Attack Australia Out

I said yesterday that England needed to bowl Australia out for a lead south of 250, and that’s still doable – they’ve taken 4 wickets for 90 runs, including the big ones of Lanning and Perry – they now need to knock the rest over for another 60. This means: attack, attack, attack. And Laura Marsh needs to have a very quiet morning – throwing the ball to her would be the exact opposite of attacking – “detacking”, if you will. [Note to Ed: There must be a better word for this?]

If England can bowl Australia out for 150-or-so, they’ll be looking at a target of 250. The weather forecast is okay, so they’ll have a lot of overs in-hand; and 250 in (say) 60 overs sounds eminently chasable.

All they need to do then is…

Defy History

In the whole timeline of women’s Tests, going back to 1934, no one has ever successfully chased more than 198 in the last innings. So history is against England; but Charlotte Edwards has broken a lot of records in her career – if anyone can break one more today, it is her – but it is going to be A Big Ask™.

Defy The Odds

The bookies have priced England at 13/1 on average, with Australia odds-on as favourites. Can the bookies be proved wrong? Maybe… but I wouldn’t bet on it!!

Defy Themselves

England haven’t scored more than 250 in an innings (all formats) since January 2014; although obviously they’ve won several matches with smaller totals than that. Inauspiciously however, that match in 2014 was the 3rd ODI of the 2013/14 Women’s Ashes in Hobart. England lost by 4 wickets.

Alex Blackwell

The Australian vice-captain took some stick on Twitter for her slow scoring rate, which at 18.5 was well below England’s much criticised rates from yesterday. (England’s lowest was Lauren Winfield’s 25.0.)

But I think Blackwell was playing the game Australia needed her to play – digging in, and giving everyone else the opportunity to express themselves around her; and as long as they were scoring runs at a lively rate (as Jonassen, scorring at 72.5 was) that’s okay.

Laura Marsh v Katherine Brunt

With England needing to force the pace of the game, bowling Laura Marsh for a quarter of the day’s overs was perhaps an “interesting” strategy. She had great economy as you’d expect, but she was never going to take wickets unless they really went after her, and it became quite clear quite quickly that Australia simply weren’t going to do so.

Of course, the question is… who else? Perhaps what England needed to do was rotate a little more between their quicks to keep them all going? It was interesting that Nicole Bolton commented afterwards that Katherine Brunt’s spells were the most hostile bowling she’d ever faced in a competitive match… and yet Brunt only bowled 9 overs. To me, that feels like a missed opportunity.

The Editor’s View

Finally today, I leave with a Random Thought from The CRICKETher Editor:

Seriously… I couldn’t have put it better myself!

Worse Days

England have had worse days – indeed they’ve had worse days in the past year… just! (It was a day short of a year ago (August 13th 2014) when they were bowled out for 92 by India at Wormsley.) But if this wasn’t a new low, it still plumbed awfully close to those depths.

It wasn’t so much the score – 168 certainly isn’t a number which comes with embarrassment automatically attached. It was more the manner of the performance that was just so abject. Lauren Winfield got a very good ball; but that aside, the Australians weren’t especially good; it’s simply that England were, frankly, pretty bad.

Pressure

The key to England’s shocker was their inability to deal with pressure. And the pressure was certainly upon them quite soon after lunch, as Sarah Taylor fell 100 runs short of that elusive maiden Test century to leave the side reeling at 7/2.

That brought Edwards to the crease and she alone among England’s batsmen looked comfortable out there, because she has the experience and the temperament to deal with Test cricket, which all the rest of the top-order seem to lack once they actually get out into the middle.

(And you have to ask again why Edwards wasn’t opening? Especially given that she basically did open today… just with 2 wickets already down!)

After Edwards departed, the only other England player who made any real headway with the bat in terms of strike-rate was a bowler – top-scorer Katherine Brunt. Why? Because by the time she came in England were already stuffed, so there was no pressure – she could play with a freedom apparently beyond everyone else higher up the order, whose collective strike-rates averaged just 23. (Which is fine if you stay in for 50 overs… but somewhat less fine if it’s more like 50 balls.)

Brunt v Jonassen

I think it is safe to say these two won’t be going on a hot date any time soon – there was a definite “daggers-at-dawn” moment from Katherine Brunt yesterday, which Jess Jonassen laughed off at the time; but it was Brunt who had the last laugh first thing this morning, clearly taking much pleasure in depriving “JJ” of her début century; and again in the late afternoon, as she came down the track and dispatched the Aussie spinner over mid on to give England’s supporters at least something to cheer about in what was otherwise as depressing a day as I can remember.

Lightning Once… Lightning Twice

The result against India last summer could be written off by England fans at the time as a freak. But lightning now seems to be striking for a second time – it is almost as if someone up there doesn’t like us; and it isn’t much fun.

Bowl The Australians Out For Under 300

Having had their declaration plans thwarted by Charlotte Edwards pulling back the new ball field last night, Australia will be keen to wrestle back the initiative – push on past 300 in the first hour, then declare. For their part, England must be desperate to stop them – they want to be batting by midday for sure, but on their terms!

Find A Centurion

England can’t afford to concede anything much of a first-innings lead – lets face it, they aren’t going to get Lanning and Perry and Blackwell all out in single-figures again – so they need 300; and 300 is very difficult to get unless someone stands up and scores big runs.

The lesson of Jonassen’s innings yesterday is patience – a word which Sarah Taylor in particular needs tattooed in large, friendly letters on the inside of her brain. The England glove-butler has yet to score even a fifty in 7 Tests, let alone a hundred. Today would be a good day to change that.

Play Day 2 Test Cricket

There was some criticism yesterday on Twitter of the way the game was being played at 2-3 runs per over; but this isn’t a T20 and England would do well to remember that – this is Test cricket, not ice-dancing, and there are no extra points for style. England can’t win the Women’s Ashes today; but they can lose them if they throw their wickets away chasing runs that don’t need to be chased. It is only Day 2 – lets go out and play Day 2 Test cricket!

“Even Stevens”

England quickie Anya Shrubsole’s said afterwards that she felt it was “Even Stevens” at the end of Day 1; and I think she’s basically right – it is nicely poised. England are probably slightly disappointed not to have cleaned-up the tail, while the Australians will be greatly relieved to have reached 268, from a position where a sub-200 total looked a real possibility. There’s everything to play for on Day 2, including personal milestones tantalisingly in-reach for the day’s stars: Shrubsole and Jess Jonassen.

Anya Shrubsole

The cloudy, damp conditions which persisted all day at Canterbury were tailor-made for England’s swing-meister-in-chief, Anya Shrubsole, who took full advantage to take 4/59. Her lines were slightly off earlier on, particularly to the left-handed Bolton, but she came roaring back in her second spell, assisted by some excellent slip-catching from Heather Knight, who bagged two chances which while straightforward were never easy. Like Brunt, Shrubsole looked tired by the end of the day, but she’ll be back tomorrow and fired-up looking for that fifth wicket to get her name on the board.

Jess Jonassen

Although technically a “Test débutante” Jess “JJ” Jonassen has played over 50 internationals for the Southern Stars, so she has plenty of experience which she called upon today in making 95* – her highest international score to date. It wasn’t a faultless innings; and it wasn’t a chanceless innings, but it was exactly what Australia needed to take an under-par total to something which they will feel is very defensible as the pitch starts to work more in favour of the spinners later in the Test.

The Declaration That Wasn’t

Jonassen admitted in the press conference that Australia were looking to declare around half-way through the final session. After the new ball was taken, the message was sent out to “have fun” and look to put enough runs on the board to have a dart at the English openers tonight. However, England wised up to the plan, moved the fielders back, and it wasn’t to be.

It would have been an interesting scenario though – certainly England wouldn’t ideally have wanted to face just a handful of overs tonight; but as it is, we’ll be back tomorrow to see if Jonassen can complete her century and/ or Shrubsole her five-for.