Author: Syd Egan

NEWS: Winfield-Hill Back for Windies T20s

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Just weeks after losing her central contract, Lauren Winfield-Hill has been recalled to the England squad for the T20 series versus the West Indies next month.

After an outstanding summer in domestic cricket in 2022, winning The Hundred with Oval Invincibles and leading Northern Diamonds to victory in the RHF Trophy, Winfield-Hill has also had her best ever WBBL season, scoring 254 runs for Melbourne Stars with a best of 74 v Brisbane Heat.

England have named separate squads for the ODI and T20 series, with all of the contracted players except Tash Farrant (who is still in recovery from a stress fracture) named in at least one of the squads. The non-contracted Alice Davidson-Richards is included in the ODI squad only, alongside Tammy Beaumont, Kate Cross and Emma Lamb; while the T20 squad adds Katherine Brunt, Sarah Glenn and Issy Wong as well as Winfield-Hill.

The omission of Brunt from the ODI squad is perhaps the other big surprise, suggesting that having already retired from Tests she may be intending to focus exclusively on short-form cricket going forwards.

ODI Squad

Heather Knight (Western Storm)
Tammy Beaumont (Blaze)
Lauren Bell (Southern Vipers)
Alice Capsey (South East Stars)
Kate Cross (Thunder)
Alice Davidson-Richards (South East Stars)
Freya Davies (South East Stars)
Charlie Dean (Southern Vipers)
Sophia Dunkley (South East Stars)
Sophie Ecclestone (Thunder)
Amy Jones (Central Sparks)
Freya Kemp (Southern Vipers)
Emma Lamb (Thunder)
Nat Sciver (Northern Diamonds)
Danni Wyatt (Southern Vipers)

T20 Squad

Heather Knight (Western Storm)
Lauren Bell (Southern Vipers)
Katherine Brunt (Northern Diamonds)
Alice Capsey (South East Stars)
Freya Davies (South East Stars)
Charlie Dean (Southern Vipers)
Sophia Dunkley (South East Stars)
Sophie Ecclestone (Thunder)
Sarah Glenn (Central Sparks)
Amy Jones (Central Sparks)
Freya Kemp (Southern Vipers)
Nat Sciver (Northern Diamonds)
Lauren Winfield-Hill (Northern Diamonds)
Issy Wong (Central Sparks)
Danni Wyatt (Southern Vipers)

WBBL: Bowling Rankings – She Schutts She Scores

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Megan Schutt produced a come-from-behind win after taking a record 6 wickets in the Strikers’ final match of the group stages versus Thunder, to top this year’s bowling rankings with 23 wickets at an Economy Rate of 6.40 – pipping Ash Gardner (23 wickets at 6.42) by just 2 hundredths of a run.

Schutt led a Striker-Force (!) which topped the overall bowling metrics for this year’s competition, with their five core bowlers (Schutt, Wellington, Barsby, Darcie Brown and Dottin) doing almost all the work, bowling 93% of the Strikers overs between them.

Bowling Balls Per… Avg Run Rate
Wicket Dot Single Two 4/6 Wide 1st Ins 2nd Ins PP
Strikers 18 2.49 2.73 16 8 33 6.86 6.50 5.48
Scorchers 20 2.44 2.93 17 8 28 6.86 7.02 5.34
Hurricanes 22 2.79 2.42 20 8 35 6.26 7.21 6.21
Renegades 28 2.65 2.66 17 7 34 7.51 6.77 5.54
Sixers 18 2.65 2.82 14 7 36 7.68 7.20 6.87
Thunder 26 2.68 2.67 17 7 29 7.53 6.79 5.83
Heat 18 2.91 2.57 13 7 32 7.29 7.69 6.82
Stars 20 2.85 2.63 13 8 24 7.34 7.19 6.50
©CRICKETher.com/cricsheet.org

Undoubtedly the most surprising name in the Top 10 is that of Sasha Moloney – the 30-year-old journeyman transferred over to the Stars this season after spending her entire career with Tasmania/ Hobart, and had a golden six weeks in the Melbourne green. Initially bowling at first-change, she was then promoted to opening the bowling in the second half of the competition, finishing with 20 wickets at a better Economy Rate than either of the bowlers above her.

Amanda Jade Wellington came out on top in the battle of the Australian leg-spinners, taking 4 more wickets than Alana King; though King returned a significantly superior Economy Rate, which is likely what was influencing the Australian selectors when they picked the latter in their squad for the up-coming series against India.

Sophie Ecclestone, in her first WBBL season with the Sydney Sixers, was the highest ranked overseas bowler at 8, just ahead of Amelia Kerr at 9. Ecclestone’s success could be considered something of a personal triumph against the received wisdom amongst the Aussie commentariat that she struggles in Australia because her stock delivery is too quick to get any grip and turn on their fast, bouncy pitches – a view which misses the point that turn has never really been what Ecclestone is about anyway, and which we can hopefully put to bed now.

Player Played Wickets Economy
1. Megan Schutt (Strikers) 13 23 6.40
2. Ash Gardner (Sixers) 14 23 6.42
3. Sasha Moloney (Stars) 14 20 6.24
4. Amanda Jade Wellington (Strikers) 14 21 6.62
5. Molly Strano (Hurricanes) 14 18 5.76
6. Alana King (Scorchers) 14 17 5.91
7. Jess Jonassen (Heat) 14 20 7.02
8. Sophie Ecclestone (Sixers) 14 18 6.41
9. Amelia Kerr (Heat) 14 19 6.77
10. Jemma Barsby (Strikers) 14 16 5.86
11. Nicola Hancock (Heat) 14 22 8.38
12. Annabel Sutherland (Stars) 14 21 8.00
13. Lilly Mills (Scorchers) 14 15 6.81
14. Marizanne Kapp (Scorchers) 14 12 5.74
15. Lauren Cheatle (Sixers) 14 15 7.32
16. Sam Bates (Thunder) 14 12 6.02
17. Darcie Brown (Strikers) 14 13 6.59
18. Maisy Gibson (Hurricanes) 13 12 6.30
19. Kim Garth (Stars) 14 12 6.71
20. Lauren Smith (Thunder) 13 11 6.54
21. Sophie Day (Stars) 14 11 6.83
22. Nicola Carey (Hurricanes) 14 13 8.20
23. Shabnim Ismail (Renegades) 13 11 6.95
24. Maitlan Brown (Sixers) 8 12 7.81
25. Sophie Molineux (Renegades) 12 11 7.17
26. Sarah Coyte (Renegades) 13 10 7.20
27. Kate Peterson (Sixers) 12 10 7.29
28. Piepa Cleary (Scorchers) 14 11 8.03
29. Deandra Dottin (Strikers) 14 10 7.56
30. Alice Capsey (Stars) 14 9 6.98

Ranking = Wickets / Economy

NEWS: Bell, Capsey, Kemp, Dean, Lamb & Wong Earn First England Contracts

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Six players – Lauren Bell, Alice Capsey, Charlie Dean, Freya Kemp, Emma Lamb and Issy Wong – have all earned their first England contracts in the biggest shake-up to the squad since professional contracts arrived in 2014.

Emma Lamb and Charlie Dean both made their debuts against New Zealand last September, with Lauren Bell and Issy Wong following in the Test versus South Africa this summer, whilst Alice Capsey and Freya Kemp were first called up for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

In terms of those moving on, in addition to Fran Wilson and Anya Shrubsole who had already been released from last year’s squad after announcing their retirements, England have stepped down Mady Villiers, Lauren Winfield-Hill, Georgia Elwiss and Katie George.

Of these four, only Winfield-Hill played for England in 2022, earning her final cap as a contracted player versus West Indies at the World Cup in March. Mady Villiers last played for England in a T20 v New Zealand in September 2021; Georgia Elwiss played in the Test against India at Bristol in June 2021, but hasn’t played a white-ball game since 2019; while Katie George was last capped in an ODI v New Zealand in July 2018.

All four will presumably step down to regional contracts (to be announced in due course), and having not formally retired there remains no reason why they couldn’t yet win further England caps down the line. Meanwhile the domestic setup will only be stronger for their presence, as the regions move closer towards full professionalism, with at least 80 players expected to be contracted to regional teams by next summer.

The full list of contracted players is below:

  • Tammy Beaumont (Lightning)
  • Lauren Bell (Southern Vipers)
  • Katherine Brunt (Northern Diamonds)
  • Alice Capsey (South East Stars)
  • Kate Cross (Thunder)
  • Freya Davies (South East Stars)
  • Charlie Dean (Southern Vipers)
  • Sophia Dunkley (South East Stars)
  • Sophie Ecclestone (Thunder)
  • Tash Farrant (South East Stars)
  • Sarah Glenn (Central Sparks)
  • Amy Jones (Central Sparks)
  • Freya Kemp (Southern Vipers)
  • Heather Knight (Western Storm)
  • Emma Lamb (Thunder)
  • Nat Sciver (Northern Diamonds)
  • Issy Wong (Central Sparks)
  • Danni Wyatt (Southern Vipers)

WBBL: The Power Surge – Is It Working? A Look At The Numbers

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Updated November 6th 2022

With over 20 games now in the bank, thanks to the ever-awesome cricsheet.org, we have the chance to look at how the new WBBL Power Surge is working out.

The Power Surge has come into the Women’s BBL for the first time this season, meaning a reduced powerplay (overs 1-4) and then a second two-over powerplay taken by the batting side sometime during the second half of the innings – the Power Surge.

Here are the average run rates for the games we have so far:

Phase Run Rate
Innings 7.0
Powerplay 5.7 (-1.3)
Power Surge 9.4 (+2.4)

As we can see, the initial powerplay is typically slower than the overall run rate, by more than half a run per over – this is normal in women’s short-form cricket (though The Hundred this year bucked that trend).

But the Power Surge shows an increase in the overall run rate, of two-and-a-half runs per over – ie. five runs overall.

However, these calculations do mask a difference between the first and second innings.

Here are the numbers for the first innings:

Phase Run Rate
Innings 7.2
Powerplay 5.7 (-1.5)
Power Surge 10.0 (+2.8)

So in the first innings, the increase is closer 3 runs per over – about five-and-a-half runs overall.

Meanwhile in the second innings:

Phase Run Rate
Innings 6.8
Powerplay 5.7 (-1.1)
Power Surge 8.8 (+2)

In the second innings, the Power Surge bonus is significantly smaller – just 2 runs per over, or four runs overall.

The Power Surge was imported from the Men’s BBL where the numbers are similar – an overall increase in the Run Rate of around 2.7 runs per over, or a little over five runs per innings. In both cases it is essentially one extra boundary per innings.

Can you really call that a “Surge”? I guess if you are in marketing you can call it anything, and I freely admit that “Power Blip” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, but in terms of the numbers a “Power Blip” really is all it is.

The CRICKETher Weekly – Episode 134

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This week:

  • Lauren Winfield-Hill, Bess Heath & Alice Capsey shine like Stars in the WBBL
  • Is the WBBL under threat from other tournaments?
  • The dominance of bowlers in the Asia Cup
  • How to incentivise boards to properly invest in women’s cricket