Month: July 2016

INTERVIEW: Heather Knight Reflects Upon Her First Series As Captain

Posted by

2

“I’ve really enjoyed the captaincy,” says Heather Knight, reflecting at the end of her first series at the helm. “The girls have been outstanding and made it very easy for me, and when they’re playing like that it’s a very easy job.”

None have performed better in this series than Tammy Beaumont and Lauren Winfield – a partnership which looks set to run and run:

“Those two have deservedly cemented their spot at the top of the order for a good few tours… Their partnerships have got even better as they’ve gone along and for me that’s been a real plus-point of this tour – how ruthless they’ve been. They never got bored of scoring runs.”

But lower down the order flexibility is the key, with England trying to ensure that the right people face the right overs:

“Nat Sciver is the one person in our squad that can score fifty off 20 balls, so she is the one that we want to send in when we’ve got that platform and that opportunity.”

Hence in the 2nd and 3rd ODIs, and the 1st T20, when England already had big totals in the bank, Sciver was promoted up the order, ahead of Knight; whereas in the 1st ODI, and the 2nd and 3rd T20s, with fewer runs on the board, it was Knight who came in before Sciver.

It is a similarly innovative approach to the tactic of opening the bowling with Nat Sciver, so that Dani Hazell can bowl the last overs of the PowerPlay, as Knight explained after the 2nd T20:

“In T20 you’re sometimes trying to get one step ahead of your opponents, and do something slightly different. We feel Dani Hazell is probably our best PowerPlay bowler [but] the worst overs as a bowler – the ones most likely to go for runs – are the ones at the back end of the PowerPlay [so] we decided to open with Nat.”

Knight is obviously delighted with the series result, but though she is confident, she is not complacent about the future:

“The cricket we’ve played has been really entertaining to watch and everyone’s feeding off the success of each other. But I know we’ll have bigger challenges to come – we’ve got a big winter ahead – and the base from this is going to let us kick on.”

Asked what the hardest part of being captain has been, Knight enjoys a joke at our expense, answering:

“Being dragged to do the media and not being able to enjoy the celebrations straight away!!”

But then she continues, with more of a note of contemplation in her voice:

“There are a little bit more demands of your time, which has taken a bit of getting used to. For me it is about not thinking about cricket constantly – I found myself thinking about cricket probably a bit too much in the last few weeks, so that’s something I can probably learn a little bit better – to have that time to switch off. That will help me have more clarity when I am thinking about cricket.”

Overall though, clearly this has been a series which Knight and her team deserve to remember for all the right reasons. Referencing the media controversy over Charlotte Edwards’s retirement, Knight concludes:

“Going into the summer there was a lot of ‘noise’ going on, but I couldn’t be more proud of how the girls responded – the character they’ve shown. It’s been a really nice place to be.”

In Their Own Words: England v Pakistan – 3rd T20

Posted by

1

Lauren Winfield:

There were a few criticisms of the team after the World T20 – do you think you’ve answered those?

It was an important series for us, to not only win 6-0 but the way in which we’ve gone about those runs. It’s about being ruthless and playing the brand of cricket that we want to play, which is to win by big margins. So it’s not necessarily just about the wins, it’s how we’ve played that’s been most pleasing.

Is ruthlessness a personality trait?

I’m a very ambitious and driven person so it was really tough for me not going to the [T20] World Cup. But it was an opportunity to go away from the game and say: ‘Right – where am I going here? What kind of role do I want to play for England and how on earth am I going to get there?’

I was obviously aware that changes were occurring within the team and opportunities were opening up, so I worked exceptionally hard within that period and now it’s really nice to be contributing a little bit more to England wins. It’s something that I’ve not done previously as consistently as I’d like, but hopefully long may it continue.

Are you and Tammy Beaumont sick of the sight of each other?

Me and Tammy have played a lot of cricket together – we opened together at university, and we actually used to compete against each other for opening spots. But we’re growing as a partnership and learning more about each other, both on and off the field.

I think something we’ve done really well “as a group” this summer is having lots of cricket conversations away from the game – learning about how people operate under pressure and what various members of the team need from each other and at what times. It’s been a real good learning curve for us – we’ve got a better understanding of each other as a group and hopefully that’s been shown in our cricket as well.

How do you and Tammy complement each other?

We hit different areas – if you look at the game today, our wagon wheels are quite opposite, so that’s always nice as an opening partnership and it is difficult for oppositions to be setting fields and getting bowlers to try and execute plans, if you are hitting opposite areas

Also I think we both love batting – we want to be out in the middle and we want to be the ones putting our hand up. Going out there as openers, you’ve got the longest time to bat – you know when you are going to bat, and it is just about taking those opportunities.

You certainly enjoyed the PowerPlay?

That’s how I like to play my cricket – I like to be aggressive and I never want to be in a position where I feel like I’m under pressure from the bowler – I always want to try and counter that onto the bowlers. My job within this team in T20 cricket is to lay the foundation and get the team off to a good start, so that’s what I’m looking to do every time I bat.

Random Thoughts: England v Pakistan 3rd T20

Posted by

5

Thoughts from Syd Egan & Raf Nicholson (And don’t forget to add yours below!)

England

By this stage in the series, Tammy Beaumont and Lauren Winfield were essentially playing back-garden cricket, and loving every minute of it; yet again they set up a fantastic platform for England, between them having scored over 700 runs this summer. However, once more a better fielding side would have punished them: both survived run out chances, and Winfield was actually dropped twice, the first time on 22*. Overall, though, it’s hard to criticise a top order that was under a lot of pressure coming into the ODI series but doesn’t seem to have been phased by that.

Pakistan

Pakistan at last seemed to get their fielding together in this game, with a direct hit run out and a brilliant diving catch at deep backward square leg to dismiss Nat Sciver and Heather Knight in successive balls. It was just a shame that they left it until the penultimate over of the tour…arguably a little bit late in the day!

With the bat, it’s interesting to look at the breakdown in how the runs were scored. Across the second and third T20 matches, Pakistan hit exactly the same number of fours as England did (13 at Southampton; 15 at Chelmsford – though England admittedly did hit four sixes today). The main difference was in the number of dot balls faced: today, for example, Pakistan’s innings contained twice as many dot balls as England’s (62 to 31). It was Pakistan’s failure to snatch the quick singles, then, that let them down in this series.

Alex Hartley

We were thrilled to see Alex Hartley receive her T20 cap before start of play today, and it was good captaincy on Heather Knight’s behalf to bring her back on for a second go after her first over went for 11 runs. In fact it mirrored what had happened at Taunton on Hartley’s ODI debut: she came on, lost her line bowling at the left-hander, but on both occasions was given a second chance. This time round she changed ends, and got a bit of luck – firstly bad (Danni Wyatt dropping an absolute sitter of a catch which she would have taken 999 times out of 100); and then good (Fran Wilson taking a catch the next ball to give Hartley her first international wicket).

On the other hand, her second wicket was nothing to do with luck: she saw Bismah Maroof coming down the pitch and fired in a much quicker delivery which clean bowled her. It was a really smart bit of work to dismiss one of Pakistan’s best batsmen, and just shows why Hartley’s selection was long overdue.

Tash Farrant

It was also good to see Tash Farrant finally getting the opportunity that we felt she so deserved, having had very few chances to don an England shirt over the last few years despite being one of the original contracted 18. She only took the one wicket, but it was a beauty: the perfect slower ball out of the back of the hand, straight out of the textbook, with Nahida Khan getting onto it far too quickly and sending the catch back into Farrant’s own hands. As current top wicket-taker in the County Championship, Farrant joins the long list of players this summer who have seized the chance to show they can replicate their domestic form at international level.

Jenny Gunn

Not only is Jenny Gunn far and away England’s most economical bowler and their leading wicket-taker in ODIs, she now – after today’s caught-and-bowled effort to dismiss Nida Dar – holds another record: the most catches by any player in T20Is. Following on from her brilliant performance in Tuesday’s game at Southampton, it’s pretty apparent that while she might no longer be an automatic selection on Robbo’s team sheet, she still has something important to offer England.

Women’s Cricket Coming To XBox and PlayStation

Posted by

2

XBox and PlayStation game developer Big Ant Studios have announced that some of the top women cricketers will be featured in the new version of Don Bradman Cricket, which is set to be released on consoles in time for Christmas.

Big Ant, who are based in Australia, have gone all-out to do things properly – working with some of the Southern Stars to get the unique motion capture right for the female players.

The previous version of the game – Don Bradman Cricket 14 – was aimed more at hardcore fans than casual gamers, but nevertheless received mainly favourable reviews, with the Daily Express, for example, commenting: “Don Bradman Cricket IS the real deal… it’s almost as if you’re playing the real thing.”

Last year, women players were added to EA’s “FIFA” football game for the first time, with all the top international teams being featured, including England and Australia.

In Their Own Words: England v Pakistan, 2nd T20

Posted by

2

Fran Wilson:

Were you nervous going out there today?

Yes, I was nervous. Obviously it’s been 5 years since I last played. I think I’ve grown up a lot in that time, but I was definitely very nervous. But I’ve worked hard on my game and I knew exactly what I wanted to do, just hitting the sweepers hard, running hard. If you simplify it, it takes away the nerves really.

Did it feel like you were on debut again?

Pretty much. We were joking, we were saying that if it’s been a 5 year absence everything should be wiped and you should just start again! So I might propose that!

Was the pitch quite hard to score runs on?

Yes, it was pretty tough, especially [Bismah] Maroof bowling really slow. But I guess that’s a lesson learnt for the next game.

Heather Knight:

What was the pitch like?

I think it was probably a slightly worse pitch than we thought. We thought it was going to be an absolute belter when we started…I think Pakistan put their best fielding performance in, and when they took the pace off [the ball] it was quite hard to score. Probably we didn’t get quite enough boundaries in the powerplay, but the main thing is we got a score on the board and the bowlers were outstanding.

With the short boundaries today, did you think there were going to be more chances today to score boundaries?

No, they’re the same boundaries that we’ve played on for the last few games. They’re the boundaries we’ve been used to, and I think it’s something that’s worked quite well…Fran was brilliant today. Like she said, she knows her game much better now and has really progressed in those 5 years, and hopefully there won’t be another 5 year absence now!

Jenny Gunn bowled particularly well today?

The batters have taken all the plaudits this series, but I think the bowlers had their day in the sun today. They were brilliant: Jenny Gunn at 30 and Sophie Ecclestone at 17 doing the business at each end is really nice to see. Jen was outstanding. She knows her plans very well and executed them brilliantly today.

You chose to open the bowling with Nat Sciver today. Is that something we’re likely to see again?

In T20 you’re sometimes trying to get one step ahead of your opponents, and do something slightly different. We feel Dani Hazell is probably our best powerplay bowler, and I think she showed that today. The worst overs as a bowler, the ones most likely to go for runs, are the ones at the back end of the powerplay…We decided to [open] with Nat today, we thought we might get a little bit of swing and bounce as well. It might be something we see again, it might not!

Random Thoughts: England v Pakistan 2nd T20

Posted by

13

England’s Batting

Tammy Beaumont was no doubt disappointed to get out in the way that she did today, with replays suggesting that the lbw decision against her was a poor one; but it was probably actually a blessing in disguise for England – she’s hit a ton of runs this series already and it was good for some of the other batsmen to get some time at the crease, without any artificial adjustments to the batting order.

Fran Wilson

Having not played in an England shirt for five years, the pressure was massively on for Fran Wilson coming in when she did – she could easily have buckled under it. Credit to her, then, that she kept her head and, having taken a bit of time to get going, really anchored England’s innings with her 43*. With tough competition at the moment, I think she’s earned her spot for the next match and beyond.

Pakistan’s Fielding

Pakistan generally looked a much tighter fielding unit today (the throwing-the-ball-over-my-head boundary aside). Debutant Aiman Anwer seemed to point the way with her brilliant catch at long off to dismiss Lauren Winfield, off a shot that on any other match of this tour would have been six for sure. Consequently England found it a lot tougher to score boundaries – only 13 fours and 1 six today, despite the short distance to the rope – and at one point it did actually seem like Pakistan might have a shot at reaching the required total.

Pakistan’s Batting

It was wonderful to see the way Pakistan came out and attacked right from the get-go today. I’d much rather see them bowled out having died trying; and that was certainly the approach this afternoon. It was also a positive move to see Asmavia Iqbal – who has looked their best batsman on this tour – promoted up the order to 5. Of course they still need to avoid playing recklessly across the line to straight balls, but still, there was actually a frisson of competitiveness out there today. It just goes to show how important matches against top opposition are for sides like Pakistan, to ensure they keep improving. More please!

Danni Wyatt

If there’s anyone cursed with bad luck, it’s surely Danni Wyatt. She’s barely had the chance to face a ball this summer; and in the last game she was run out at the non-striker’s end on 0, having been sent back by Heather Knight. Today she was out caught and bowled to a ball of Bismah Maroof’s that was hit so firm and fully that it really deserved to be 4; only a stonking catch saved it from being so. Having said that, one element of her game that isn’t anything to do with luck – her fielding – was yet again excellent. I wouldn’t ever want to be the one running to the end that Wyatt is throwing at.

EXCLUSIVE: Kia Super League On TMS But No Sky Coverage

Posted by

4

The ECB have today confirmed to CRICKETher that there will be no live Sky Sports TV broadcast of any KSL matches this summer, including Finals Day on 21st August.

However 7 of the matches, plus Finals Day, will be broadcast live ball-by-ball on BBC Test Match Special.

In addition, the ECB’s digital channels will be producing a vast array of content throughout the competition, and OPTA will be live scoring every game.

It had previously been hoped that – following on from their coverage of England Women’s matches against Pakistan this summer – the inaugural KSL Finals Day would be covered by Sky. However, due to the men’s NatWest T20 Blast Finals Day being on 20th August (with the reserve day on 21st August), it is now felt that it would not be logistically possible for Sky to cover both events.

While Sky will not be offering live coverage of the tournament, they will be pulling together an exclusive “behind the scenes” piece working with three of the six KSL teams to document the first year of the competition.

In Their Own Words: England v Pakistan, 1st T20 (Bristol)

Posted by

2

Tammy Beaumont:

Did you feel confident from the outset today?

“Yes, definitely. Knowing that you’ve done quite well in the ODIs, you’ve got a bit more freedom to take a few more risks in the T20s. If I didn’t get away today I’m sure Lauren [Winfield] would have at the other end – we’re working really well together at the moment. It’s nice for it to come off.”

What have you worked on in your game over the past 5 or 6 months?

“Certainly since Robbo has come in, he’s wanted me to go out there and try and strike the ball hard. It’s something I do quite naturally: with my backlift being a little bit different, it helps generate a lot more power into the ball, and that’s something that I’ve been aiming to do. If one day I go out there and get caught on the ring that’s not the end of the world, as long as I’m trying to hit the ball hard – that’s the main aim, keeping it that simple.

“The other thing is just letting it come to me a little bit longer, and keeping my hands through the ball as long as I can really.”

How much is it about having fun?

“I think that’s where we’re at as a team. Whatever we do, we work hard or train hard, but we do it with a smile on our face. A lot of us play our best cricket when we’re enjoying it, and that’s certainly something that we’re trying to keep replicating each game, and the more and more we’re playing at the moment the more we’re enjoying each others success.”

Does it feel like a different side compared to the one that was knocked out of the WWT20 in the semi-final?

“Yes, potentially. There’s just a lot more freedom to do what we’ve been working on so hard. We’ve all been working on things in the nets [and] there’s just that freedom to go out there and do it, and know that if you fail then it’s not going to be the end of the world. Yes, there’s always more pressure in an international tournament, but we’d probably take that freedom now.”

Sophie Ecclestone:

A week ago when we saw you playing at Wokingham, did you ever expect that this would happen?

“I would never have expected where I would be now. Getting to take my first international wicket is something I would never have dreamed of, especially at the age of 17. I’m not even an adult yet!”

Were you happy with the way you bowled today?

“Yes, I am very happy with the way I went today. I thought I’d be more nervous, but as soon as I walked past the rope I was fine…it’s just an unbelievable feeling.”

Did Mark Robinson talk to you a lot beforehand about the bowling plans?

“He kind of just let me get on with it, because he knows it’s my debut and he knows that Trev [Heather Knight] and me have got it sorted! He left us to it!”

Random Thoughts: England v Pakistan 1st T20

Posted by

2

England’s Batting

It was another impressive performance from Tammy Beaumont, though both her and Lauren Winfield rode some luck early on. I guess that the only disappointment was that the world record highest women’s international T20 score (205) looked to be within reach, but England fell just a few short with 187, as some tight death bowling kept Sciver and Knight in check at the end.

England’s Bowling

It feels churlish to criticise such a crushing victory, but England were not great with the ball, and a better side would have punished them. England seem to have been working on their slower balls in particular… and they need to keep on working on them, because they were somewhat undercooked. In the field too, England were a bit lax towards the end, albeit after the game was already de facto won.

Sophie Ecclestone

Last Sunday, we saw Ecclestone playing at Wokingham Cricket Club for Lancashire in the T20 Cup. A week later, she was taking her first international wicket for England. And it was a tidy debut – 12 dots in 24 balls, and the wicket was actually probably the worst ball she bowled, ironically.

Tash Farrant

We were surprised not to see Farrant. England obviously went for the experience of Jenny Gunn over her, but it felt like a very conservative decision, and the doctrine of youth obviously only goes so far.

Pakistan

Though they were thrashed again, Pakistan did look a different side today – brighter in the field, better with the ball, especially at the death, and more positive with the bat. Not getting bowled out was a small victory in what is turning into a tough, tough tour for them.

OPINION: Robinson’s Choice

Posted by

England coach Mark Robinson has had some interesting decisions to make in the lead-up to the T20 series against Pakistan, which begins at the County Ground in Bristol this afternoon.

The success of Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Winfield and Nat Sciver in the ODI series – who between them scored 3/4 of England’s runs* – meant that a few others hardly got a look-in. Danni Wyatt had two innings in the series, both at the death-end, scoring 12* (off just 6 balls) at Worcester and 1 (off 3) at Taunton; whilst Amy Jones’ might as well have left her bat at home – she didn’t get a single innings. Meanwhile, Fran Wilson’s contribution has been restricted to carrying drinks.

So in the name of “building for the future” it would obviously be nice for all three to get some proper time out in the middle, in what is probably England’s easiest “least challenging” (because none of them are “easy”) series of the international cycle.

But how do you do that? Do you push Winfield down the order? Now that she at last seems to have found a role? Do you drop Elwiss for Wilson? When she just scored 77 off 78 balls at Taunton?

These aren’t simple questions to answer; even before you get to the bowling!

The injury to Shrubsole has actually made things a bit easier for Robinson. Assuming he wants to play two seamers, Farrant comes in, which gets her some overs she deserves – she is a good “containing” T20 bowler, who bowls with her brain as well as her handy left arm.

But what about the spin options? After a torrid WBBL, Laura Marsh wasn’t selected for the WWT20, but her career was thrown a lifeline when she was flown to India after all, as a replacement for the injured Dani Hazell; and she seized the opportunity, and  has performed (in the words of Heather Knight) “brilliantly” in the ODIs. So do England now drop her for Hazell?

And then there is Alex Hartley. She took some stick on commentary for her performance in the 3rd ODI – she lost her line bowling to the left-hander in her first spell, and [technical jargon warning…] it all went a bit squiffy for a couple of overs; but she was taken off and came back tighter and looking more like herself. Besides, Robinson’s “big thing” is that we don’t drop people after one bad performance; so do we now do just that and send Hartley back to the bench?

The phrase “Hobson’s choice” was coined for the situation where there is only one option. But what about the time when where there are too many options? Perhaps it should be termed “Robinson’s choice”?

——————–

* Runs off the bat.