Tag: WODI

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.

India in Jeopardy

A look back at today’s women’s world cup clash between India and Australia and a photo gallery.

Today’s match in women’s cricket world cup saw India facing off against Australia. This post looks back at a match that has left India in danger of an early exit from their own tournament.

THE INDIAN INNINGS

The pitch for today’s match at Visakhapatnam was the best for batting at the world cup so far, and India started superbly through openers Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal. However neither managed a really imposing score – Mandhana scored 80 and Rawal 75. India would have been pleased with a score of 330 but may also have felt that it should have been even better. Annabel Sutherland, surely the best all rounder in the world right now (Natalie Sciver-Brunt is not currently capable of bowling a full allocation of 10 overs, so has to be ruled out of contention at present) took 5-40 from 9.5 overs while her colleagues were taking a thrashing.

THE AUSTRALIAN INNINGS

A blazing performance from Alyssa Healy ensured that Australia were never out of contention in the chase. There was still some work to be done when she was out for 142 with the score at 265. When Sophie Molineux was out the score was 303-7, with Perry, who had retired hurt earlier, the senior surviving batter. Kim Garth rose to the occasion, and it was she who put Australia ahead of the rate in the closing stages, though it was Perry, hitting the last ball of the 49th over for a straight six, who actually settled the issue in Australia’s favour. This was the largest successful chase in the history of women’s ODIs. India, having lost to South Africa in their previous outing are now in considerable danger of an early exit from the tournament they are hosting. Another loss would almost certainly seal their fate, and even a washout might be enough to end their participation.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

An interesting shield bug, mainly black wityh yellow markings.
This heavily armoured insect is simple called a ‘dock bug’ after the leaves in which it generally makes its home.
A heavy overnight dew had really brought out the intricacies of the spider webs this morning (it was also very foggy at that time)

England Win in Colombo

A brief look back at happenings at the Women’s cricket world cup on Thursday and yesterday, and account of today’s match in Colombo and two photo galleries.

Although today’s match dominates this post I make mention of a couple of others as well.

THURSDAY AND YESTERDAY

Tuesday and Wednesday both saw threats of upsets, but in each case the big side came good in the end. On Thursday we finally saw an upset. For most of the chase it looked like India were in charge, but then Nadine de Klerk, batting at number eight, came to the party. An astounding display from the spin bowling all rounder saw four sixes in the space of 2.5 overs (the first two balls of the 47th over, the third and fifth of the 49th). That last six, de Klerk’s fifth in all, took South Africa to victory with seven balls to spare. In total de Klerk scored 84 not out from 54 balls. Remarkably the innings that seemed to have given India enough to defend, Richa Ghosh’s 94, was also scored from number eight, though I cannot comment on that innings other than the bare detail since I was at work while it was being played.

Yesterday I missed the New Zealand innings (see my previous post) but got to hear most of the Bangladesh reply. This match was a familiar tale for Bangladesh and Pakistan at this tournament – a respectable bowling performance but the batters were simply not up to the task. Chasing 225 Bangladesh were at one point 33-6, and although they fought back somewhat from that nadir the final margin was over 100 runs in the Kiwis favour.

GALLERY ONE

SRI LANKA v ENGLAND

The start was slightly delayed by a wet outfield, but both sides stuck to their spin heavy selection plans. Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bowl, which did not worry Natalie Sciver-Brunt and England in the slightest since they would have batted first in any case.

Tammy Beaumont and Amy Jones began brightly before a combination of an over-optimistic call by Beaumont and a hesitation on the part of Jones cost the latter her wicket. Sri Lanka fared well once they had broken this partnership, but they made a crucial error when a catch offered by Sciver-Brunt, then on 3, went to ground. While no one else made a major contribution the England skipper batted through, cautiously at first, and finally blazingly aggressively in the closing stages of the innings. Her 117 off 117 balls with nine fours and two sixes was the highest individual score of the tournament so far and got England to 253-9, which looked enough.

With 18 runs on the board Sri Lanka lost Chamari Athapaththu to a calf issue – she left the field on a stretcher, but after treatment it was confirmed that she would be able to resume her innings. Vishmi Gunaratne was bowled by Charlie Dean for 10 (9) to make it 37-1, but then for a time Sri Lanka prospered. It was Sophie Ecclestone who changed all that. A high water mark of 95-1 degenerated to 103-4 in the space of 2.2 overs, with the tall left armer dismissing Hasini Perera with the aid of a catch by Alice Capsey, Harshitha Samarawickrama to a fine running catch by Lauren Bell and Kavisha Dilhari clean bowled. There was the merest hint of a revival after that, but 13 runs later Ecclestone effectively terminated Sri Lanka’s interest in proceedings by clean bowling the restored Athapaththu with a beauty for her fourth wicket of the innings (at this stage she had 4-5). In the process of spinning this web from which Sri Lanka could not extricate themselves Ecclestone reached 30 wickets in ODI world cup matches, in just her 12th such game, five matches fewer than the previous quickest to that mark. Sri Lanka resisted with sufficient determination that their last wicket fell with only 4.2 overs of their allocation left, but the margin of 89 runs tells a truer story of this one-sided match. Sciver-Brunt picked up a couple of wickets in this phase to go with her century, and was the last player to touch the ball in the match, holding the catch off Linsey Smith that dismissed Udeshika Prabodhani.

GALLERY TWO

My usual sign off…

India Victorious Over Pakistan

A look back at today’s women’s world cup match between India and Pakistan and a photo gallery.

Yesterday’s women’s world cup match between Australia and Sri Lanka was washed away without a single ball bowled meaning that the points were shared. Today saw India taking on Pakistan in Colombo. India had won their opening match against Sri Lanka, while Pakistan had been beaten by Bangladesh.

A LOW SCORING BATTLE

Pakistan won the toss and chose to bowl, perhaps reckoning that dew would make bowling more difficult in the second innings. They bowled pretty well, and no Indian managed to reach 50 (Jemima Rodrigues with 46 was top scorer). India did have other useful but not major contributions, and an explosive innings from Richa Ghosh at the death boosted them to a final score of 247. India bowled excellently, and only Sidra Amin played an innings of any substance for Pakistan. Kranti Goud, right arm medium fast, led the way for India, recording figures of 10-3-20-3. Renuka Singh Thakur, right arm medium, was economical but wicketless, ten overs for 29. Sidra Amin fought her way to 81, but was playing a lone hand. Pakistan rustled about a mere 159, going down by 88 runs. Kranti Goud was correctly named Player of the Match for a near flawless bowling performance.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

There was some seriously unpleasant weather around both on Friday and yesterday.
An autumnal wall near Kettlewell Lane.
The evening was a bit brighter.
This one was in my kitchen the night before last.
A crane fly not far from the station.
The autumnal wall again.
A muntjac viewed through the Lynnsport Railway tunnel.
A splendid crane fly.
A ‘reverse video’ ladybird – red markings on a shiny black carapace.

England Women Flop in Kimberly

A look back at the batting of the England Women against South Africa Women in their ODI in Kimberly today (I had a commitment which meant I missed the South African chase) and a photo gallery.

Kimberly in South Africa is home to the world’s largest man made hole, and by the halfway stage of today’s WODI there the England women were in a similarly sized metaphorical hole largely of their own making. I did not get to witness the South African chase due to having to go to the West Norfolk Eye Centre, in the grounds of Queen Elizabeth Hospital for my annual experience of the set of tortures collectively known as Glaucoma tests, a journey that as the weather though dull was not especially cold by December standards I opted to make on foot, rather than spend money on a bus fare (as it happened, even though it was pitch dark by then I also made the return journey on foot), however I was entirely unsurprised to find when I arrived back home that they had won at a canter. This post looks at the woes of the England innings.

A TERRIBLE START

Tammy Beaumont was dropped in the first over of the match, the other opener Sophia Dunkley struck one emphatic boundary, but was then caught at slip playing a terrible shot in that same opening over. Kapp also accounted for Beaumont, bowled for 11, again playing a very poor shot. Nat Sciver-Brunt was the third early victim, LBW and for my money culpable on two grounds – first it was yet another poor shot, and second she burned a review attempting to overturn it. Danni Wyatt-Hodge was fourth out, LBW to Nadine de Klerk, and the first not to be culpable in her own dismissal – it was a genuinely good ball. However she cannot be totally acquitted – she burned England’s last review, and it was stone dead. True the point of impact was above the knee roll of the pad, but Wyatt-Hodge is a fairly small woman, for all the power with which she can hit the ball on her many good days, so not much should have been read into that. Heather Knight and Amy Jones looked to be steadying the ship until Jones went on to the attack against Annerie Dercksen and succeeded only in picking out Chloe Tryon, a superb fielder who duly completed a fine catch to make it 77-5. The wickets continued to tumble, and when Knight was LBW to left arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba (the same way Alice Capsey had gone to be sixth out) for 40 it was 106-7. Charlie Dean and Sophie Ecclestone, the two great England spinners, fought hard, putting on 67 together for the eighth wicket. Dean battled her way to the top England score of the day, an unbeaten 47, raising the total to 186, still dismal, but not as bad as it had looked like being. While England are still ahead overall in the multi-format series they need to realize that in a 50 over innings there are occasions when all out aggression is not the right approach. Dunkley in particular got out in a way that suggested an inflexible commitment to unbridled aggression. Marizanne Kapp is a model of consistency with the ball, and her opening spell in the next ODI will probably pretty much match this one ball for ball – and England need make sure it does not do so wicket for wicket as well.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Some of these pictures come from yesterday either side of work, but most were taken during this morning’s walk, when the weather behaved rather curiously – it started bright and sunny and then became very misty – usually when one gets mist and sunshine on the same day it happens the reverse way around, mist first, then the sun breaks it up…

Todays pictures start here.
A blackbird with a distinctive white patch around its throat.
By the time I had reached the vicinity of ‘cormorant platform’ the mist was making its presence felt in no uncertain terms.

England in Control in Spite of Themselves

Yesterday morning the third and final test match of the series between England and Sri Lanka got underway at The Oval. This post looks at developments so far.

DAY ONE

The biggest news selection wise was the debut of 20 year old left arm pacer Josh Hull, a very controversial selection given his lack of first class experience. However Hull’s bowling was delayed as Sri Lanka won the toss and put England in to bat, as they virtually had to with an all seam attack and grey skies overhead. Unfortunately for them they did not bowl well, and Duckett and Pope certainly batted well. Duckett threw a century away when he holed out for 86, but Pope did reach three figures. There had been one stoppage for bad light already (it is long past time that they had a stock of pink balls at test venues to allow play to continue under the lights in these circumstances – ball changes are so frequent anyway that swapping a red ball for a pink one would hardly even raise an eyebrow), and with England 221-3 after 44.1 overs the light intervened once again, this time ending the day’s play.

DAY TWO

Brook and Pope resumed at 11 o’clock on a rather brighter day. Brook never suggested permanence, benefitting from a truly awful drop by Asitha Fernando early on, but failing to make use of it. Smith looked to be playing more patiently but fell cheaply in the end. Thereafter, with the shining exception of Pope who went on to pass 150, the England batting became increasing feckless and irresponsible. They were all out for 325, leaving Sri Lanka one over to negotiate before lunch. All ten England wickets were out to catches, and even the one that went behind the wicket (to gully) was an attacking shot that went wrong rather than a bowler finding the edge.

Sri Lanka got to lunch without loss, and enjoyed their best opening stand of the series so far. The end of it was entirely self-inflicted, Nissanka going for a run that was never there which resulted in his partner Karunaratne being out by two yards or thereabouts. This was particularly unfortunate for Karunaratne since he was on 6,999 test career runs at the time. Kusal Mendis helped Nissanka add 34 more for the second wicket before he edged Woakes to Brook, the 12th wicket of the match and the first to be an authentic seamer’s dismissal, the grey skies notwithstanding. Angelo Mathews never looked comfortable at the crease, and with his own score on 3 and Sri Lanka on 86 he was third out, caught by Pope off Stone. Five runs later Josh Hull claimed his first test scalp, having Nissanka caught at extra cover for 64. Two runs later Stone pinned Chandimal plumb in front (Chandimal reviewed, and the replay showed that it was indeed stone dead). That was 93-5. Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis, the latter of whom has been Sri Lanka’s best batter this series have batted sensibly, and tea has just been taken with the score 142-5. To all appearances England are in full control, but few sides can have looked less impressive while getting into such a position.

Overlapping with this match is a match at Belfast between the Irish and English women’s sides, Kate Cross’s first international match as captain. Ireland are fighting hard, but Cross (who already celebrated her elevation by recording her best ever international bowling figures in any format – 6-30) is currently proving an excellent partner for Bess Heath. England need 31 more to win, so it is not done yet.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

A Thriller and a Display of Dominance

Over the weekend I followed the whole of one classic T20 match and the first innings of a very one sided One Day International (I missed the second innings as there was a family get together happening in Wells Next The Sea which I wanted to be part of). This post looks at both games.

THE MENS T20 WORLD CUP FINAL

This match would see history made whoever won it – India and South Africa, the two teams to make the final were both undefeated, and no side had ever gone through a Men’s T20 world cup undefeated. India batted first and their innings had its up and downs. The dominant feature was Virat Kohli’s one and only major innings of the tournament. They ended up with 176 to defend. South Africa batted well in their turn. They seemed to have settled the matter decisively when the 15th over, bowled by Kuldeep Yadav was butchered for 24 runs reducing the requirement from 54 off six overs to 30 off five overs. This virtually forced Indian skipper Rohit Sharma to turn to his best bowler, Jasprit Bumrah. The 16th over was economical, but no wickets fell, so South Africa still looked favourites. The 17th over kept India in contention, and saw them claim the vital wicket of Heinrich Klaasen. For the 18th over Sharma rightly opted to use Bumrah’s last over, hoping to close things out then. Bumrah not only kept it tight as always, but also got rid of Marco Jansen, which meant that with the required rate starting to become genuinely alarming for them the South Africans had only David Miller of their recognized batters left. Arshdeep Singh bowled the crucial 19th over, and by the end of it South Africa needed 16 off the last over, though Miller was at the strikers end. Hardik Pandya bowled the final over, and off the first ball thereof Miller went for a big shot down the ground and Suryakumar Yadav took a brilliant running catch to all but seal the match. Number nine Kagiso Rabada did his best, but another catch by Suryakumar Yadav off the penultimate ball of the match accounted for him, and South Africa needed nine off one ball to win. Nortje scored a single off the final ball and India won by seven runs (176-7 plays 169-8). In spite of South Africa’s reputation in global tournaments it has to be stated that THIS WAS NOT A CHOKE – India bowled superbly in the closing overs, and held a couple of excellent catches. This match was settled by good Indian cricket, not bad South African cricket. Scorecard here.

NEW ZEALAND WOMEN IN A SPIN

This was the second match of a three match ODI series between the England and New Zealand women’s teams, taking place at New Road, Worcester. New Zealand found themselves batting first as they had in the first match in which they were thoroughly hammered. At 114-3 with Amelia Kerr set and Maddy Green looking impressive as well they had a chance of a competitive total, but then the world’s number one and two ranked Women’s ODI bowlers, Sophie Ecclestone (left arm orthodox spin) and Charlie Dean (off spin) made their presences felt. Dean started the rout by pinning Green LBW, then Ecclestone got Brooke Halliday for six and Lauren Down for a duck, both clean bowled. Dean then got the big wicket of Amelia Kerr, caught and bowled for 43. Then a catch by Natalie Sciver-Brunt off Ecclestone accounted for Kiwi keeper Isabella Gaze for a duck, and three balls later Ecclestone clean bowled Molly Penfold for another duck to secure her fifth wicket, and 114-3 had become 124-9. Jess Kerr hit her way to 14, boosting the final total to 141 in company with Fran Jonas, before a second Sciver-Brunt catch, this time off the off spin of Alice Capsey ended the innings. Ecclestone has taken at least one wicket in each of her last 30 bowling innings across formats, a run going back to the start of 2023, and overall in those 30 innings she has taken 68 wickets at 14.75 a piece.

I missed the England run chase, but I do know that it was such an utter formality that Natalie Sciver-Brunt was able to engineer things at the end so that Maia Bouchier scored her first senior century (she has previously reached three figures in a U13s match). Scorecard here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…