Tag: Women’s T20 World Cup

Thrills, Spills and Net Run Rate Calculations

A look back at the final match in Group A at the Women’s T20 World Cup, a 20 second video of a hedgehog and a large photo gallery.

Today saw the final match in group A at the Women’s T20 World Cup. New Zealand faced Pakistan. New Zealand had an easily described task: win and the would be in the semi-finals. Pakistan faced a much more complex situation – they would need to win and win big – a narrow win for them would see India second on Net Run Rate. This post looks at back at the match.

TO CHASE OR TO SET

New Zealand won the toss and opted to bat first, hoping that the need to score ultra quickly in response would lead to a Pakistan collapse. Pakistan claimed that they would have chosen to bowl anyway. I reckon that the easiest way to achieve a big NRR swing is to bat first, put a big total up, and then dismiss the opponents. New Zealand in this case would have to keep going no matter how ridiculous the target. With New Zealand batting first Pakistan had to restrict them as much as possible – their task would be a tough one almost whatever New Zealand did.

THE NEW ZEALAND INNINGS

Pakistan bowled excellently, but their fielding was not great. There were times when a New Zealand tally of below 100 looked likely, and if Pakistan had caught even reasonably well this would have happened. However by the time the 20th over came round four catches had been grassed. Remarkably another three chances went begging in the course of the 20th over. In the end New Zealand had scored 110-6. If Pakistan had merely had to win to progress things would have looked excellent for them…

THE PAKISTAN REPLY

The calculations revealed that barring levelling the scores and then hitting a boundary Pakistan needed to chase down the target of 111 in 10.4 overs or less. The three basic scenarios, ignoring boundary finishes were:

1: Pakistan chase down the target in 10.4 overs or less: Pakistan go into the semi-finals, India and New Zealand take the next flight home.

2: Pakistan chase down the target in 10.5 or more overs: India progress to the semi-finals and it is home time for New Zealand and Pakistan

3: Pakistan fail to reach the target, presumably because they get bowled out: New Zealand progress and both subcontinental sides are homeward bound.

Pakistan were thus obliged to take an extremely aggressive approach while any sort of hope of the quick win remained. Such an approach means an increased chance of opposition wickets, and that is what eventuated. New Zealand did better catching wise than their opponents had, but even they were not flawless in the field. However, Pakistan were 28-5 after 5.3 overs, as their aggressive approach did not work out. The sixth wicket pair now settled in for a stand that gave India hope, if they could somehow keep it going, but amounted to Pakistan’s acknowledgement that their own challenge had ended. The second last ball of the tenth over saw the partnership broken when Nida Dar was deceived by a beauty from Kerr and Gaze made no mistake with the stumping. That was 52-6. Omaima Sohail gave Carson a return catch in the 11th over to make it 55-7. Syeda Aroob Shah was run out off the first ball of the 12th over, a fine return from Green to Kerr doing the job. Fatima Sana back on strike, and now her sides last remaining hope, was caught by Bates off the next ball to make it 56-9. Sadia Iqbal, the number two ranked WT20I bowler in the world, behind another left arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone, survived one ball, before she too was caught by Bates off Kerr, for a duck in her case. Pakistan were all out for 56, their lowest ever WT20I total (previously 60), though the nature of the challenge facing them provided mitigating circumstances. Bates’ final catch was her 400th in professional cricket. Incidentally if Bates manages to keep going until 2028 she could join a very small club of people who have competed in The Olympics in two different sports – at Beijing in 2008 a young Bates was part New Zealand’s basketball team, and cricket will feature at Los Angeles 2028.

PHOTOGRAPHS

This section was my main reason for wanting to put up another post today – my thanks to the New Zealand and Pakistan Women’s cricket teams for providing the material for the body of the post. I start with a video, taken on the bank of Bawsey Drain, King’s Lynn during my afternoon walk:

Now for the photos…

Two Crunch Matches

Accounts of yesterday’s matches at the Women’s T20 World Cup and a photo gallery.

Yesterday saw two matches in the Women’s T20 World Cup. In the early match England faced Scotland in a match they had win if they were to qualify for the semi-finals. The late match was in the other group and was that group’s biggest match, Australia v India, with the latter knowing that if they did not win they would be relying on Pakistan beating New Zealand today for their own hopes of progression. This post looks back at both matches.

A HAMMERING EDWARD I WOULD BE PROUD OF

Before getting into my account of the match, Edward I, who was King of England from 1272-1307, earned the nicknamed ‘Hammer of the Scots’ for his victories over his northern neighbours.

Although England had won both their matches at the tournament so far going into this match, their third in a row at Sharjah, their position was precarious due to the way the group had panned out. Effectively the matches so far had separated the group into three strong sides (England, South Africa, West Indies) and two weak ones (Bangladesh and Scotland), so even a third successive win would not guarantee England progression – South Africa have played all four of their matches, and their net run rate is such that however the final match in this group, between England and West Indies, pans out the proteas will almost certainly qualify for the semi-final.

England brought Lauren Bell in for Linsey Smith, changing the balance of their attack, and Alice Capsey was ill, meaning that Sophia Dunkley came in to the side in her place. Scotland had made only one change, McColl in for Chatterji.

Scotland won the toss and opted to bat first, a decision that Heather Knight confirmed that she would also have made had she won the toss.

Scotland never really got going, although Kathryn Bryce batted well for them, and 20 year old Ailsa Lister hit a six for them, their only one of the tournament. No England bowler was really expensive, though Sarah Glenn would have been disappointed to concede 24 from three overs. Sophie Ecclestone had 2-13 from her four overs, Lauren Bell 1-16 from her four, and Danielle Gibson bowled her first over of the tournament, taking 1-5. Scotland finished with 109-6, which looked on the low side even before the England innings began.

Maia Bouchier and Danni Wyatt-Hodge were ruthlessness personified in exposing the inadequacy of Scotland’s total and the lack of bite possessed by their bowling attack. Bouchier top scored with 62* (34), a knock that included 12 fours. Wyatt-Hodge scored 51* (26), hitting seven fours and showing once again that veteran though she is she is as quick between the wickets as anyone in the game. The winning hit came off the last ball of the tenth over, and because it was a four and not the single that would have been enough England’s net run rate passed that of West Indies. England are thus top of the group with three wins out of three, but because of the failings of Bangladesh and Scotland, and South Africa’s good net run rate they almost certainly need to make it four wins out of four to qualify – a West Indies win would send them through alongside South Africa. Scorecard here.

WEAKENED SCHMEAKENED

Australia had lost two players to injury, skipper Alyssa Healy and fast bowler Tayla Vlaeminck. The latter had flown home, replaced in the squad by all rounder Heather Graham. Healy remained, either because Australia hoped she would recover in time to play later in the tournament or because the rules on injury replacements decreed that a player who was officially replaced was not allowed in the dressing room, and Healy as official captain was someone whose presence was wanted even if she couldn’t play. Healy’s role as opening batter was taken by Grace Harris, while Mooney took over the keeping duties and Tahlia McGrath became stand-in captain. Vlaeminck was replaced by Darcie Brown. Australia lined up with Annabel Sutherland officially due to come in at number eight. India’s line up was initially as expected, but then Asha Sobhana suffered an injury between the toss and the start of the game, and Australia graciously acceded to India’s request to change their XI at the last minute, bringing Radha Yadav in to the side in Sobhana’s place.

Australia did not start very well – Mooney was out for 2 (7) with the score at 17, and the tactically promoted Wareham was out first ball. However Harris and McGrath added 62 for the third wicket before McGrath fell for 32 off 26 balls. Perry injected some extra pace into the scoring, and by the time she was sixth out, for 32 off 23 balls the score had reached 134 and there were nine balls left in the innings. Sutherland scored 10 off six balls, and Phoebe Litchfield struck the last ball of the innings for six to take her score the 15 off nine balls and Australia’s to 151-8.

India fought hard, with Harmanpreet Kaur making a fine 50. With four overs to go they were in with a chance of pulling off the upset. However Megan Schutt, previously uncharacteristically expensive (she had conceded more in her first three overs in this innings than she had previously done all tournament put together – 23 to 22) bowled a quite superb 17th over, conceding just two runs to reassert Australia’s control. The 18th and 19th overs were both good for India, but not quite good enough. They needed 14 off the final over for the win. Pooja Vastrakar was bowled by the second ball of the final over, and the next two balls both saw run outs, of Arundhati Reddy and Shreyanka Patil respectively. That was 141-8, 11 needed and two balls to come. The penultimate ball of the match trapped number 10, Radha Yadav, LBW, and now all Sutherland needed to do was make sure she bowled a legal delivery. This proved straightforward enough for her, and Renuka Singh Thakur accrued a single to reduce the margin of defeat to nine runs. India as a whole are not a great fielding side, and the other area in which they were noticeably poor was running between the wickets. As well as the run outs (even before the events of the final over Richa Ghosh had suffered an appalling one – having already once been guilty of lazy running and got away with it she made the same mistake a second time and was punished) they were far too often accepting singles when had they run harder they might have induced mistakes which lead to extra runs. They fought hard, but against Australia you cannot win unless you do everything right – getting most things right is not good enough against the women from down under.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Two Small Run Chases, Two Very Different Approaches

A look back at yesterday’s matches in the Women’s T20 World Cup – two small run chases, and two very different approaches from the two chasing sides. Also a photo gallery.

Although a test match got underway today between the Pakistan and England men’s sides in Multan, which I will be writing about in due course my focus for this post is yesterday in the Women’s T20 World Cup.

INDIA v PAKISTAN

Pakistan had won their first match of the tournament, India had lost theirs heavily. India bowled well and had moments in the field, though they were far from unblemished there – two easy catches went to ground. Pakistan messed up their batting order, with the captain coming in too late. In the end Pakistan left themselves with a mere 105 to defend. Surely this was time for India to stamp on the accelerator right from the start in an effort to undo some of the damage their shellacking by New Zealand had done to their net run rate. However they were consumed by caution, and in the end they completed the job with only seven balls to spare, which was not what they needed. Unless India can somehow beat Australia it now looks like the game between New Zealand and Pakistan will be a virtual play-off for a semi-final slot due to India’s poor net run rate.

SCOTLAND v WEST INDIES

Scotland never really got going at all, and in the end they failed even to reach 100, finishing their 20 overs with 99-8. West Indies did what India hadn’t earlier in the day and went hard at the chase. Qiana Joseph atoned for her horror innings in the previous game by scoring 31 off 18 balls, Deandra Dottin, in the second match of the second phase of her international career scored 28 not out off 15 balls, and Chinelle Henry hit 18 not out off 10 balls. West Indies needed only 11.4 overs to complete their task and had six wickets to spare. Joseph and Henry hit a six each along the way, and Dottin had two sixes, the second of which was the winning hit. West Indies with the boost to their net RR currently sit top of their group, though they will be displaced by whoever wins today’s match between England and South Africa.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The Women’s T20 World Cup

A look at the Women’s T20 World Cup, now underway in the United Arab Emirates, and a photo gallery.

The Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 is underway. It was due to be staged in Bangladesh but was then moved at the last minute to the United Arab Emirates, although Bangladesh are still officially tournament hosts. In this post I look at what has happened so far in the matches I have been able to follow.

THE EARLY STAGES OF THE TOURNAMENT

Australia, winners of six of the previous eight editions of this tournament, are as expected looking formidable once more. The extraordinary number of genuine all rounders they have in their squad (including the two recognized wicket keepers, who opened the batting together – Healy getting the gloves, Mooney playing as a pure batter – they had no fewer than six such players in their XI – Ellyse Perry, Ashleigh Gardner, Tahlia McGrath and Annabel Sutherland, all in the top seven of the batting order, and all well capable of bowling their full four overs, are the others) means that rather than struggling to cover all bases they have a positive embarrassment of riches. Effectively they were taking to the field with a team of about 15 – seven front line batters including the keeper, and eight front line bowlers – the four all rounders listed and four players chosen specifically on ground of their bowling skills.

England were fairly impressive in disposing of ‘hosts’ Bangladesh – their 118-7 from their 20 overs is the highest team total thus far recorded at Sharjah, where the pitches have been low and slow, and runs have been at a massive premium, and was enough for them to win by 26 runs. To give you an idea of the nature of the Sharjah surface, England picked four specialist spinners – Linsey Smith, Charlie Dean, Sophie Ecclestone and Sarah Glenn, and Nat Sciver-Brunt’s four overs of medium pace were the only overs by anyone other than those four for them. Further commentary on this is provided by Danni Wyatt-Hodge’s innings – the recently married (hence new, hyphenated surname) opener scored 41, but even she, normally exceptionally quick scoring, was barely striking at 100.

India suffered a humiliation against New Zealand in their opening match, going down by 58 runs. They were sloppy in the field (though far from the only offenders in this regard – a shedload of catches have gone down this tournament), with at least two very easy catches going down and a good 20 runs being conceded through poor ground fielding, and very poor with the bat. They were better today against Pakistan, but again there were lapses in the field, and they were overcautious with the bat, eventually getting home with only seven balls to spare, doing little to reduce the massive negative net run rate the NZ game left them with. This is important because they also have Australia in the group which almost certainly means that the other sides are fighting over one semi-final slot. Sri Lanka have yet to grow out of their dependence on Chamari Athapaththu – once the batting all rounder fell cheaply in their opening fixture they never looked like making a contest of it. South Africa were impressive – left arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba took four cheap wickets for them, and their opening pair of skipper Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits knocked the target off without being parted, each topping 50 in the process.

Dubai has been a better venue for cricket than Sharjah, which I am not convinced is still up to international standard, but even there the 160 that New Zealand posted against India is a massive outlier – 120 would still be respectable there, and 130 would be make the side scoring it favourites to win.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

I am not sure of the correct way to dispose of an unneeded mobility scooter, but dumping it in the river (in this case The Gaywood near Kettlewell Lane) is definitely not it.