 183 all out in their second innings, which gave Somerset a win by an innings and 64. The scores there were Glamorgan 194, Somerset 441, Glamorgan 183. This puts Somerset at the top of the championship table, and although they were one of the eight sides involved in the first properly organized county championship in 1891 they have never won it. Scorecard here.

A LOW SCORING THRILLER

Surrey won the toss and opted to bowl. When they had Yorkshire all out for 185 they would have felt reasonably good about that. They themselves then sank for 83, conceding a first innings deficit of 102. They then rebounded by bowling Yorkshire out for 82, leaving themselves to match Yorkshire’s first innings score in the final innings of the match to win it. When Burns and Sibley reached 40 still together it looked on. Then Jack White pinned Sibley LBW. Surrey now gambled, sending Rahul Chahar in at number three. The gamble failed, the Indian being bowled for a five ball duck. Not long after that Burns was also out, caught by Dom Bess off George Hill and it was 52-3. Wickets continued to fall regularly by Josh Blake dug in and held firm. Even so, when Tom Lawes was seventh out a further 70 runs were still needed to win, which looked a tall order on that surface. However Matthew Fisher, who had already claimed eight wickets in the match, including 6-25 in the 82 all out, now provided Josh Blake with excellent support and the pair clawed their way towards the target. They had got to 170, 15 short of winning, when Fisher edged a ball from Hill to Will Luxton to fall for 33. Auqib Nabi, an Indian seamer who can bat a bit – he has a List A century in his native land – now joined Blake. Nabi had just hit a six to move Surrey to within two of the target when he tried to go big again and sent the ball pretty much straight upwards and James Wharton got underneath it to make it 183-9. Dan Worrall, the sort of old style tail ender who does not bother to take guard when he arrives at the crease, now joined the fray. He survived the last two balls of Ben Coad’s over, and then Blake negotiated a very good over from George Hill, but could do no more than survive it. The next over started with another dot, but then Worrall got the second away for four and Surrey had sneaked home by one wicket. The match had seen an aggregate of 537 runs for 39 wickets. This is not even close to a record – in 1878 when The MCC faced off against An Australian XI at Lord’s the match aggregate was 105 runs for 31 wickets (MCC 33 and 19, Australians 41 and 12-1). Josh Blake in the final innings had scored 43 not out from 183 balls. It is a result that somewhat eases Surrey’s relegation worries, but everyone from fourth place downwards is under threat, so tight is it at the bottom. Scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off (periodic reminder, you can view images at larger size by clicking on them)…

A hummingbird hawkmoth
Flowring ivy plays a vital role at this time of year. This head has attracted two pollinators at the same time.
I got this 50p in change at Morrison’s today.

Two Very Different Finals

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

This years edition of The Hundred came to an end yesterday with a pair of finals that apart from the presence of Trent Rockets sides in both matches were about as different as could be. This post looks back at the day.

TOTAL DOMINATION

In the Women’s match Trent Rockets won the toss and told Sun Risers Leeds to bat first. Sun Risers were 24-3 after 19 balls. Then Annabel Sutherland and Deepti Sharma hinted at a revival, before Sharma fell at the exact halfway point of the innings, bowled by Charley Phillips for 12, to make it 56-4. Four balls and two runs later Sutherland was on her way back to the dugout, stumped by Mooney off Adams for 25. Jess Jonassen negotiated her first two balls carefully, but was then run out, Georgia Adams’ fine throw being well gathered by Georgia Elwiss who broke the stumps to make it 58-6. Samantha Bates clean bowled Darcey Carter for a duck to make it 62-7. Dani Gibson and Kate Cross fought hard, but shortly after skipper Gibson had become only the second player to cross 20 in what was turning into a horror show of a batting performance, she gave Kim Garth a catch off Ash Gardner to make it 82-8. With no recognized batters left run scoring became very slow, and eventually Cross had a wild cross-batted swipe at one from Georgia Adams, missed and was bowled to make it 88-9 from 87 balls. Four balls and three runs later an innings that barely got started was at an end, Cassidy McCarthy pinned LBW for 2 by Samantha Bates to make it 91 all out from 91 balls. Sophia Dunkley at the top of the Rockets order continued her majestic form this tournament, moving her aggregate past 300 in the course of the innings, well supported by Beth Mooney. Mooney by her own stratospheric standards had had a quiet tournament with the bat, but she has a habit of delivering when it really counts, and being well aware that the only way her opponents could win this was by taking ten wickets she settled in to bat through at one end. Although Dunkley and number three Natalie Sciver-Brunt were out in the space of four balls, the game was as good as done by then. Dunkley had scored 41 from 23 balls, with four fours and two sixes, while the current England captain had 4 from two balls. The score at her dismissal was 74-2 from 43 balls. Gardner joined Mooney, and the two Aussies were absolutely ruthless in executing the last part of the job, taking 11 more balls to score 18 runs needed for the win. Rockets had won by eight wickets with a barely credible 46 balls to spare. They have been the best team at this tournament, and have improved as it went along. Full scorecard here.

A BATTLE ROYAL

In the men’s match Manchester Super Giants won the toss and told Trent Rockets to bat first. Rockets made a blistering start, lost wickets in the middle of their innings, and were then given hope by some big hitting from Lewis Gregory (32 from 16 balls) and Craig Overton (11 from five balls). They tallied 158-8, a fine but not unassailable score. Tim Seifert was in tremendous form for the Super Giants. He and Paul Walter kicked off the chase with a stand of 66 in 31 balls. Jos Buttler, the leading career run scorer in T20 history, then weighed in with 23 off 14 balls, his dismissal making the score 100-2 from 55 balls. Third to go was Seifert, caught by Billings off Aamir for 72 (38) with the score at 136 from 78 balls. 23 off 22 balls is normally considered a walk in the park in this format, but Super Giants made hard work of it. In the end Liam Dawson hit the 98th ball of their innings for six to get them over the line. Scorecard here. In their own ways both these matches were well worth following, the first because although it took any suspense out of the occasion the sheer brilliance of the Trent Rockets women, who did just about everything right and controlled their final from beginning to end was compelling of itself, and the second because it was a grand fight between two strong sides neither of whom would yield an inch.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

This small butterfly is not familiar to me. Its colouring is very distinctive and impressibe.
This was a huge fungus or piece of fungus floating on the Gaywood river.

Surrey Ruthless Against Sussex

A look at the final stage of Surrey’s ruthless disposal of Sussex in the county championship and a photo gallery.

This post looks back at the last stages of the match between Surrey and Sussex in the county championship which ended on Monday evening.

THE VICTORY PUSH

Although Surrey lost their last three wickets quite quickly they had piled up a lead of 264 by the time the last one fell – 622 against 358-9 declared. First class debutant Adam Thomas scored 120 of those runs from number seven, and I suspect we will be seeing plenty more of him, and higher in the order. Sussex started their second innings with the most obvious requirement being to reach the close of day three with little damage done. The very first ball of the innings, from Matt Fisher, hit and injured Tom Haines, and Sussex limped to 76-4 by the end of the day. They fared a bit better on day four, but for much of it an innings defeat looked more likely than not. They eventually avoided that, but were only able to establish a lead of 13, one run less than the lowest total Surrey have ever been dismissed for (against Essex in 1983, Neil Foster and Norbert Philip doing the damage with the ball). Surrey did lose two wickets while scoring these runs, making the final margin eight wickets, which decidedly flattered Sussex.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Surrey v Essex

A look at the early stages of Surrey v Essex in the fourth round of County Championship matches of 2026 and a photo gallery which features a damselfly, the first such sighting for me in 2026.

Another round of county championship matches got underway at 11 o’clock this morning. This post looks at the first two sessions (the latter of which has just ended) at The Oval where Surrey are hosting Essex.

THE PLAY SO FAR

The big news for Surrey was that Gus Atkinson was in the side for his first game of the season. They won the toss and opted to bowl first, so Atkinson was in action straight away. During the course of the morning session there was exactly one moment of trouble for Essex and that was self inflicted – a piece of running so poor that had the throw hit Paul Walter would not even have been in the frame. A rare lapse from Walter saw a return chance offered to Sean Abbott, but the Aussie seamer was unable to hold on to it. Finally, with 183 runs on the board and Elgar looking nailed for a ton Jordan Clark found an edge and Ben Foakes accepted the chance. The former South Africa test opener had scored 92, and had been largely untroubled. Tom Westley, returning from injury, cane in at number three. He struggled to 1 from 27 balls before Tom Lawes bowled him, probably almost as much of a relief to him given his lack of form as it was to the rest of us. That was 194-2. Charlie Allison joined Paul Walter, and pair carried Essex through to tea at 229-2, Walter 95 not out, Allison 23 not out. Play has resumed since I started work on this post, and Walter has moved into three figures, which he has by and large earned, though he did benefit from a couple of fortunate moments as detailed.

QUESTIONING RECEIVED WISDOM

It seems nowadays to be hardwired into captains minds that if you win the toss at The Oval you opt to bowl. However it is put it mildly not a policy with a stellar success rate. Relatively recent instances include Surrey racking up 820-9 declared against Durham, Surrey in their most recent match of this season topping 500 against Leicestershire, and now Essex headed for a huge total against Surrey. I also think the Surrey ground staff might well have questions to answer about the sheer weight of runs their surface is offering up – none of the other matches in action today look in great danger of degenerating into runfests with no real hope of a result, whereas that is a very obvious possibility in this match.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Before showing the full gallery I have an extract from it, a close up of a splendid insect from today…

Until today I had not seen a dragonfly or a damselfly in 2026. This is definitely a type of damselfly. Its mainly red body, with a black tail section that itself has four red bands can be clearly seen below the outlines of the four folded wings, while the thorax section features two bands of yellow and some yellow spots behind it. The head is quite shiny, with two large red compound eyes, and all six of the creatures limbs are clearly visible as it basks on a green leaf near Kettlewell Lane.

Now for the gallery…

The Six Nations 2026

A look at the state of the Six Nations as the tournament nears its end.

The 2026 Six Nations rugby tournament is approaching its conclusion. This post looks at the remaining possibilities.

IRELAND v SCOTLAND

Three teams came into today with a chance of winning the trophy – Scotland, Ireland and France. Scotland needed to beat Ireland and hope for a favour from England, who face France in the last match of the tournament tonight. In the event Ireland were in control virtually the whole way through the match, although Scotland reduced the deficit to five points midway through the second half. Ireland finished strongly, and the final score was Ireland 43 Scotland 21. Ireland sit top of the table at present.

WALES v ITALY

Wales are guaranteed the wooden spoon having lost all four of their matches so far and managed only one bonus point. Even if they win they will be behind current second last place side England. A win for Italy on the other hand would ensure them fourth spot ahead of England (they cannot catch Scotland, now in third place, whatever happens.

FRANCE v ENGLAND

Any win will be enough for France to lift the trophy since they have a much better ‘points difference’ than Ireland, and this is used as the tie-splitter. A bonus point win (scoring four tries or more) would avoid the need for tie-splitting. They are level on points with Scotland as things stand, so only the vanishingly (almost worthy of using Dan Dennett’s “Vanishingly” with the V capitalized, from “Darwin’s Dangerous Idea”!) small chance of England winning by 80 points or more, which would put Scotland ahead of France on ‘points difference’ could see them below Scotland. England have had an awful tournament by their standards, losing to Scotland, Ireland and Italy and beating Wales, but if Italy lose against Wales and they record a bonus point win over France they will slide into fourth out of six. It has been a splendid Six Nations overall, and either France or Ireland would be worthy winners.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

On Radagast The Brown

A brief look at Radagast the Brown and his role in events at the end of the third age of Middle Earth. Also a photo gallery.

Here in Norfolk spring seems to have arrived. Certainly the photo gallery at the end of this post, which other than the first four pictures all comes from today suggests as much. In this post I look at a minor character in “The Lord of the Rings”, the wizard Radagast.

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE ISTARI

The Istari were five of the Maiar, beings who rank above elves but not quite as divinities, sent into Middle Earth by the Valar (gods) to combat Sauron. They were Olorin (known in various parts of Middle Earth as Gandalf, Mithrandir, Tharkun and Incanus), Curumo (Curunir/ Saruman), Aiwendil (Radagast) and the two blue wizards Alatar and Pallando who seem never to have acquired names in Middle Earth. Of the five Olorin clearly fulfilled his brief to the letter, Curumo equally clearly failed badly (to the extent that the Valar allowed him to die in Middle Earth), while there is nothing to go on regarding Alatar and Pallando though the likelihood is that any part they played in the events at the end of the Third Age of Middle Earth was on the side of Sauron, since all we are told of them is that they went straight into the uttermost East. That leaves only…

AIWENDIL/ RADAGAST

Radagast played no direct part in the War of the Ring, and it is often considered that his fondness for the birds and the beasts was such as to amount to an abrogation of his duties in Middle Earth. However, it is quite clear that Radagast’s heart was always in the right place – although he inadvertently sent Gandalf into Saruman’s trap by causing him to head to Isengard to visit Saruman he also heeded and acted on Gandalf’s request that he ask those of the birds and beasts that were friends of his to help by reporting on events, which brought Gwaihir, lord of the eagles, to Isengard to rescue Gandalf from his confinement at the top of the tower of Orthanc. There is no hint of a suggestion that Radagast ever intentionally aided evil or that he ever sought any position of power in Middle Earth (as Saruman, the several times over traitor, certainly did). One final aspect of Radagast’s role needs to be presented: he was the choice of Yavanna, whose personal area of responsibility was precisely the birds and the beasts. Thus it was right that he should be fond of those birds and beasts.

In an English or Welsh court where the only verdicts that can be rendered are ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty’ I would, though unhappily, find even the blue wizards ‘not guilty’, since there is no actual proof of guilt. A Scottish court, with the additional verdict of ‘not proven’ would offer a way out in their case. Even in a Scottish court I would happily acquit Radagast.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The first butterfly of 2026 – a tortoiseshell.
a bee (three pics)

Renegades Blown Away by Hurricanes

A look back at todays BBL game between Melbourne Renegades and Hobart Hurricanes and a photo gallery.

This morning UK time saw Melbourne Renegades entertain Hobart Hurricanes at Geelong. This post looks back at the match.

THE RENEGADES INNINGS

The match started strangely, with Josh Brown allowing Chris Jordan to bowl a maiden in the first over of the match. Maidens are rare birds in T20s, and I cannot recall a previous example of a match in this format starting with such an over. Tim Seifert got a single early in the second over, but off the fourth ball thereof Brown fell to a catch by Nikhil Chaudhary off Riley Meredith for an eight ball duck, an absurd innings in a T20. The third and fourth overs, bowled by Nathan Ellis and then Meredith bowling his second were taken for 17 runs each, and a Power Play score of 36-1 looked respectable. However, Hurricanes immediately tightened things up. In the ninth over Jordan bowled Seifert for 34 to make it 63-2. With the penultimate ball of the 10th over English leg spinner Rehan Ahmed bowled Mohammad Rizwan for 32, which brought about the mid-innings drinks break at 69-3. Two overs later Jake Fraser-McGurk and Ollie Peake were still together, and there was an obvious case for activating the Power Surge. However Renegades did the cowardly thing and held back in the hope of getting a better opportunity. Five balls into the 13th over Peake was well caught by Matthew Wade off Nathan Ellis to make it 86-4, and a chance to use the Surge with two batters who have both already faced a few balls had been squandered. Three balls into the 14th over and Hurricanes other leg spinner, Bangladeshi Rishad Hossain, bowled Fraser-McGurk to make it 88-5. Hassan Khan and Will Sutherland revived things for Renegades, and they eventually activated the Surge for overs 17 and 18. The first of these overs was beneficial to their cause, but the second, bowled by Jordan, was ruinous. Hassan Khan was out to the first ball of it, and Sutherland to the fourth, to make it 126-7. Jordan conceded one more run in the over, but still at that point had 3-9 from three overs. The last ball of the 19th over saw Gurinder Sandhu fall to a catch by Hossain off Ellis to make it 133-8. The final over was Jordan’s fourth and last as well, and with the second ball of it he accounted for Fergus O’Neill to make it 135-9. Jordan did not manage to complete his five-for, and ten runs accrued from the last four balls of the innings. However, 145-9 still looked a hopelessly inadequate score, and 4-1-19-4 was still an excellent set of bowling figures. Jordan has played over 400 T20s in his long career, and has never yet taken a five-for, though todays figures were not quite a career best – he has recorded 4-6 in the past. Rishad Hossain had 1-21 from his four overs and Rehan Ahmed 1-25 from his. If Stokes is still worried about Bashir’s lack of skill with the bat (see here) then perhaps Ahmed, a genuinely front line bowler could come into the side. It would be far from the first time that an English player in Australia not as part of a tour party has been drafted in in an emergency – George Gunn, in Australia for health reasons, was called in to the 1907-8 touring party and proceeded to top score in both innings on test debut, while in the 1990s Gus Fraser, omitted by Illingworth, was clever enough to arrange to be in Australia playing grade cricket, and soon found himself back in the side.

THE HURRICANES CHASE

Mitchell Owen fell to the first ball of the chase, caught behind by Rizwan off Jason Behrendorff. However Nikhil Chaudhary, recently demoted from opening to number three, then hit the second, third and fourth balls of that opening over for fours and Hurricanes were on their way, and never really looked back. The other opener, Tim Ward, was also dismissed in the Power Play, for 8, but Hurricanes already had 38 on the board by then. It was the third wicket stand between Chaudhury and Ben McDermott that killed the game stone dead. At the halfway mark Hurricanes were 95-2, with these two still together, and activating the Power Surge at the earliest possible opportunity was a blatantly obvious thing to do, and Hurricanes duly did so. Although they lost Chaudhury to the last ball of the Surge, caught by Fraser-McGurk off Sandhu for 79 (38) the two overs had also yielded 36 runs (18 each), and a mere 15 were needed for victory by then. It took 1.5 overs to knock those runs off, with no further wickets falling. McDermott ended on 49 not out (33). Hurricanes had won by seven wickets with 6.1 overs to spare and went top of the table. Jordan was named Player of the Match for his great bowling. Scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

How WBBL11 Was Won

A look back at today’s WBBL11 final, between Perth Scorchers and Hobart Hurricanes, and a photo gallery.

This morning (UK time) saw the final of the Women’s Big Bash League 11th edition. The contending sides were Hobart Hurricanes, who had won the league stage and thus gone straight into the final and Perth Scorchers who had had to win two extra matches in order to get there. The other benefit besides going straight through to the final that the Hurricanes got was that the match was played in Hobart.

THE PRELIMINARIES

The bat flip was won by Perth Scorchers. Sophie Devine chose to bat first, believing that runs on the board would give her side the opportunity to impose scoreboard pressure on the opposition. Both sides were unchanged from their previous matches (in Hurricanes’ case quite a while back, and it was one that was only half finished in bizarre circumstances – in the break between innings a ball got rolled into the pitch surface creating a dangerously large hole therein and resulting in an abandonment).

THE SCORCHERS INNINGS

Katie Mack and Beth Mooney have been a formidable opening pair for the Scorchers this season, but neither were at their best today. Mack in particular struggled to get going, and Mooney did so only because she was reprieved multiple times. Finally in the sixth a cover a catch did go to hand, Linsey Smith pouching one off Lauren Smith to send Mack back for 17 and make it 36-1. Maddy Darke, in at number three for the Scorchers never got going at all, and it was Linsey Smith as bowler who got her, with the aid of a catch by Natalie Sciver-Brunt, to make it 48-2 in the eighth over. The innings was just into its second half when Heather Graham rattled Mooney’s stumps, getting the left hander for 33 and making it 64-3. Freya Kemp hit a six, but then gave Sciver-Brunt a catch off Linsey Smith to go for 10 and make it 79-4 in the 13th over. Paige Scholfield batted well, but the last serious hope of a big Scorchers total disappeared when Lizelle Lee stumped Devine off Graham to make it 112-5 in the 17th over. Scholfield and Alana King stayed together for the rest of the innings. The most remarkable happening was Nicola Carey contriving to concede just three runs in the final over of the innings, two of them off the final ball. Carey had figures overall of 4-0-23-0, and two of those overs were in the opening Power Play, and another was that 20th over. The final score was 137-5, which did not look like enough, although if Hurricanes had taken all the chances they were offered Scorchers would probably have been all out for about 90.

THE HURRICANES CHASE

Lizelle Lee struck form from the outset. The four over opening Power Play yielded 39-0. In the sixth over Amy Edgar clean bowled Danni Wyatt-Hodge for 16 to make it 49-1. That brought Sciver-Brunt in to join Lee, and the pair made hay. At the halfway stage the score was 81-1. Hurricanes activated the Power Surge at the first permitted opportunity, namely for overs 11 and 12, quite rightly going for the quick kill (and even without that motivation, would they ever have a better time to take it than with Lizelle Lee and Natalie Sciver-Brunt both well set?) rather than waiting on further developments. Lee hit the fourth ball of the 11th over for a six, the third such blow of her innings, to pass 50 off 32 balls, and followed up by hitting four more off the fifth and another half dozen off the sixth. Sciver-Brunt joined the party by putting the first ball of the 12th over into the stands. In total the two overs of Power Surge produced 31-0, , and Hurricanes were 112-1 after 12 overs, needing a mere 26 off the last eight. Sciver-Brunt fell with victory in sight, but Lee went to a new record score for a WBBL final of 77 not out (44 balls, 10 fours, four sixes), while Nicola Carey made the winning hit, a four off the final ball of the 15th over. The margin was eight wickets, with five overs to spare. Lizelle Lee after that stunning blitz with the bat was named Player of the Match. This means that the Hurricanes currently hold both the men’s and women’s BBL titles, and that the only franchise never to have won a WBBL title is now the Melbourne Stars.

ON POWER SURGES

The Power Surge can be activated at any stage in the last ten overs of an innings. In this match it was one of many areas in which Hurricanes were superb. Scorchers by contrast took their surge for overs 15 and 16, and amassed 15-0 from those two overs, little if any better than they would have done in regular play. It is that last point, that the key is not just how many runs those overs yield, but how many more they yield than would have been scored anyway that informs my thinking on this subject. Taking it for overs 15 and 16 as Scorchers did today makes some sort of sense, effectively extending ‘the death’ from four overs to six. Leaving it any later would to me rank as folly. The Hurricanes had an easy choice today, as they had two well set batters both ideally suited to making use of a Power Surge when they took it. In general I think sides, influenced by the worry that taking it can lead to the loss of wickets are overcautious about doing so and tend it leave it later than they should.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

This picture and the next show mute swans demonstrating that their huge size does not prevent them getting airborne.
These starlings are not nesting in a particularly elaborate set of antlers! This is the topmost part of a tree canopy that at this time of year is devoid of any foliage.