A look at development’s in the Hundred so far today and a photo gallery.
Today in The Hundred Trent Rockets are hosting London Spirit. The Women’s match has just reached the halfway point, and this post looks back at the first 100 balls.
BUILDING A BIG TOTAL
London Spirit won the toss and decided to bowl first. Bryony Smith and Grace Scrivens opening for the Rockets had an excellent opening stand, and Scrivens, who also got good support from Nat Sciver-Brunt, completed an excellent half century. She was third out, bowled by Sarah Glenn for 55, which made it 121-3 with 21 balls to go in the innings. Heather Graham played a superb late innings, and although Ashleigh Gardner didn’t have a great time, Alana King played well in the very closing stages. The innings ended with the run out of Gardner for 7 (4) which left Rockets with a score of 158-5. Deepti Sharma, the Indian off spinning all rounder, had the best figures for the Spirit, taking 2-25 from her 20 balls. This total will take a lot of chasing down. If Rockets defend successful it will mean that there is a clear gap between the top three (Welsh Fire, Northern Superchargers and Oval Invincibles) and the rest. If Spirit do somehow pull this off the split will instead be between a top four and a bottom four.
A look at the first innings of today’s Hundred (women’s) match between Trent Rockets and Birmingham Phoenix. Phoenix put up a respectable total, but maybe not enough – they certainly didn’t use all their batting resources. Also a large photo gallery.
Today in the Hundred the Trent Rockets are entertaining Birmingham Phoenix. I am typing this immediately after the end of the Phoenix innings (they won the toss and batted first).
139-3 NOT GOOD ENOUGH?
The Phoenix total referred to in the headline above is roughly equivalent to 165 in a T20 innings for comparison purposes. Undoubtedly a respectable score, but not an invincible one. Ellyse Perry scored 66 of the runs off 33 balls in a magnificent display. That means that the rest of the Phoenix innings was 73 off 67 balls. Sterre Kalis was scoring at a rate of below a run a ball for most of her innings, and even after picking things up late on she had a mere 48* (42) to show for her efforts, and it is not as though she had the excuse of worries over Phoenix’s batting depth – Amy Jones faced only three balls in the innings, and Suzie Bates, down to bat at five, never got in at all, the third wicket, a run out, happening on the 100th ball of the innings. Even after those two there were still Fran Wilson, Emily Arlott and Seren Smale who can handle a bat to come – Phoenix left a lot of resources unused in this innings. Rockets themselves have questions to answer – Alexa Stonehouse bowled the first 10 balls of the match straight through, yielding only six runs and was not called on for the rest of the innings. The ten balls she did not bowl were bowled by Amanda-Jade Wellington who leaked 29. Of the four Rockets bowlers who bowled a full allocation Heather Graham was the stand out with 1-15. Nat Sciver-Brunt (0-30) and Kirstie Gordon (0-32) were expensive, and such are Alana King’s usual standards that she would regard 1-26 as a disappointing return.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
If you click to view this one at larger size you will see a swallow.A green shieldbug.
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.
aspiblog 