Alice Capsey loves Lord’s. And Lord’s loves Alice Capsey. Back at the ground where she announced herself on the big stage with a half-century in the first edition of The Hundred, she smashed 46 off 23 balls – a Strike Rate of exactly 200 – to keep England’s Ashes hopes alive going into the ODIs next week. Are you not entertained, she asked the crowd of over 21,000 at the Home of Cricket? Oh yes, they roared back! When she’s at her best, she’s absolute box-office – there’s no one in cricket like her. And getting dropped twice? All part of the plan – every hero has to have their moment of jeopardy, after all.
In theory all DLS-adjusted chases should be equal – that’s the point of the system – balancing the number of runs required, and the time you have to get them, with the wickets in hand. But a 14 over chase doesn’t feel like an easy one – England needed to go at 0.75 runs/ over more than Australia had done, for still quite a lot of overs – you can’t treat it like a 5 over thrash, but you still need to go at pace.
Capsey herself hasn’t had the best run of form coming into this match. Her recent run of scores for England, since hitting 51 as England thrashed Ireland at the T20 World Cup in South Africa: 3, 6, 0, 3 & 5. Was her place under threat for the ODIs? Very possibly, with Tammy Beaumont coming back and Emma Lamb also challenging for a spot. Is it now? Well… possibly, yes – it could well be a decision England have already made – but as she showed tonight, when she launches she’s headed for the stars!
England had made a decent start, going at all-but 10/ over in their 4-over powerplay, but they then lost both openers in the space of 2 balls either side of the end of the powerplay, meaning Capsey and Sciver-Brunt had to start again, both on 0. They both got off the mark with singles, but in the knowledge that they needed 8s they knew they couldn’t hang around. One more single was all Capsey needed to feel she’d got the pace of the pitch, before taking on Jess Jonassen and hammering her over cow corner for six. The party was just starting, and by the time she hit her second six off Schutt, almost 10 yards further and 4 rows back into the stand, it was in full swing – Lord’s was rocking. The crowd wanted only one thing more – for her to finish it off. She couldn’t quite give them that, but they’ll go home with only one performance in their minds, and every single one of them will be back for more.
This being England, there was a little scare at the end. Nat Sciver-Brunt was bowled by Georgia Wareham; Amy Jones swung and missed at the one ball she faced; then Heather Knight was given out LBW, brining Dani Gibson to the crease with 2 needed from 5 balls. Gibson held her nerve, reversing for 4 to make sure of the win with 4 balls to spare.
Australia had earlier made a par 155-7. (The average score over the past couple of years in T20s between the top international side is 151.) It was one of those innings where no one really stood out – Mooney, Gardner and Perry all made 30+, but none went on – Perry’s 34 was the top score of the innings. Grace Harris, also coming in off a run of poor scores, added a handy (and rapid) 25.
England’s bowlers similarly had to work hard. Sarah Glenn got smashed for 16 off one over, with Beth Mooney hitting fours off 3 consecutive legal deliveries (with a wide in-between the first and second); whist Nat Sciver-Brunt, who is definitely not 100%, conceded 17 (all off Ellyse Perry) off her final over.
Dani Gibson was probably the big positive in terms of the bowling – not because she was brilliant, but because she delivered a solid 3 overs, suggesting England really have something to build on with her as a seam-bowling allrounder going forwards. She isn’t the finished article just yet – Freya Davies is a much, much better bowler right now; but as a long-term replacement for Sciver-Brunt, who is pushing 31 and obviously creaking, Gibson looks promising, and England probably need to look at her for the ODIs in terms of investment potential as well as “now” potential.
So England live to fight another day. Can they go on to win all three ODIs, and thus regain the Ashes? The odds remain massively against them – they are on a wing and a (Lord’s) prayer – but Australia will be just a little bit rattled by what has happened this week in London, and with full houses guaranteed (albeit at smaller grounds) for the ODI series, with the crowd on their side, you can’t count them out just yet.
CRICKETher 
I know its all about winning The Ashes but were England to take the ODI Series 2-1 they would have won 4 matches against 3 and 2 format series against 1. That would represent quite an achievement against such a world leading team as Australia.
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Amazing series win for England! They have upped their performances since the 1st iT20 and produced something memorable and unexpected. It’s something for us fans to cling on to, and already represents a big improvement from the 2019 series. That only gave us a pretty uninspiring Test draw, and a consolation iT20 win when the series was long over. This time we’ve had a whole part-series victory when it still mattered. England have managed to produce some strong individual performances from many of their players when it really made a difference. Capsey was brilliant, loved those 2 massive sixes – and was well supported by Wyatt and Sciver-Brunt. Bell and Gibson bowled very well and England only gave away 2 extras. It’s remarkable how close England came to winning this series 3-0 – let’s face it, the last 2 victories were (reasonably) comfortable despite it looking tight on paper.
It’s not all been about England’s brilliance though. We have dropped a lot of catches over this iT20 series and normally against Australia you can’t do that and win. England continue to look fragile with the bat whenever they’re not hitting boundaries. Australia have looked shaky at times too. A side that normally serenely go about their dominant cricket in risk-free fashion, have been unsettled and forced to change their approach by a competitive England side with a few tricks up their sleeve, and who haven’t given up easily. Early and middle order wickets have been tumbling with much greater frequency than normal for Australia without too much pressure applied.
You’d think England will be really up against it now in the ODIs though, with the longer format suiting Australia’s approach, and less impact of a few bad overs here and there. But the latter surely have to improve, particularly on the bowling front. England have already shown what they can do, and so the challenge will be to continue showcasing their fearless young talent, whilst staying in these ODI matches for as long as possible.
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