Sophia Dunkley recovered from a rocky start to lead England to an overwhelming victory in the first T20 on a cold, damp night at The Riverside – the most northerly cricket stadium in England.

Dunkley played just one scoring shot off her first 11 balls, which included a reprieve when she was caught behind off a no ball in the first over. She was dropped in the powerplay by Shafali, who slipped on the skiddy surface on the ring, and then dropped again shortly afterwards – a much tougher chance to Harmanpreet on the boundary.

That final drop, on the first ball of the 9th over, however proved to be something of a turning point – it ended up going for 6, and in the 11 balls that followed England plundered a further 26 runs, including two more 6s struck by Alice Capsey to turn the required rate from 5 to exactly 3 in the space of two overs. With 9 wickets still in hand, it was then only a matter of when not if, and helped by some terrible fielding from India – who must have felt like they had accidentally landed in a different country to the hot, dry one they’d left at the end of the Commonwealth Games in early August – Capsey and Dunkley carried home the win with 7 overs to spare.

Capsey was really superb again, finishing with 32 off 20 balls – a Strike Rate of 160. It wasn’t quite 100% flawless – there was a moment early on when she hammered one straight back down the ground at a very grabbable hight, and probably should have been caught and bowled by Pooja Vastrakar. It was more than slightly reminiscent of the way she was dismissed by Nonkululeko Mlaba against South Africa in the Commonwealths, and on that occasion she expressed a degree of disbelief in the press conference afterwards on the grounds that she had “absolutely middled it”, but at this level you do expect the bowlers to take those chances.

Overall though Capsey’s ability to hit big boundaries – and these were properly big boundaries compared to the ones we’ve seen over the past month in The Hundred, with the rope all the way back at The Riverside – combined with her enthusiasm for running 1s and 2s, continues to underline her status as the most exciting young cricketer in the world, to which we can only say… we told you so!

England’s win was particularly impressive because India had actually put on a fairly decent total – 132 is slightly short of the typical first innings score in a T20 between the top 5 sides these days (146 is the average), but given the pretty horrendous conditions it looked competitive; and with England missing both their “backbones” in Heather Knight and Nat Sciver, India must have felt they were in with a decent shot at the innings break.

England handed a T20 debut to Lauren Bell and a recall to Freya Davies – outraging the Sky commentary team, who obviously wanted to see Issy Wong in place of Davies – but I think it was the right call. The mainstream cricket media has placed Wong on a pedestal but it is one she is struggling to balance on, and after her poor return in The Hundred (just 2 wickets in the competition and rarely trusted to bowl her full allocation) she needs to actually start delivering on the pitch if she wants to become a regular pick for England going forwards.

That’s what Sarah Glenn has continued to do, in her quiet unassuming way, and she reaped the rewards in Durham with her best T20 international figures of 4-23. Aged 23, Glenn already has more than 50 wickets for England, in under 50 matches, at 1.3 wickets per match. 44 of those wickets have come in the T20 format, putting her well on the way to one day passing the magic mark of 100 T20 wickets, which so far only Anya Shrubsole and Katherine Brunt have done for England.

Leg-spinners are cricket’s artists: Amelia Kerr is Bridget Riley bending your eyes in both directions at once; Alana King is Frida Kahlo blowing doors open by sheer force of moxie. Sarah Glenn is none of that, perhaps because she isn’t much of a spinner at all – there’s a grain of truth in the joke that her stock delivery is the one that doesn’t turn, while her googly is the one that doesn’t turn the other way. But she’s obviously got something going for her, and that something is that she understands her own game and through her consistency she forces the batters to play her game along with her. And it’s difficult to argue with the results.

From an Indian perspective, the key is going to be ensuring that this result isn’t the start of a mental disintegration which turns this tour into South Africa 2022 Mark 2. It shouldn’t be – while there was no standout performance, and they missed the rock steadiness of Jemimah Rodrigues in the middle overs, the total was still a decent team effort. But with this England batting line-up, a bit like the current men’s Test side, when it goes right, it goes very, very right, and India were just on the wrong end of that tonight.

Lauren Bell has been called up to the England squad for the T20 series versus India, replacing Katherine Brunt, who will sit out of both the T20 and ODI series to (in the words of head coach Lisa Keightley) “maximise her mental and physical recovery off the back of what has been an intense year so far”.

Bell made her Test and ODI debuts against South Africa earlier in the summer, but was overlooked for the Commonwealth Games. However, she has now won selection off the back of an excellent Hundred, having placed third in the our bowling rankings and finished with 11 wickets, including 4-10 for Brave v Rockets – the best return in the competition.

With Heather Knight not expected to return to action until later in the year following her hip op, Nat Sciver will again captain the side, which is otherwise unchanged from the Commonwealth Games squad, with the 3 “Young Guns” – Alice Capsey, Freya Kemp and Issy Wong – all retaining their spots; and no return for either Lauren Winfield-Hill, who was one of the leading batters in The Hundred, or Tammy Beaumont.

There’s also no call-up for Em Arlott, despite outshining fellow Phoenix Issy Wong in The Hundred; and no backup wicket keeper in the squad.

Although obviously a reserve keeper could be drafted-in for the India series, this won’t be the case at the up-coming T20 World Cup, so England would appear to be taking a bit of a gamble on Amy Jones not getting injured, given that the plan presumably is that the World Cup squad will be this squad, plus Knight and Brunt, with one of the other fast bowlers missing out.

Full Squad

Nat Sciver (Northern Diamonds, Captain)
Lauren Bell (Southern Vipers)
Maia Bouchier (Southern Vipers)
Alice Capsey (South East Stars)
Kate Cross (Thunder)
Freya Davies (South East Stars)
Sophia Dunkley (South East Stars)
Sophie Ecclestone (Thunder)
Sarah Glenn (Central Sparks)
Amy Jones (Central Sparks)
Freya Kemp (Southern Vipers)
Bryony Smith (South East Stars)
Issy Wong (Central Sparks)
Danni Wyatt (Southern Vipers)

It’s the 2021 RHF Trophy final – the defending champions are chasing a modest total, but wickets have been falling and Emily Windsor walks to the crease knowing two things: 1) there isn’t much batting to come; but 2) if she can just stay there, she’ll win the game.

And she does.

A year later… a different team, and a different competition… it’s the 2022 Hundred final – the defending champions are chasing a modest total, but wickets have been falling and Emily Windsor walks to the crease knowing two things: 1) there isn’t much batting to come; but 2) if she can just stay there, she’ll win the game.

And she does.

Marizanne Kapp will of course rightly get the plaudits for winning this game – her second successive Player of the Match performance in the final – but she couldn’t have done it without Windsor keeping her company at the end.

Though Windsor had played 3 group-stage matches in the lead-up to the final, such has been the strength of Invincibles’ batting that this was her first visit to the crease in this year’s tournament. In front of 20,000 people at Lords and hundreds of thousands watching on tv around the world, she could have been overawed by the occasion; and honestly, if she’d got out playing a rash shot… or even no shot at all… no one would have blamed her. But when it really mattered, as she’d done for Vipers in that RHF Trophy final a year before, she stood up tall (well… tall-ish – it is Emily Windsor we’re talking about!) and proud.

Brave found themselves on the losing side once more, but unlike last year there was no dramatic collapse with the bat – they just never really got going. The top 4 – Smriti Mandhana, Danni Wyatt, Sophia Dunkley and Tahlia McGrath – all got starts; all made it to double-figures, but none could push on. Dunkley’s 26 off 23 was as good as it got, as Brave struggled to get out of second gear, maintaining a strike rate of around 100, but never getting to the position where they could start to motor before they lost another wicket.

On 83-3 at the three-quarter mark, they were in a position to strike out towards 125/130, but instead they slumped – losing 4 wickets and hitting just 18 runs at the death.

It didn’t feel like a batting performance that deserved to win the competition; but a good show with the ball could still have got them back into contention. However, Lauren Bell and Anya Shrubsole struggled to make the new ball swing; and though Lauren Winfield-Hill was stumped playing for swing-that-wasn’t, Invincibles made it through the rest of the powerplay otherwise unscathed, with Capsey looking box-office again on 22 off 13 balls.

The wickets of Capsey and Bates falling in quick succession started to make it look interesting again but Kapp asserted herself on the situation, and it was soon clear that if somebody… anybody… stayed with her, Invincibles were going to win the game. Emily Windsor was that somebody; and 40 minutes later, Invincbles were making their way onto the podium once again – champions, and deservedly so.

Perhaps the most unique tweak to the laws of cricket introduced in The Hundred is the change which allows a bowler to deliver two consecutive overs – or “sets” as we are being encouraged to call them, though the playing conditions still say “overs”.

We’ve now had (nearly) two full seasons of The Hundred, so how’s that been working out? We analysed 56 matches across both seasons (all the games for which Ball By Ball data is available thanks to cricsheet.org) to take a look.

How often are consecutive sets used?

Consecutive sets have been bowled 114 times – 69 times in 2021 (including 4 times in the very first innings of the very first game) and 45 times in 2022; so the first point of interest is that it is a tactic which teams have used a fair bit less in the second season – and overall about once per innings in 2022.

Who is bowling them?

Two teams in particular have used consecutive sets dramatically less this year – Invincibles used it 17 times in 2021, and 9 times in 2022; while Brave used it 10 times in 2021, and just once in 2022*.

Trent Rockets were the only team to use them more in 2022, having used the tactic 10 times in 2021 and 11 times in 2022.

In terms of individual bowlers, it has been fairly evenly distributed – 54 different bowlers have bowled consecutive sets, with Amanda Jade Wellington and Dane van Niekerk topping the list, each having bowled 6, with Mady Villiers just behind with 5.

When are they bowling them?

In terms of phases of the game, 34% of consecutive sets are bowled at least partly in the powerplay (30% wholly within it) while just 15% are bowled in the death (last 5) overs.

82% of consecutive sets are bowled at the same end, perhaps unsurprisingly as it is seen as disruptive to a bowler’s concentration to change ends.

Why do consecutive sets get used?

While we can obviously never know exactly what was going through the captain’s mind, we can infer something about why the tactic was used from the data.

83% of second sets follow either a wicket or a strike rate of less than 75 in the first set – 58% following a wicket, and 65% following a strike rate of less than 75. (In 40% it is both!)

How successful are consecutive sets?

Of the 66 occasions when consecutive sets were used following a wicket, only 12 (18%) were followed by another wicket, so it is pretty clear-cut that consecutive sets don’t buy additional wickets.

What about runs? Of the 74 occasions when consecutive sets followed a strike rate of less than 75 in the first set, the strike rate almost always (91%) went up in the second set; while overall across all second sets, the average strike rate of 62 for a first set almost doubled to 116 for the second.

Perhaps even more significantly, in over half of cases (57%) the strike rate in the second set exceeded that of the innings as a whole. So consecutive sets don’t really appear to buy runs (or rather, lack of runs) either.

Does this mean they “don’t work” though? Not necessarily – an over with a wicket is always likely to be followed by one without, regardless of who bowls it; and the same applies to an over with a low strike rate – we can never know what another bowler might have achieved in the same situation.

As to whether they have been a successful innovation for the game as a whole, the jury is still out. Perhaps the most significant objection is that they are simply “not cricket” – flying in the face of the game’s long-standing traditions; but on the other hand, bowling restrictions are pretty arbitrary anyway (who decided a bowler should only be able to bowl 20% of the balls in a one-day match, while a single batter could technically face all of them?) so why not change things up occasionally?

The likelihood remains though that ultimately this tweak to the laws will fall by the wayside, like “supersubs” in ODIs. (Remember them? They weren’t “just” subs, they were supersubs!!) After all, at the end of the day… if bowlers bowling consecutive overs from the same end is what really floats your boat… perhaps you are just watching the wrong bat’n’ball game!

———–

* The data analysed does not include the 2022 eliminator, where Brave nearly came to grief after a dramatic final over second set was hit for 21 by Nat Sciver.

For the second year in succession, Southern Brave leg-spinner Amanda Jade Wellington tops our bowling rankings in The Hundred, with 14 wickets at 1.22 runs per ball – one of four leggies in the top 10, with Alana King coming in at 4, Amelia Kerr at 6 and Katie Levick at 10.

In contrast to our Batting Rankings, where 80% of the top 10 were overseas stars, the top 10 bowlers are 70% England-qualified, with only 5 overseas in the top 20, just two of whom are not leg-spinners – Sophie Molineux at 13, and Megan Schutt at 20.

Amanda Jade Wellington has been outstanding as a wicket-taking option once again, though she has been a tad more expensive in terms of economy than she was last year – last season she ranked 4th in the top 20 for economy; this year she’s 13th. As a key part of Brave’s success, the really interesting question is whether they can afford to keep her next season on a third-tier salary, or whether someone else will tempt her away with more money elsewhere? (The players earning first and second-tier salaries above her at Brave are all ones you’d want to keep too – Wyatt, Smriti, Dunkley and Shrubsole.)

Em Arlott is one of three uncapped England prospects in the top 10, and sneaks into second place above Lauren Bell thanks to her superior economy rate. Having been included in England’s Test squad v India in 2021 but not made the XI, Arlott was even more unfortunate this year when the after-effects of Covid ruled her out of contention for the Test against South Africa. At 24 she’s coming to her peak, taking wickets and maintaining a good economy rate – she might not have the hype of certain other players, or the reputation of others, but she’s performing on the pitch where it matters, and on form she really should be in the T20 squad for the India series and the World Cup.

The other two England prospects are both Invincibles players, and a key part of why Invincibles were able to maintain their bowling levels this season, despite Marizanne Kapp having to sit out of half their group-stage matches. Eva Gray is perhaps the most interesting. Though only 22 the seamer has been around the Surrey setup for a long time, but has been viewed as a useful domestic player and nothing more – she doesn’t have a contract at South East Stars –  but by keeping it simple, sticking to her strengths and not trying to bowl at 80mph, she has been pretty handy this season, and is perhaps a prospect for another region to swoop in for her if Stars can’t find a contract for her next year.

The other England prospect in the top 10 is the year’s surprise package – 17-year-old left-arm orthodox spinner Sophia Smale, who only came into the Invincibles squad as a last minute injury replacement for Emma Jones. Smale has excelled with the ball, opening the bowling on several occasions, and in the field where her speed across the ground from a standing start allows her to take catches others wouldn’t get near. Handing out a medal to Smale at a junior tournament a few years ago, Sophie Ecclestone once joked that she could be coming for her England spot one day, and while Ecclestone is probably safe for the moment… being the world’s top-ranked bowler in both white-ball formats… if Smale continues to work hard on her game, a regional contract and eventually an England one, are surely in the offing.

Bowling Ranking = Wickets / Economy

Our batting rankings are usually dominated by the big names, but it feels rare to see a list that is quite so monopolised by established internationals. In The Hundred last year, we had 3 uncapped players – Eve Jones (5th), Georgia Redmayne (14th) and Dani Gibson (15th) – in our top 15; this year you have to go down to 19 before you find the first uncapped name – Superchargers captain Holly Armitage – the only player without international recognition in the top 20. (And you have to go as deep as 28th before you find another – Bess Heath.)

There is also a worrying lack of England players in the top 20. At the last WBBL, 12 of the top 20, and 5 of the top 10, were Australians; here, only 8 (or 9 if you count Sarah Bryce) of those in the top 20 are England-qualified players, and just 2 in the top 10 are English; so suggestions that what The Hundred really needs is more overseas players might be considered… er… “ill-considered” in the light of these numbers!

Sheer weight of runs puts Laura Wolvaardt out on top, with two 50s and a highest score of 90* at a strike rate of 184 in Superchargers’ remarkable successful chase versus Originals. The prevailing wisdom that Wolvaardt is really a Test / ODI player trying to shoehorn herself into a role in the T20 game will probably follow her throughout her career, and there remains an element of truth to it: her strike rate of 134 is significantly less than the top 10 average of 149. On the other hand, 134 is hardly terrible, and the real question for teams to address is how to complement what she can bring to a team (runs) with what others can (high strike rate). Arguably Superchargers eventually stumbled upon the answer to this, with a top order of Healy, Wolvaardt and Heath, and it would have been good to see this play out over a longer, WBBL-type season with twice as many games.

Suzie Bates might have been a late addition to the Invincibles squad as their “4th overseas” but she underlined her continuing value in franchise cricket with 229 runs at 151, while also picking up the captaincy when Dane van Niekerk has missed out on selection. Most squads chose their 4th overseas with a very clear role as a “backup plan” – Deepti Sharma at Phoenix didn’t play at all, and Molly Strano at Brave played only one game – but Bates ended up playing every match, and forming a formidable partnership with Lauren Winfield-Hill which has made Invincibles a much more balanced team this season, after their over-reliance on their bowling last year.

Winfield-Hill herself is the top-ranked English player at 4, continuing her outstanding domestic summer, after shining in regional cricket too. Whether she has done enough to force herself back into the England XI as a batter remains an open question (probably not, to be honest), though it was interesting that she insisted on retaining the wicket-keeping gloves even though Invincibles had another keeper on the team, despite an injury concern in the final match, suggesting that maybe she sees this as her route back to international cricket?

Two players we definitely won’t be seeing play internationally again come in at 6 and 7 – Deandra Dottin and Lizelle Lee have both recently retired from internationals to focus on making hay (and… let’s not beat about the bush… money) in franchise cricket, and both had fair starts to their new directions; but it will be interesting to see how long they can continue to stay with the pace, without the extrinsic motivations that come with being part of an international squad. Being your own coach, fitness instructor and nutritionist no doubt sounds appealing; but can it work longer-term? It will be fascinating to watch how that evolves over the next year or so.

Batting Ranking = Runs * Strike Rate

Grace Scrivens – dropped down the order after having “failed” in the opening role earlier in the tournament – and Naomi Dattani battled through 54 balls to pull London Spirit back from the deepest of deep holes at 26-6, to overhaul Birmingham Phoenix’s 82 all out, with just 3 balls remaining. Never has the old cliché of pulling victory from the jaws of defeat seemed more apt.

Needing a win (or a tie) to qualify for the eliminator, the pressure was all on Phoenix, who decided to push Sophie Molineux up the order to open in place of Eve Jones. It was a classic case of making a decision based on reputation rather than reality – Molineux has opened the batting for Melbourne Renegades in the past, but they were never particularly successful when she did, and last season, when they had their best season ever, she batted down the order. Unsurprisingly then, she didn’t last long today – sending a limp drive off Freya Davies straight to Amelia Kerr on the ring for 3 off 3.

This brought Amy Jones to the middle, who is developing something a reputation for dealing with pressure the same way a bar of Dairy Milk deals with being left in a hot car on a sunny day. Let’s just say… it doesn’t end well for the Dairy Milk, and it didn’t for Amy Jones – cleaned-up by an admittedly beautiful delivery from Megan Schutt. Ellyse Perry lasted just one ball, and suddenly Phoenix were 15-3.

While Sophie Devine was still there hope remained, but it was looking increasingly forlorn, with both Devine and Eve Jones struggling to find the middle of the bat, and the runs drying up to a trickle. They’d reached 32 off 34 balls when Devine looked to take a quick single, realised she wasn’t going to make it, and tried to retrace her steps, but not quite in time to prevent Grace Scrivens removing the bails after a sharp throw from Charlie Dean. 32-4.

Eve Jones and Georgia Elwiss put on 25, making 24 and 14 respectively – the only Phoenix batters to reach double-figures – but their pace was less than a run a ball, and both fell to infield catches are they tried to manufacture something to up the rate; and from there Phoenix imploded to 82 all out – no doubt to the delight of Northern Superchargers, Trent Rockets and Manchester Originals, all of whom needed Phoenix to lose to retain an interest themselves in qualification for Friday’s semi-final eliminator.

But we are rapidly learning that if there’s one thing hundred-ball cricket can do it is turn on a dime, and within 11 balls of the Spirit innings it had done the kind of 180 Tony Hawk would have been proud of in his heyday. First Dani Gibson clonked Sophie Molineux to long on to register her 4th duck of the tournament – it happens, and the important thing in this super-short format is not to waste balls, which was Grace Scrivens’ “crime” when she was opening, so Gibson shouldn’t feel too badly about it.

Beth Mooney however probably should feel a little badly about her dismissal – given how few runs Spirit were chasing, there was no excuse really for the senior player to take on Sophie Devine’s arm, and she got her comeuppance!  Amelia Kerr followed her back to the dugout 2 balls later – chipping into a space, which suddenly wasn’t a space any more, as Eve Jones sprinted in to take the catch on the dive. After Phoenix had been 15-3, Spirit were now 2-3.

But with Sophie Luff and Charlie Dean at the crease, and the ask well under a run a ball, it should still have been an easy chase, and it was set up for Luff and Dean, neither of whom are big hitters, to manage their way to the total, getting them in singles if necessary. And that seemed to be the way things were going, until both were softly dismissed, followed by Alice Monaghan. 26-6, and I suspect some glum faces among the Superchargers, Rockets and Originals players watching on from their homes or hotel rooms.

The batters in the middle: Naomi Dattani – whose greatest moments on a cricket field have tended towards the “see ball/ hit ball out of the ground” end of the spectrum, and Grace Scrivens, demoted down the order having looked puzzlingly out of form in the first few matches of this tournament.

But the required rate was still within reach – it was 50 off 50 at the half-way stage – so all they needed to do was hang in there and they’d give themselves a chance. And that’s exactly what they did. Dattani finished 28 off 29; and Scrivens 26 off 30, scoring just 3 boundaries between them, but they reached the final set with a gettable 7 needed from 5 balls, and Sophie Molineux (who will want to have this game clinically erased from her memory) did the rest – cracking under the pressure, bowling a head-hight no-ball, which effectively cost 5 runs to leave Spirit needing 2 off 4 balls. Scrivens needed just one ball to finish her tournament (and London Spirit’s) on a high which no one who was here will forget in a hurry.