In the second part of a two-part special, James Piechowski reviews England’s summer v Pakistan.

To me the T20 series was a different priority for England – with no upcoming major competition, they had time to re-build, but would want to put their recent World T20 competition, in which they were more sedate than sensational, firmly behind them. It was worrying that Shrubsole had picked up an injury after bowling only about 23 overs in the ODIs. She still contributed well, with 6 wickets, but England will need her to be on top form for the upcoming winter tours and of course, a certain tournament starting next year on these shores.

England’s new opening partnership very much carried on where it had left off. Whereas Beaumont had been scoring more heavily in the ODIs, Winfield was the more impressive in the T20s. As an aggressive, front footed opener hitting through the ball, harsh on anything too full or too short, it’s hard to see too many other players fulfilling the same role for England. Over the 3 games, Winfield scored 166 runs at 55 with a strike rate of 164. Beaumont managed 142 runs at 47 and a strike rate of 128. These were, unsurprisingly, the chief contributions to England’s batting.

England made an impressive 187/5 in the first game at Bristol, with 50s for both of England’s openers. Pakistan’s reply was led by quick-fire scores of 24 by Nain Abidi and 35 from Asmavia Iqbal, another player who I could see making it in WBBL. But 2 wickets apiece from Hazell, Sciver and Gunn, the latter contributing strongly and consistently with the ball throughout the T20 series, was too much and Pakistan finished on 119-7. England had won by 68 runs. Sophie Ecclestone, the 17 year-old left arm spinner who with her freckles and braces looks every bit the schoolgirl (which she still is!), showed good composure and gave consistent performances across 2 games to return total figures of 3-47 off 8 overs.

The third and final iT20 match at Chelmsford followed a similar pattern to the first, both England openers making fast 50s and the middle order blasting a few final runs to give a total of 170. This never looked in danger as Pakistan finished on 113-7 this time. Tash Farrant bowled 4 overs for 15 runs and took a joyful return catch off Nahida Khan, and Alex Hartley impressed and did her ongoing selection chances no harm with 2-19, including the big wicket of Bismah Maroof (35), castling her with a beautiful and clever piece of bowling.

The second T20 at Southampton is worth considering in a bit more detail, as in some ways it was a bit more of a chastening experience for England. On a supposed road of a pitch, neither Beaumont nor Winfield reached 30, and England’s middle order were kept quiet by some accurate and very slow sub-50 mph left-arm spin bowling from Bismah Maroof (2-19). The boundary count was down, and the total of 138 was in no small part due to a much-needed 43* from the ever-solid Fran Wilson. Finally given a long overdue chance, but hardly in her element in a T20 innings where run rate was a priority over steady accumulation, Wilson played very sensibly and ran well, in a succession of small partnerships that saw England climb to what turned out to be a respectable score. It seemed Wilson was determined to impress no matter the situation. Luckily, England were able to provide a strong performance with the ball to back up their batting, restricting Pakistan to just 103. The surface had played slowly. It wasn’t the perfect pitch we’d been led to believe after all. Despite a 35-run win in an ultimately solid display, England were heavily criticised in the press.

It’s worth noting that back in 2012, when a supposedly better England last played Pakistan in a home iT20 series, Pakistan couldn’t even score into the 90s. In reply, England took almost 16 overs to reach the target. In the other game England only managed a 160 score. This new series was definitely more exciting. Personally, I think the new-look England does have a lot more appeal.

Whilst England kept their heads to post a reasonable score on a slow track, where batsmen found it hard to get the ball away, it was some of the press that seemingly lost it. The Independent was claiming that England’s middle order frailties were once again exposed. We had scored 140 plus, which as the later men’s game showed, was not so bad an effort. Indeed, rather than the quick singles taken by Knight, Wyatt and Sciver being a failing, it was very much where England outclassed a Pakistan side who so often found it harder to rotate the strike rather than hit the ball to the boundary.

CRICKETher pointed out this fact and it will be an area where Pakistan could really improve their game, to become more competitive in a format where, as they showed in the recent World T20 series against India, they have the best chance of causing an upset. Anyhow, England had taken the 2016 iT20 series 3-0, and the celebrations ensued.

Let’s not forget England’s success was also in part due to Natalie Sciver. Batting incredibly effectively in the ODI series and bowling well in both the ODIs and iT20s, she scored a total of 194 runs and took 7 wickets, the latter bettered only by Brunt. Her ground fielding and catching is also excellent, and the only part of her game that has really failed to ignite has been her batting in iT20. England have brought her in high enough up the order, I think, but something about the expectation or pressure of the format is preventing her from recreating her ODI form. It is certainly something to continue working on.

Final Thoughts

Too much minimising England’s successes this summer seems churlish to me. Indeed, the facts back this up. I don’t particularly care if you consider Pakistan to be a “club side”, whatever that means. If we look back at how Australia, South Africa and West Indies fared against Pakistan, we can see that England’s performances are more dominant.

Pakistan’s past ODIs against top sides in the ICC WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP

Australia – August 2014
In the 1st ODI, Australia finished 6 wickets down chasing 157. They took 36 overs, and would probably not have made 300.
The 2nd ODI was rain reduced to 25 overs. Australia won with just 3 balls left chasing 122, and were 5 wickets down.
The 3rd ODI was much more comfortable for Australia. They were 2 wickets down chasing 190, taking 33 overs. They would almost certainly have made 300 plus.

South Africa (Sharjah) – March 2015
Pakistan actually won one game and suffered a 2-1 narrow loss in the series. SA did not win any match especially convincingly.

West Indies – October 2015
The 1st ODI was not counted in the Championship.
In the 2nd ODI, WI successfully chased 150, but were 7 wickets down and only had 3.1 overs left.
In the 3rd ODI, WI made 281/5, and Pakistan finished on 172/9, a higher score than they achieved against England.
In the 4th ODI, Pakistan made 182/5 and WI chased successfully, reaching 183/4 off 42 overs. This was comfortable, they could have made 250 but probably not 300.

The summary from all this, is that the worst beating Pakistan had taken coming into the England leg of their ICC women’s championship campaign was by Australia in the 3rd ODI of their series (by 8 wickets with 17 overs to spare). This was only akin to the least severe of 3 defeats England inflicted upon them (by 7 wickets with 18 overs to spare in the first ODI). England won 2 matches by over 200 runs. No opposition player had scored a century against Pakistan in these previous matches, although Nicole Bolton of Australia and Stafanie Taylor of WI, twice, came close. England scored 3 centuries.

If those Australia and West Indies games had seen widely broadcast, I wonder if we would have been mitigating against the performance of the two top teams in the ICC WIC as much as England? But because no-one saw them, the opportunity did not arise. England seem to suffer for trying to lead the way.

Of course we must proceed with caution, and we can’t tell how well England will follow this series up in the West Indies. But with Sarah Taylor, who had previously scored a hundred there, set to return at some stage, England must be hopeful that they can take some more points back from their travels.

They say that the best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today, and England certainly did that. As it stands, Robinson has a series of selection “problems” over who to pick from an increasingly confident group of players, which are the kind of problems you’d like to have!

In a two-part special, James Piechowski reviews England’s summer v Pakistan.

I arrived at Grace Road, Leicester on a damp Monday afternoon to see a sodden outfield and a sharp shower, which had the spectators rushing for cover from the downpour. The umpires did their best to keep everyone’s hopes up with regular inspections of the squelchy surface, but it was no surprise when play was called off and we moved onto the reserve day. Fortunately I was able to stay locally, there was no more rain, and the tiny returning crowd were rewarded by a good day’s cricket on a largely dried field, that saw England restrict Pakistan to a sub-par 165. England’s bowling had not looked especially threatening, but Pakistan failed to push along at a rapid pace. They could have made over 200, though, if not for Knight’s intervention when she brought herself on as 4th bowling change. Seeing as England later suffered early losses in their reply, this was perhaps as important as her half-century that would follow in England’s chase. Knight bowled well, using flight to deceive the Pakistan batsmen who could, too often, only lob the ball back up in the air, either into the grateful hands of England fielders in the outfield or straight back to a delighted Knight. Sidra Ameen made a well-crafted 52, but could have picked up more singles, and this would turn out to be her best effort of the series. She would eventually be dropped in the T20s, one of several puzzling selection choices made by Pakistan as the series progressed.

In England’s chase Winfield didn’t give herself a chance though, nicking off to the first ball. She had looked to chase a wide one, nearly overbalancing as she lost her shape. She then walked on Nain Abidi’s claim of a catch, which some suggested may not have been taken above the floor. A familiar sense of doom enveloped the ground, as England had puzzlingly picked only 2 specialist batsmen for this match, one of whom had already been dismissed. England were 0-1. Would we see a slow and stodgy crawl to the target, punctuated by regular wickets? It could well have been, and when a bright and breezy innings from Elwiss was truncated by the sound of the death rattle from Sana Mir’s delivery bowling her, England were in a real spot of bother at 33-2.

Where was Fran Wilson? Surely, England needed her stick-ability about now? But in stepped Knight, who played solidly and calmly, and along with Beaumont they started to assert themselves as Pakistan’s bowling wilted. They had a new belief in themselves, no doubt in part at least instilled by Mark Robinson. In a microcosm of what was to come later in the series, Beaumont used her feet well to work the ball round and hit over the top. Her dismissal, top edging Asmavia at about the halfway point, only brought in Sciver who again in an ODI played one of her busy, positive knocks. Knight just managed to make 50 before the target was reached thanks to Sciver’s selflessness, and England made it home at a canter with 18 overs left. I rushed off to catch a train to Worcester for the next game the following day. Little did I know what was to come!

Rain from a grey, overcast sky threatened to ruin the morning’s play at New Road but thankfully it never really materialised. What certainly did materialise was aggression from England, and their opening pair. Having been inserted by Pakistan they started well and pushed on, keen to reach the tiny 50m boundaries, prepared as instructed by coach Robinson, as often as possible. Nothing Pakistan tried worked, with only the impressive Maham Tariq and Sadia Yousuf showing any semblance of control. Winfield, an imposing and muscular presence at the crease, was bristling with intent, unleashing a series of booming straight drives, and vicious pull shots, as harsh on anything short as she was was excellent at putting away the full toss, and in fact any bad ball. Her ability as a dominant opener looked unquestionable. She liked to get on top of the bowling early on and force them into mistakes. Pakistan certainly obliged with some wayward bowling and many fielding mishaps.

The opening pair marched on unhindered. There was a sense of joy around the ground as first Winfield, then Beaumont registered their tons. Winfield had played the more aggressive innings, and made it to 123, whilst Beaumont had got bogged down a little at times, but battled through, continuing her recent excellent form. Both were out in the 39th over as they tried to accelerate further. In came Nat Sciver and she was soon under way, hitting Sana Mir for six and four. The quickish dismissal of Elwiss did not phase England and Knight joined the boundary party, although she was happy to play second fiddle to Sciver’s brutality.

21 runs were scored off the 47th over and 23 off the 49th as Sciver smashed six after six off the unfortunate Asmavia Iqbal and Nida Dar. Straight back over the bowlers’ head the ball sailed; and then way up over the leg side, over cow corner, over the groundsman’s covers – Sciver seemingly determined to deposit the ball in the River Severn. It was something to behold, and something I’ll not soon forget. Sciver had smashed 6 sixes and 7 fours in her 80 off 33 balls. Her assault was only curtailed when she was run out out at the end of the innings by Wyatt, who herself smashed a quick-fire 12*. England had done it, smashing many runs and many records, and the shackles were finally off: 378 runs had been amassed.

Pakistan’s reply never really got going, and the miserly Shrubsole was able to restrict runs and take wickets, returning figures of 4-19. Only Bismah Maroof played anything like the type of innings that would have been required, hitting 61 from 81 balls with 8 fours. Other contributions were far too slow, and Pakistan limped to 166 before being all out in the 48th over. England’s bowlers had not necessarily looked too dangerous but with a large score on the board, the run rate was just too high for them to chase.

Having been desperately disappointed by a rainy Sunday in Bristol (where England men’s ODI against Sri Lanka had been abandoned), I was delighted to wake up to a bright and sunny Monday in Taunton ready for the 3rd ODI. Again England won the toss and chose to bat, and two increasingly familiar figures made their way out in to the middle. After a solid start, the diminutive Beaumont provided a perfect contrast to Winfield’s brawn, playing square of the wicket with style and invention as she swept, reverse swept, hit over the top and drove beautifully through the covers. She was surely some type of controlled whirlwind, dervish-like at the crease. Her ability to use her feet to get to the pitch of the ball, or to hang back and play the ball late, was a feature of her batting; and coupled with her experience playing in the middle order, means that if she can see off the early overs she will be ideally placed to compose a long innings. The last century of her incredible 168* (including 20 fours) was nigh-on chance-less, and just goes to show how she can accelerate and exert real control as the innings progresses.

At the height of Beaumont’s onslaught, as boundary followed inevitable boundary, Pakistan were found to be clueless in the field and were far too reactive, moving fielders around where the last ball had gone through, only to find Beaumont smashing the next ball through the newly vacated region. This happened time and time again. If Pakistan had lost a horse because they had just shut the gate after one had bolted, there would not be many horses left in Pakistan right now!

The partnerships between the two openers across this whole summer series were remarkable. Their combined contributions tallied up 816 runs from 12 innings. A small statistical anomaly: Lauren Winfield scored exactly the same number of runs, 166, in 3 innings across both ODI and T20 formats.

England have unearthed two gems here, who complement each other ideally and they should be kept together as an opening pair whenever possible. Whether England are faced with fast bowling on a pacey track, or spin on a slow, dry turner, one of these two will be in their element. The other, I think, has enough ability to stick at it through unfavoured conditions. The biggest puzzle is how they have taken so long to shine like this, (although Winfield had shown some promise in 2014/15). We should give Robinson some credit for this, but not too much. His decision to drop Winfield for the World T20 was unwise. So in particular, Winfield had battled through to success this summer against considerable odds.

At Taunton Georgia Elwiss played beautifully for 77. She tends to take early risks and may give a chance or two, but has a resolute nature that means she can usually battle through to punish the opposition bowlers, using attractive cuts and drives through the off-side. She can hit a long ball, and once she gets in can be difficult to prize from the crease. With her obvious ability with the ball added into the mix, the only part of her game that is lacking is her ground fielding, which is not up to the standard of our best. The other question around her role is in T20. Robinson seems content to play her one game, then leave her out seemingly at random. Ideally more consistency would serve better. Credit should also go to Sciver who played a similar belligerent innings, this time just cut short of her 50 when she was caught off the bowling of Asmavia Iqbal for 48, going for another boundary. England eventually reached 366-4. With the longer boundaries and the slower start, this was in my opinion and even better batting effort from England than in the previous game at Worcester.

Pakistan’s reply got off to a bad start and never really recovered. Only Bismah Maroof, again, and wicket-keeper Sidra Nawaz with a good 47, played well enough to challenge England. Both were removed by Laura Marsh though, who returned figures of 3-29 off her allocation of 10 overs.

Alex Hartley was also bowled out on her début, and after giving away a few too many runs with some friendly full tosses, came back strongly in her second spell, only conceding 15 runs in 5 overs. Katherine Brunt (5-30) treated us to an exhibition of death bowling, castling Sana Mir and 3 more tail-enders with a series of full, straight deliveries that turned back the clock and were too good for Pakistan’s lower order. England had won the game by 202 runs and taken the series 3-0. It was an ideal start for Knight and provided at least some justification for all the changes Robinson had made. The 6 ICC Women’s Championship points were vital, and England are now in a much stronger position to qualify in the top four for next year’s World Cup.

For Pakistan, Bismah Maroof is the sort of player who would not look out of place in the WBBL or KSL, it seems a shame that she has not been participating in these competitions. In order for Pakistan to continue their improvement, it’s important their best players get experience by playing with the best. Sana Mir, although disappointed with her team’s performances, was confident they’d taken plenty of learnings from the series and almost seemed pleased that England had showed them how it was possible to play cricket, that had at times seemed more like the IPL than anything else. Maybe she thought, we could aspire to this attitude, and one day soon, too.

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

Short Boundaries

Tomorrow’s back page story will of course be the fact that England smashed their highest ever score in one day internationals. And yet it’s hard not to feel a bit cheated by this, given that the boundaries – at 55 yards – were at the absolute minimum required by ICC regulations. At one point Tammy Beaumont, fielding at deep backward square leg, was actually starting off outside the boundary rope to give her space to “walk in” as the bowler ran in to bowl.

Officially the boundaries are at the groundsman’s discretion. However, it’s pretty obvious from what Mark Robinson has said in recent interviews that he is strongly pushing for shorter boundaries – he thinks it encourages attacking play. Maybe; but if it turns everything into bish-bash-bosh we’re going to see a LOT of records smashed in the next few years. Surely allowing players to start mishitting sixes not only devalues the skill of someone like Nat Sciver – who as she showed today is perfectly capable of hitting big without any artificial assistance – but the women’s game as a whole?

Pakistan’s Fielding

It might be hard for their bowlers to adjust to the English conditions; but Pakistan could help themselves massively if they upped their game in the field. Leaking boundaries through your legs, or sliding past the ball and turning round to watch it pass behind you over the rope, only makes life easy for the opposition. Something to work on before Monday?

Centurion Central

We can’t remember the last time we saw two English players hit centuries in an ODI (anyone know when it was?); and the fact that the boundaries were short shouldn’t take anything away from the fact that Tammy Beaumont and Lauren Winfield fully deserved their maiden hundreds. It’s interesting that Beaumont reflected in the post-match press conference that she felt Mark Robinson’s faith in her as a batsman during the World Twenty20 had provided her with the level of confidence which she needed to translate her ongoing excellent domestic form into England level cricket. Both Winfield and Beaumont seem to be thriving under the new regime, and that’s great to see. Having said that…

England’s Batting

Mark Robinson told the press a couple of weeks ago: “Lottie would have filled her boots against Pakistan but we would not have learnt anything.” But you have to ask: what have we actually learnt here? Lauren Winfield and Tammy Beaumont can fill their boots against innocuous bowling? Nope – we already knew that! Nat Sciver can bosh it when the pressure is off? I think we probably knew that too! Yes, England were very good with the bat, but it isn’t time to get carried away yet, if only because…

England’s Bowling

We tend to think of bowling as being England’s main strength… and with Shrubsole and Brunt – the most feared opening pair in the world – why wouldn’t you? Perhaps because (whisper it) they looked a mite toothless again today. They did the job – they bowled Pakistan out – and admittedly, it is difficult when a team play as defensively as Pakistan have done, but nevertheless it wasn’t the “bossing it” performance with the ball that we saw with the bat.

Syd Egan & Raf Nicholson look at some of the selection dilemmas facing England coach Mark Robinson as he considers his side for the ODIs against Pakistan next week.

Dilemma 1: Lauren Winfield v Tammy Beaumont

In the post-dystopian wasteland that is English cricket without Charlotte Edwards, the first question Mark Robinson has to answer is: who will open with Heather Knight? Robinson obviously thinks highly of Beaumont – saying recently he was “excited” to see if she could build on her World T20 performances – and she is the highest run scorer in this season’s County Championship; but Winfield opened in the ODIs in South Africa, albeit not terribly successfully, scoring just 22 runs in the 3-match series. SE

Dilemma 2: Amy Jones v Fran Wilson

With Sarah Taylor currently out of the equation, another difficult call for Robinson is going to be: who should bat at number 3? While Jones will no doubt be an automatic selection as Taylor’s former under-glove butler, it remains to be seen whether she can step up and anchor an innings in the way that the no. 3 position requires. Wilson, on the other hand, is not only back to full fitness but appears to have made a good case for herself batting at 3 for the Academy, fresh from making 88 against Ireland A at Loughborough last week. RN

Dilemma 3: Georgia Elwiss v Jenny Gunn

It’s the Battle Of The All-Rounders. In the Blue Corner, we have Jenny Gunn: for so long England’s Heavyweight Champion. In the Red Corner, we have Georgia Elwiss: the young(ish!) upstart who alone of England’s batsmen came out of the Canterbury Test last summer with her head held high. Gunn may have played 232 internationals for England to date, but if the last month is anything to go by, Robinson seems quite prepared – indeed almost eager – to discard experience in favour of potential. Is Gunn’s time as England’s front-line all-rounder at a close? RN

Dilemma 4: Kate Cross v Tash Farrant

There is a good chance England will go into the series with just the two seamers (Shrubsole and Brunt) but if either of them gets injured, or they decided to try to take advantage of English conditions while they can, then it comes down to a shoot-out between Kent’s Farrant and Lancashire’s Cross. Farrant has impressed this year in domestic cricket – she is the leading wicket-taker in Division 1 of the County Championship – but Cross is the more likely candidate to eventually take over opening the bowling from Brunt when she retires, so if Robinson is building for the future, he might well be looking to give her a chance against Pakistan. SE

Dilemma 5: Becky Grundy v Alex Hartley

The battle of the left-armers is probably the most interesting of Robinson’s dilemmas, because the way it falls will be quite telling of the direction Robinson intends to take. Hartley is without a shadow of a doubt the better bowler, but she is also what they call a Genuine No. 11™ while Grundy had a good game with both bat and ball for the Academy last week against Ireland. Then again, Robinson could pass them both by and pick Lancashire’s Sophie Ecclestone, who at just 17 really is “the future”. SE

Simon Pearson writes…

This seems like an odd question given the constant mantra from the ECB and England players extolling the continued growth in the sport (1.3 million girls through Chance to Shine for example) but, in my experience at least, the competitive club side of the sport is dying, and that is before any impact from the KSL which, I fear, is likely to hit hard once the 50 over competition starts, presumably next year.

I say this because the number of teams is falling. A few seasons ago our County used to have nine teams in the leagues; they now have four. One of the local leagues has lost a substantial proportion of its members. Our team has only played one game so far this season due to other teams being unable to field a side, and we have just heard that another club has withdrawn from the league due to lack of availability of players. Ironically this is one of the clubs which has been featured on CRICKETher.

Lack of cricket at an appropriate level is a constant theme, and it’s interesting that the England coach has raised the same point because it is, of course, one of the aims behind the KSL. Generally women’s teams seem to play less than half the fixtures of the equivalent men’s teams, even before the concessions start. Recent surveys have confirmed the desire for more cricket but the changes brought in have resulted in even less.

It seems to me that the club scene has no role in the ECB/County pathway and so is largely ignored. Although there are very few clubs playing competitive league cricket in our County, our club has never been visited to see what players we have. It is also of note that the ECB have given up their role in the Premier Divisions and, I was told, will no longer protect club days.

The main emphasis seems to be on Chance to Shine. This was clearly demonstrated during a meeting called by my County several seasons ago to discuss Women’s and Girls’ Cricket. A question was asked about what the plan was for the girls as they got older, and there was no answer. We later heard that a club had lost all their older girls to another sport – not, as is often said, due to other interests but simply because there was nowhere for them to play. Most of our County girls who are at clubs at all are where there is no women’s team. When I was involved (some years back), very few played any cricket other than County and were not encouraged to do so.

One issue seems to be that Chance to Shine feeds few, if any, girls into the clubs – we have never seen one and, in fact, currently have no juniors at all.

The pathway seems to be Chance to Shine -> County Age Groups -> County -> KSL -> England.

My fear is that the game is on the edge and the KSL will push it over. Am I being overly pessimistic?

Some seasons ago I recall there was a rule that to field a County side you had to have a minimum number of league teams – maybe this should be brought back. Maybe to qualify to play at County at U15 and above you should be required to be playing in an approved competitive league.

Or maybe we should simply give up on women’s club cricket and feed the ladies into men’s teams at an appropriate level; at least they would get to play more. Unfortunately many do not want to do this, and many club facilities are not suitable.

Another issue is the verbal abuse they suffer. Contrary to what the ECB etc seem to think, a number of women I have spoken to have left clubs due to what they have been subjected to, often by their own teams.

The question of how we move forward is rather difficult to answer since there seems to be little reliable information as to where we are – the figures put forward by the ECB are regarded with considerable scepticism by those on the ground. But it is clear that the women’s game is very different from the men’s and we need to think outside the box.

While in a men’s club you can bring in new players who will find a place in whatever XI is appropriate for their standard, very few women’s clubs now have even a 2nd XI – further evidence of the decline. This means that it is very hard for players to join a club whose team is playing in an upper division. Maybe clubs should be more open to loaning players so they get the cricket they need, and it might help to keep struggling teams going. I raised this at a County area meeting a few years ago but it met with a hostile reception. Another possibility is a group of clubs getting together and co-operating.

Maybe I am exaggerating things, but I am more pessimistic than ever about the future. In my view the next couple of seasons are crucial if we are not to lose this level of cricket altogether.