England huffed and puffed against South Africa at Worcester today, but a fine innings from Lizelle Lee was ultimately the difference between the two teams – South Africa winning by 7 wickets with 4 overs to spare.
Perhaps the turning point was Katherine Brunt’s disallowed catch, which would have sent Lee back to the pavilion on 68, leaving two new batters at the crease. Brunt certainly thought she’d caught it, telling the media after the game:
“I honestly believe I caught it, but obviously that’s not my decision – when it goes upstairs its their decision and I guess that’s the decision they made and that’s the one I’ve got to stick with.”
But in truth the match was arguably already long lost by that stage, with South Africa having done the hard work in the morning to reduce England to 64-6, with all their “proper” batsmen back in the pavilion.
Brunt’s innings of 72*, and in particular her partnership of 51 with Laura Marsh, did give them something to bowl at; and although Brunt’s innings wasn’t pretty, it was effective. It also came off the back of a half-century against Hampshire in the County Championship:
“That set me up for this game today,” she said. “I had to bat for a long time and the ball was seaming around, so it something that I’ve been doing. I’ve been waiting my whole career to be taken seriously in terms of batting and being a genuine all-rounder, and the more I can go out there and show that I can bat, I’m happy.”
And she believed England had done enough:
“I fancy our squad as a really good bowling side and I thought we could dig ourselves out from anything above 140. Once we got past 140 it was time to get as many as we possibly could and I truly believe coming out that we had enough to defend, because I back our bowlers.”
But that reckoned without Lizelle Lee, who played a quite untypical innings:
“It was a bit unlike her,” said Brunt. “She normally plays a lot more aggressively than that, so she didn’t give us as many opportunities this time. I thought she played quite sensibly and she took her opportunities when they came, but that’s what you can do when you are not chasing as many.”
As for Lee herself, she was typically modest, saying this was “up there” but not her best innings.
Did she think she was out to the Brunt “catch”?
“Honestly I did, but the guys called me from the top and said listen – wait – I think she could have dropped it, so I waited.”
“Then Dane [van Niekerk] started screaming at me: use this chance!”
And use it she did, finishing the match with a thumping 6 to consign England to defeat in their first home match since the World Cup final.
Interestingly, Lee thinks that South Africa are a better side than when England knocked them out in the semi finals on the way to their win at Lords:
“We’ve improved immensely! The World Cup was a great event for us – we batted well, we bowled well, and we didn’t do anything that bad in the semi-final – I think England were just a little bit better.”
“But now there’s 4 years to go until the next World Cup, so we have to go hard and use series like this teach you the confidence you need.”
And if one match can ever be a statement, this was it – South Africa are a serious side, with serious ambitions, and when it comes to the next World Cup they will be up there!
CRICKETher 
Watching this match I had some major flashbacks to the men’s Lord’s Test last month – it was the First match of the summer, England winning the toss, arguably making the wrong decision in batting first then the batsmen proceeding to not turn up, and virtually throwing it all away in the first hour or two. They played all sorts of inappropriate shots, whilst the opposition bowlers maintained a decent line and length.
England finished on a score that was at least 30-40 runs short of a basic par. When the opposition batted they showed the admirable composure and resolve that England lacked and batted very sensibly, opting to play themselves in before hitting out.
England did well to recover their innings to something that might have been defendable… if they bowled well. But aside from Brunt and Shrubsole, and Ecclestone keeping it tight(ish), the other bowlers couldn’t quite put enough pressure on. That shows the difference between defending a sub-200 score and 230. It was massively disappointing from England.
I also think England need to get a quicker grip of the conditions in home games. Quite a few times now we’ve heard from the dressing room, be it Knight or Robinson, that they thought it was going to be a great batting track and it’s turned out to be slow or two-paced. This doesn’t fly anymore. England should be more circumspect in their assessment of pitches, and not be afraid of chasing i.e. waiting to see how the opposition plays first. They’ve shown that they can chase well in T20 and should be looking to add that to their ODI game as well. Edwards used to do this sometimes as I recall.
I’m not so convinced that SA have improved that much in the last year. They might have pulverised Bangladesh but it wasn’t long ago that India did the same to them, and by all accounts there’s not much of a gap in quality between India and England.
England simply must improve in the next 2 matches and they can’t keep relying on their fighting spirit alone to see them through. It’s been a while since the ODI side put on a great batting innings, and they need to give themselves a chance when batting first. Sorry if this sounds harsh but today was embarrassing at times.
LikeLike
England seem to be developing a bit of a ‘1st match syndrome’ in ODIs, having now lost the opening match of the 2017 World Cup, The Ashes, The ODI series in India and now this series.
LikeLike
Indeed, it’s not a great habit and it’s tough to keep playing catch-up in these series. Acclimatisation of the players to the conditions seems to be an issue both in individual matches and series as a whole!
LikeLike
At least we lost to South Africa – not Scotland or Bangladesh.
LikeLike