Prior to this match, England had played 184 T20 internationals, and had been bowled out in just 15 of them. They’d only been bowled out in consecutive matches twice – in 2011 (both to Australia) and 2018 (to Australia and India). Add Sri Lanka in 2023 to that list now.
And it goes without saying that when you’re bowled out, you almost always lose the game in international T20 cricket – England haven’t won a T20 in which they were bowled out since 2011, back in the days when 120 was a pretty good score. Unsurprisingly, that didn’t change this evening in Derby.
England were pretty abject from the first ball, when Danni Wyatt prodded a catch to cover as if she was still taking throw-downs before the start of game. Alice Capsey looked like she might be in the mood; but within 2 overs the only “mood” she was in was a stroppy one, having been hung out to dry by Maia Bouchier.
Bouch needed to make up for it big-time and she played some sumptuous strokes along the floor to get herself a start. Her 23 off 18 balls ended up being England’s highest score, but it could have been more, and it should have been more. There was no need to suddenly go aerial, and she didn’t get anything like enough power through the ball – sending it straight to the fielder on the long-on boundary.
And it was all downhill from there for England. Sri Lanka bowled really well at Chelmsford in the 2nd T20; but here England were largely the authors of their own tragedies. Heather Knight played a poor shot; Amy Jones got Amy Jonesed; Freya Kemp only has one way to play, and tonight wasn’t the night for it; and suddenly England’s tail was exposed again.
Sarah Glenn and Dani Gibson got England to a slightly more respectable total than Chelmsford, with a bit of smash ‘n’ grab; but they aren’t the players who we should be looking to to ever do much more than that. Sri Lanka’s bowlers kept pressing, and got their reward – bowling the hosts out with 6 balls left out in the middle.
I guess England’s only hope was to take early wickets and hope Sri Lanka collapsed; so they stuck to Plan A and opened the bowling with Mahika Gaur and Kate Cross. But Plan A didn’t work. Cross’ first over was the most expensive of the match; and Gaur’s second was the second-most costly. By the end of the 4th over of the chase, Sri Lanka needed under 5 an over, and you could probably have started the car at that point.
Chamari was imperious again, and was rightly rewarded with the Player of the Series gong at the end of the game. Sri Lanka remain awfully dependent on her – you do get the feeling that if she’d had gone early, a chase of 117 might have been too much – but she nonetheless left the rest of the lineup with work to do when she holed-out for 44. But what she had done was scored those 44 runs so quickly that the rest could just knock it around for singles and still win easily. And England had no answer to that – they kept an extra fielder in the ring for most of the latter stages, but there were still enough little gaps to be found by the Sri Lankans, who knew they didn’t need to go huge.
Sri Lanka’s patience was their biggest asset after Chamari’s dismissal. Harshitha managed the chase brilliantly, keeping things bubbling-over – they needed under 4 an over, and ticked along at exactly 5 from the 8th over on, to win the game with 18 balls to spare. Again, it wasn’t quite the margin of victory they’d enjoyed at Chelmsford, but it is still a decent win in this form of the game, and it’s not like there were any prizes for Net Run Rate anyway!
England’s bowling wasn’t awful, but it needed to be brilliant if it was going to rescue such a poor batting display, and it wasn’t. The quicks looked toothless, and the spinners didn’t trouble the Sri Lankans too much either, because it is hard to trouble batters who only need to chip it around at less than a run a ball.
A year ago, England scraped a win in the T20 series against India, with more than a little help from the autumnal weather (which the Indians found very uncomfortable) and then went on to lose the ODI series 3-0.
This time around, it is the T20 series which they’ve lost, with still the chance to redeem themselves in the ODIs. England are expected to have Nat Sciver-Brunt back for the ODIs, with Tammy Beaumont coming in as well, to open in place of Wyatt. That will give them a bit more backbone, and hopefully a bit more balance – when every batter is a “see ball/ hit ball” type, when it goes right, it can go very very right, as it did at Hove; but when it goes wrong, it tends to go quite badly wrong, as we’ve seen now at Chelmsford and Derby. These are ODIs which England need to win, with ICC Championship points on the line. Anything less than 3-0 to England and questions will be asked.
CRICKETher 
Total agreement Syd! As I mentioned last match, same things happened. Felt sorry for Freya Kemp, out of her depth, should be allowed back on the regional circuit to build up to the player she can be. Totally lost as a “batter”. Capsey needs to hold back, not go freely as allowed by Knight and Lewis! She has loads to offer WITH guidance! Finally, after a rocket start why did the field not come in tight to stop easy singles? Making Sri Lanka hit aerial? Mark Butcher was in agreement? Inexperienced?? Not really. Finally, has Heather Knight reached her retirement time??
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One suspects that Sri Lanka’s best strategy for winning a T20 is to bowl first, keep the opposition down to below 140 and for Athapaththu to score enough runs fast enough that the rest of the batters do not need to score at more than a run a ball, preferably much less.
The fact Sri Lanka managed to complete all the above objectives, not once, but twice, is remarkable and they deserve all the plaudits coming their way.
Three numbers probably go a long way to explaining what happened; 20, 3 and 1 – these are the numbers of extras that Sri Lanka leaked in the 3 T20s. The wides dropped from 15 to 3 and then 1. Why ? Simple – they were told to bowl at the stumps, that is exactly what they did and England were spun into a web they just could not get out of.
Much will be made of the records broken by Sri Lanka but almost more impressive than the records is how they did it and their total dominance in the last 2 T20s. They didn’t just creep over the line, they slaughtered England; quite possibly Sri Lanka’s greatest achievement to date.
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Interestingly (to me anyway) in the bowling warm-ups pre-game, the SL bowlers were bowling at a pair of stumps (the yellow rubber practice ones that bounce back) – with a pad (‘hung’ on another set of practice stumps) positioned in-place in front of the stumps, as a marker for “don’t stray past here”. It clearly worked. (Never seen anyone do this before, though it can’t be something they’ve invented, can it?)
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Well, we all moaned about the terrible T20 squad selections and were proved right. Playing too many players not at their full capabilities, on top of resting some of your other best players, is absolutely taking liberties, and was absolutely punished by a strong Sri Lanka side seemingly high on confidence. If you thought the 2nd T20 was a blip, think again – after a 3rd T20 scorecard that looked frighteningly like the 2nd, it’s now England’s win in the 1st rain affected game that looks like the blip. So much for a “bad day at the office”, it seems more like the new normal!
This game was only a marginal improvement from England, and bearing in mind how much they had to improve from the 2nd game, that was shocking in itself. Such was the ease of the 2 Sri Lankan wins, that as an England fan I have little hope we can last 50 overs with the bat the way things are going. Surely 3-0 to England is out of the question barring one of the biggest swings ever. 3-0 to Sri Lanka more like, it’s not that unrealistic.
What on earth is going on?! It’s as if the Aus and SL series were swapped round such is the drop off in England’s displays. This was another terrible performance. The batters looked completely lost and got out tamely, playing half-hearted shots. Bouchier didn’t do herself any favours in running out Capsey, who along with Glenn, Dean and Gibson was one of the few players to emerge from this debacle with any credit. Sri Lanka were far superior in all departments except perhaps fielding, where they make a lot of mistakes.
England are in real danger here though of turning what should have been 2 solid series wins into complete disasters. Thankfully the ODI squad is somewhat improved, and Lamb appears to have found some form, but England’s batters have never needed to just stick in there more than they do now. We must put a higher price on our wickets.
Syd you say “These are ODIs which England need to win, with ICC Championship points on the line. Anything less than 3-0 to England and questions will be asked.” Well, I simply cannot see that happening the way things are – and questions are already being asked. It’s simply not good enough from management, coaches or players. These September series are turning into real drags for England fans.
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A bit of useless stats …………
Gaur joins a notable list of players getting golden duck on their 1st visit to the crease in a T20 International for England:-
Gunn (managed it in England’s very first T20; stumped off final ball of innings)
Rainford-Brent (who then followed it with another golden in her 2nd T20 and a 6 ball duck in her 3rd. Her 2nd and 3rd were “achieved” on the same day, the day after her 1st ……… 3 ducks in 2 days)
Wyatt (run out)
Dibble (on her one and only England cap)
Jones (who actually didn’t even face a ball, being run out off the last ball of the innings)
George and Wong managed 2 ball ducks on their 1st visits
[Note : this is 1st time actually batting, which isn’t necessarily the debut – as is pretty obvious in the case of Gaur]
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