In August 2015 England came to Canterbury for the Women’s Ashes Test – the pitch was lifeless and the press box WiFi wasn’t much better, as England lost by a country mile.

In the 3 years since, little has changed – the pitch offered little to the batsmen or the bowlers and the WiFi offered little to the press, though at least England fans had something to cheer this time as they took the game and the series!

South Africa made a very slow start, after having opted to bat. When Laura Wolvaardt got out early the other day, Lizelle Lee took on her role as the anchor and played really well; but when it was Lee that got out early today, it was too much to expect Wolvaardt to suddenly start slogging sixes over midwicket, especially when midwicket to one side was a good 70 meters! This isn’t to criticise Wolvaardt – she played her role – but when an opener is playing that “going long” role, then it really needs someone at the other end “going big” and neither Andrie Steyn nor Dane van Niekerk, really did this today.

Perhaps South Africa should look at sending Chloe Tryon in earlier in these situations, because she showed what she can do with a couple of huge sixes; but by the time she came in today there was too much to do, and South Africa collapsed from 197-4 to 228 all out, as batsman after batsman got themselves out, with England’s bowlers having to do little more than send the ball down, Sarah Taylor’s excellent glove-butlering besides.

In England’s reply, South Africa’s opening bowlers put the pressure on early, as they always do, and Marizanne Kapp really should get a credit in the scorebook for the wicket of Amy Jones, who was clearly so chuffed to have seen-off Kapp, who was giving her all sorts of problems, that she lost concentration and lazily popped Ayabonga Khaka’s first delivery up to square leg, giving Sune Luus the easiest catch she’ll take all year! It was poor from Jones, who looked good in the first two ODIs without getting a score, but this time looked scratchy and still didn’t get a score.

Then Sarah Taylor got out, and for a while South Africa were up in England’s faces in the field – darting around like daemons – stopping everything that was there to be stopped, and the required run rate climbed over 5 for a period; but South Africa still needed wickets and the pitch was offering them no help – they even turned to Sune Luus, who almost got a wicket with a full toss, which seems to be her stock wicket-taking delivery these days.

But gradually Tammy Beaumont and Heather Knight wore South Africa down and they collapsed mentally – all the energy drifted away from them, and everyone from the skipper down suddenly looked less like a professional cricket player and more like a stroppy teenager who has been asked to do the washing up.

In the end it was all too easy for England – Tammy Beaumont departed, but Heather Knight turned on the afterburners at the end to bring home the ICC Championship points and the Royal London trophy and leave a very good Canterbury crowd of over 2,000 cheering.

Worcestershire have been awarded the win in their “tied” T20 Cup match against Surrey at Edgbaston Foundation Ground on Sunday.

Confusion reigned after the sides finished level on 117 runs after their 20 overs, and it transpired that the officials didn’t know how to proceed to determine a result, whether by a Super Over or wickets down. Attempts to clarify the situation were hampered by lack of clarity in the T20 Cup playing conditions.

In the end it was decided not to play the Super Over, and the teams shook hands on a tie; but the ECB has now determined that the match should be awarded to Worcestershire by virtue of having lost fewer wickets, in accordance with the rules set out in the generic non-professional T20 Playing Conditions. (See the discussions here for why this looks to us like the correct decision.)

The revised Div 1 T20 Cup table now looks like this:

England have added fast bowler Kate Cross to their squad for the final ODI against South Africa at Canterbury on Friday.

Cross hasn’t played for England since the Pakistan series in summer 2016; but she spent this winter in Australia playing for Western Australia, finishing the season the 3rd highest wicket-taker in the WNCL, with 13 wickets at an average of 19 and an Economy Rate of 3.88 – very respectable in a competition where runs tend to flow easily.

England have also “released” (but not “dropped”) Lauren Winfield and Dani Hazell – they will play for England Academy in a match on Thursday, and will therefore take no part on Friday.

England Head Coach Mark Robinson said:

“It’s important for Dani and Lauren that they get the chance to play more cricket so we’re freeing them up to play for the Academy. Kate will come into the group to offer another seam-bowling option.”

Barring injuries, our guess is that England will be hoping to go unchanged on Friday; but there are obviously worries about Katherine Brunt’s back and England will be desperate to ensure she doesn’t sustain a long-term injury leading up to the World T20 in November, so if we do see Cross at Canterbury that will likely be why.

Pre-Match Preview

Post-Match Analysis

In her interview with TMS on Saturday at Worcester, the ECB’s Director of Women’s Cricket Clare Connor addressed concerns about the future of domestic T20 cricket when the Kia Super League ends and is replaced by The 100, pledging to deliver a new “equally worthwhile” T20 tournament in its place.

She also made a personal commitment to working towards full professionalism, acknowledging that this had to be more than the few-thousand pounds players outside the fully contracted England elite currently make from the game.

The long-term intent is the right one – we need an elite T20 competition which involves the England contracted players. To quote England captain Heather Knight:

“Obviously Twenty20 international cricket is huge in the women’s game, so we need to make sure that from 2020 the structure below the new competition is right.”

But unfortunately there is a problem…

The KSL ends in 2019, and Connor doesn’t see full professionalism until at least 2024; but without full professionalism you can’t have a T20 competition which involves the England players!

Why? Well, oddly, it isn’t the England players who are the problem, but the amateurs who (without full professionalism) will make up the majority of the squads in The 100.

You see, the amateurs are… well… amateur – they have other jobs! And whilst it might be feasible to take 6 weeks of unpaid leave to play in The 100, for which (during those 6 weeks at least) they will be well-remunerated, taking another 4 weeks to play in the new T20 as well just isn’t going to fly with most employers.

This means the new T20 is initially going to have to be played at weekends… and not during The 100 in July/ August, obviously… and not during the international window in June/ July, or the England players would not get any domestic T20… and not during the County Championship window, which is currently May/ early June.

So when are they going to play it?

January?

It’s almost like no one thought about the implications of this before they irrevocably committed themselves to the policy! (Remind you of anything?)

Of course, there is an easy way to solve this problem: make The 100 a T20 tournament for the women. You can still have the same teams; you can still call it “The 100” – just make 120 balls rather than 100 – then you don’t have to play an additional T20 tourny!

But something tells me that would be far too much like having your cake and eating it… and no one wants that!

In the first round of the T20 Cup, the big excitement of the day took place off the field at Edgbaston Foundation Ground where Worcestershire, chasing 117 against Surrey made… 117. The question then was: what now? Super Over? Wickets down? Nobody there was sure, and a long discussion ensued, which included people texting us at Mill Hill, over 100 miles away!

We pored over the rules on our phones, alongside Martin from Women’s Cricket Blog, eventually concluding that we didn’t know either, because the playing conditions (which are in two separate documents – one general one for non-professional T20 in England, and one specifically for this competition) appear to have changed independently and now contradict each other.

The generic conditions suggest wickets down, whilst the T20 Cup conditions (which supersede the generic conditions) imply a Super Over, without actually explicitly saying so, because they refer to another section which… doesn’t appear to exist!

Only in women’s county cricket!!

In the end they decided not to play the Super Over and call it a tie, so that is how it has gone down for the moment, but this may change – we will keep you posted if it does!

(And yes – 4 points for a win, but only 1 for a tie.)

(And no… we’ve got no idea either!!)

On the actual field of play in Birmingham, Warwickshire beat Worcestershire and Surrey to go top on Net Run Rate. (Although in the final standings the result between the teams supersedes NRR.)

Middlesex avenged their County Championship relegation, beating Sussex and Yorkshire at Mill Hill with Sophia Dunkley continuing to press her case for a possible England call-up ahead of the T20 Tri-Series later this summer.

Finally Lancashire also took 2-from-2 with wins against Kent and Notts.

By Raf Nicholson and Syd Egan

On a sunny day at Mill Hill School, Middlesex fought back from their relegation to Division 2 of the Women’s County Championship last weekend by proving their mettle as a T20 side, with convincing wins against both Sussex and Yorkshire.

The day’s real star was Sophia Dunkley who – with today’s scores of 34* and 57* topping off an incredible run of form this season – looks to be challenging for a spot in the England squad.

Middlesex v Sussex

Sussex started steadily, seeing off the initial overs by Hayley Brennan and Katie Wolfe, and reaching 29 in the first 5 overs; but their attempt to force the pace with quick singles ultimately backfired as Middlesex enacted 2 successive run-outs, including that of captain Georgia Adams (19).

The middle order then fell apart, leaving Sussex 50-5, but the away side were saved from embarrassment by no.7 Freya Davies, who with an unbeaten 27 finished as top-scorer. Aided by some wayward Middlesex bowling – including 17 wides – Sussex managed to reach 107-8.

In reply Middlesex were slow to get going and Sussex kept themselves in the game by removing openers Naomi Dattani (5) with a stonking catch by Paige Scholfield at midwicket, and Tash Miles stumped (21) thanks to a neat piece of glove work from Abi Freeborn.

But that brought Fran Wilson to the crease and she hit a quickfire 42 from 33 balls before Sophia Dunkley (34*) finished the job in the 18th over with three successive boundaries, including a six hit back over the top of Davies’ head.

Sussex v Yorkshire

Sussex fought back in the second game of the day, winning by 5 wickets thanks to a 79-run partnership between Abi Freeborn and Izzy Collis.

Opening bowlers Freya Davies and Linsey Smith put the pressure on early for Sussex, but the Yorkshire openers Jess Watson and Adrianna Darlow didn’t do anything silly and plundered 13 runs, including 3 boundaries, off the 5th over bowled by Paige Scholfield to take them to 24-0.

Watson was out well caught by Georgia Adams running back at mid on off Tara Norris for 17, and Darlow followed soon afterwards for 9, caught at point after getting a thick edge trying to pull Scholfield through midwicket.

After 10 overs Maddie Walsh and Rebecca Newark had taken Yorkshire to 54-2 and they continued to run hard between the wickets to take it to 80-2 after 15.

Walsh was eventually caught on the midwicket boundary by Scholfield for 38 off 34 balls, while Newark was stumped off Davies for 13, as Yorkshire progressed to 103-6 off the 20.

Sussex made a calamitous start to their innings, with left-armer Katie Thompson bowling Georgia Adams for a 2nd ball duck and Paige Scholfield LWB to Abi Glen for 1, leaving them 2-2 after 2!

Collis smashed Georgia Draper’s first ball for 6 over midwicket as things started to get moving for Sussex – Collis and Freeborn taking them to 56-2 after 10 overs.

Thompson returned to the attack in the 14th over to bowl Freeborn for 37 off 34 balls, leaving Sussex needing 23 off 36 balls, which Collis and Chiara Green began to proceed towards, before Collis was caught for 45 playing one leg-side heave-ho too many. Linsey Smith was then dismissed for a golden duck by Glen, who bowled out a wicket maiden to the incoming batsman Freya Davies, giving Yorkshire a glimmer of hope.

With 2 needed off the last over, Glen bowled a wide first ball and Green then stole a single to short extra cover off the second ball for the win with 4 balls to spare.

Middlesex v Yorkshire

In the final game of the day Middlesex made it 2 from 2 in a convincing 6-wicket win against Yorkshire.

Having lost the toss and been put in to bat, Yorkshire raced away to have 41 on the board at the end of the powerplay, helped by some poor fielding by Middlesex who put down a couple of chances in the infield.

Adrianna Darlow was one of those put down and went on to take full advantage, finishing as Yorkshire’s top-scorer with 26 (33 balls)

But the introduction of Bhavika Gajipra to the attack in the 11th over shifted the momentum back in Middlesex’s favour as she had Darlow caught at long on and then also accounted for Anna Nicholls and Hannah Buck, finishing with figures of 3-15.

Ultimately a couple of run outs ensured that Yorkshire only just scraped 100 from their 20 overs.

Naomi Dattani didn’t want to hang around, hitting Katie Thompson’s second ball for six over midwicket. Middlesex did have a couple of wobbles with both Fran Wilson and Beth Morgan dismissed without scoring but Sophia Dunkley was once again imperious, finishing things off in the 16th over with a straight drive to the boundary.

Afterwards Dunkley told CRICKETher that Middlesex were delighted with their start to the T20 Cup: “Especially after [relegation] last week, it was about coming out with a fresh mind and going and having fun.”

“I’ve been working hard on my T20 at the moment and it was nice to go out and bat with some freedom.”

In an interview on BBC TMS yesterday Clare Connor has stated that the ECB are currently reviewing the women’s domestic structure and that her personal ambition is for a fully professional set-up by 2024.

“I think it’s achievable – we’ll see,” she said.

“We’ve outgrown the current domestic structure underneath the KSL. We’ve been looking for the last 6 or 8 months at what it should look like… We’ve got an internal performance group that is looking at these issues”.

She said that it was important to sustain the success achieved by England in last year’s World Cup, and that a renewed county structure would help to do that.

“Paying players allows them to focus on their training, it allows them to make cricket their priority. And that isn’t paying them 6 or 8 thousand pounds, it’s got to be enough so that they can be a fully fledged cricketer for the majority of the year.”

Asked what the new domestic structure would look like, she said: “We’re not sure what the right number of players looks like yet.”

On The Hundred, she said that the decision to make the women’s game part of the new format was “based on the scale that it can give to the women’s game. It enables us to send a very powerful message that we are putting men and women on the same playing field, in the same teams.”

She praised the KSL and those involved in it, saying that they had “done a phenomenal job in creating a brand new competition from scratch”, but said: “We mustn’t be scared of change. I’ve loved going to all of the [KSL] grounds and seeing people wearing new kit and getting behind their teams in new ways. I would urge those people to trust us.”

She pledged to deliver a new women’s domestic T20 competition that is “equally worthwhile [to the KSL]”.

Lizelle Lee finishing it with a six just about summed things up, didn’t it?

Despite the fact that in the innings break we thought that England still had a fair crack at winning this match, the ease with which South Africa strolled to victory today showed that England really lost this game with the bat, not the ball.

Was this a difficult pitch to bat on? I’m not convinced. England’s batsmen were – with the exception of Tammy Beaumont – either beaten for pace or out playing a silly shot. “It looks like a good pitch,” Heather Knight said at the toss, as she chose to bat. She wasn’t wrong.

South Africa are a bowling side – cf their World Cup match v West Indies last year – so it would be unfair to say England “should” have won today: they lost to a good side and the stat about it being the Saffers first win against England in a home ODI for 15 years is a bit illusory.

But what this result does do is leave Mark Robinson facing some tricky selectorial decisions for the rest of the games.

The key one relates to filling the two opening slots. Today he chose to go with Beaumont and Amy Jones up top, who made 19 and 6 respectively. One could argue that neither did a lot wrong: Jones played positively, looking to attack Shabnim Ismail early on, while Beaumont was done by one of the only balls (from Ayabonga Khaka) that moved significantly all day.

Unfortunately the current squad contains four openers, not two: and therein lies Robinson’s dilemma. Lauren Winfield has been brought back after missing the India tour. She was left behind with instructions from Robinson to work on her game; she has, and after scores of 28, 55, 69 and 45* for Yorkshire in the Women’s County Championship has played her way back into contention. But for someone who has done nothing except open for England in ODIs for the past 3 years, does it make sense for her to come in further down the order?

As for Danni Wyatt, her recent success for England – including both her international centuries – has all come at the top of the order. Arguably what England really needed today up top was a Lizelle Lee: someone who would hit it hard and play positively. Of the 4 candidates it is Wyatt who most fits that bill. What she isn’t, is the kind of player who will feel comfortable coming in at 6 to play a steadying role – it just isn’t her natural game.

So how does Robinson make room in his side for 4 openers?

One other dilemma for Robinson relates to the third ODI of this series v South Africa. The decision to only announce a squad for the first two matches, with room to adjust prior to the third game, may well have been made with the intention of resting key players, in what is going to be an extremely busy summer.

A prime candidate for “resting” is Katherine Brunt, who admitted in the BBC Stumped podcast this week that she found last year’s packed schedule incredibly tough on her prone-to-injury back. As she spoke to the media after close of play today she was clearly pretty stiff.

But if Brunt is going to prop up the team with both bat and ball, as she did today, it’s going to be very difficult to leave her out – especially as these are all Championship ODIs that count towards World Cup qualification.

For England, today’s game poses more questions than it answers – questions that no doubt will rumble on across the summer.

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!