England have recalled left-arm orthodox spinner Alex Hartley for the ODI series against New Zealand which begins on Saturday at Headingley.

Fast bowler Katie George – yet to make her ODI debut – is also included in the squad announced today, but Danni Hazell has been dropped despite performing well in the T20 Tri-Series, when she took 6 wickets at an Economy Rate under 7.

Hazell, who is highly rated as a T20 specialist and played in the Women’s IPL Exhibition Match earlier this year, was included in the squad for the ODI series against South Africa which preceded the Tri-Series, but didn’t actually play.

Full Squad

Heather Knight (Berkshire)
Tammy Beaumont (Kent)
Katherine Brunt (Yorkshire)
Sophie Ecclestone (Lancashire)
Georgia Elwiss (Sussex)
Katie George (Hampshire)
Jenny Gunn (Warwickshire)
Alex Hartley (Lancashire)
Amy Jones (Warwickshire)
Laura Marsh (Kent)
Anya Shrubsole (Somerset)
Nat Sciver (Surrey)
Sarah Taylor (Sussex)
Lauren Winfield (Yorkshire)
Danni Wyatt (Sussex)

After their knife-edge relegation from Div 1 of the Women’s County Championship, Middlesex stormed back in style as they won the T20 Cup at Beckenham.

With Kent beating Warwickshire first-up at Beckenham, Middlesex’s match with Warwickshire turned into a dead rubber – it didn’t matter if they won or lost – the final match between them and Kent would be a de-facto final which decided the title.

Batting first, Middlesex’s co-captains Naomi Dattani and Tash Miles put on 73 for the first wicket, setting up an eventual total of 128-5. In reply, Kent could only reach 112 in their 20 overs, with Alice Davidson-Richards top-scoring with 38, but chewing-up 49 balls in a chase where the ask was over a run-a-ball, to leave Middlesex celebrating their first title.

Sussex sealed second place with wins against Worcestershire – Georgia Adams top-scoring with 64* – and Notts – Adams this time leading with the ball, with 3-15.

At the other end of the table, Worcestershire and Yorkshire were relegated after Surrey beat Yorkshire in what was effectively a play-off – Beth Langston hit 50 as Yorkshire posted 125-6, which Surrey chased-down with just 2 balls to space thanks to 43* from Aylish Cranstone.

Meanwhile in Div 2, Hampshire, Wales and Scotland all finished on 28 points, with 7 wins each and their only losses being to each other, meaning promotion came down to Net Run Rate, with Scotland the ones to miss out – Hampshire promoted as division winners, and Wales in second.

After a thoroughly convincing win in the T20 Tri-Series Final at Chelmsford, are England now favourites going into the World T20 in the Caribbean this autumn?

Heather Knight was typically reluctant to get over-excited:

“I don’t think we’ll be favourites – it is hard to look past Australia – but I think we’ll be up there.”

Nevertheless, having won the T20 rubber of the Women’s Ashes, and now this Tri-Series against New Zealand and South Africa, there will be no better-placed team going into the tournament.

England’s batting has obviously enjoyed a remarkable renaissance – it says much about the way the team are playing that it feels like Dani Wyatt had a quiet series… yet she still scored two 50s at a Strike Rate of 138.

But in a way, in a Batsman’s Series like this, where the world record total has been broken not once but twice, what you actually need is your bowlers to turn up, and England’s definitely did, especially today.

“The bowling has been the highlight for me,” Knight told us. “The bowlers have been very consistent. It was a very good wicket today, but the way we’ve executed our plans on different types of pitches has been really good.”

This is why Sophie Ecclestone, not leading run-scorer Tammy Beaumont, was our Player of the Series – to take 10 wickets at an Economy Rate of a shade over 7 is a splendid return; but more impressive was the way she took her wickets. Like everyone, she was knocked around at times, but she responded by keeping her head and just sticking to her game-plan.

“You obviously get hit in T20,” she said today, “but it is all part of the game – you get your rewards if you just bowl straight, keeping the stumps in play.”

Heather Knight was also full of praise for the left-armer:

“She’s matured a lot in the last year – she’s become a lot more savvy with how she goes about her bowling – she’s very tall so she gets some extra bounce and attacks both edges of the bat.”

With Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole also back on the absolute pinnacle of their games this is what England will need in the West Indies, where there will perhaps be less batting-friendly pitches. England really did hardly bowl a bad ball today, and they backed it up with some tight work in the field – if they can do that in November, we could well be looking at double-World Champions.

It was a match that promised much… and delivered somewhat less. With qualification for the Tri-Series final still very much alive, I was looking forward to “a cracker” whilst Martin Davies from Women’s Cricket Blog predicted “Runs, runs, runs…”

But in the end the first over – a wide from Lea Tahuhu first-up, followed by two more – rather set the pattern for what was to come – an error-strewn contest which players and spectators alike will want to soon forget.

“We were really disappointed with the way we started that game,” admitted New Zealand’s Sophie Devine afterwards. “We were flat, we bowled plenty of extras and we just weren’t there in the field.”

“We can’t afford to play like that against any side – Suzie had to give us a bit of a rarrrrk up!”

(No – we aren’t entirely sure what a “rarrrrk up” is either… but we are fairly sure we wouldn’t want to be on the end of one!!)

“We were probably lucky to be able to pull it back the way we did,” says Devine.

That they had an opportunity to do so was mainly because if anything South Africa looked even more off-colour.

Coach Hilton Moreeng told us:

“We were below par by our standards – it is very frustrating – the inconsistency. If you look at the wicket there was not a lot of daemons in it, so another 20 or 30 runs on the board could have made a game of it.”

Laura Wolvaardt in particular couldn’t get it off the square today and chewed-up a lot of dots on her way to 25 from 37 balls; but Moreeng maintains his faith in her:

“She is a youngster – she is learning, and at the end of the day we are building towards the [T20] World Cup. She is only 19 years old – you can’t box her and say ‘she can’ or ‘she can’t’ – there is a lot that she has got – she is a clean striker of a cricket ball – she has proven it – now she has to go back and see how she can get options here.”

It chimes in with what Wolvaardt herself told us last week – she is still learning as a Twenty20 player and she knows she isn’t the finished article yet; but there is confidence that if South Africa keep faith with her, then she can be.

Asked to chase 148, New Zealand knocked them off with almost 5 overs to spare, but it wasn’t the perfect batting display from them either:

“At times we played a few rash shots!” Devine acknowledged. “It’s important for us to make sure we put away the bad ball and don’t get too carried away with ourselves.”

What made it easier though is that, once again, South Africa did half the job for them, as Moreeng admited:

“When you look at fielding, we didn’t back up the bowling. On a wicket which took a bit of pace off, which actually assisted the bowlers, the fielding wasn’t up to par.”

“The fielding the whole series wasn’t ok – it is one area where we need to go home and have a look at it and see where we can improve.”

“Given the short format in the T20 you can’t afford to give the chances what we are giving, and the way we are fielding at the moment is not gonna help.”

But there are positives to take forward:

“This wasn’t a great series, but there is a lot we’ve learned – there have been some good lessons, so we’ll see what we can adapt in our plans to make sure we go forwards.”

“We’ve got 3 months before the World Cup. We’ve got West Indies in September, away – the ICC Series and a lot of T20s. Luckily for us, we will be in the Caribbean so we will be able to get used to the conditions.”

It wasn’t to be for South Africa in England this summer, despite winning the opening ODI of the tour, but they are still a good side and anyone who underestimates them in the West Indies does so at their peril.

A century from Bryony Smith brought Middlesex’s unbeaten run in the T20 Cup to an end at Banstead, but Middlesex stay top of Div 1 after thrashing Notts earlier in the day. Smith carried her bat for 109* supported by Aylish Cranstone (43) as Surrey posted 178-3; and Eva Gray then dismissed both Middlesex openers for ducks on the way to bowling Middlesex out for 89.

Three other teams remain in the hunt going into the final round next Sunday. Sussex picked up two wins at Edgbaston – Freya Davies (4-8) starring with the ball v Warwickshire, and Georgia Adams (61) with the bat v Lancashire. Warwickshire also kept themselves in the reckoning with a good win over Lancashire.

Meanwhile at Kidderminster Alice Davidson-Richards (37) top scored for Kent as they posted 135 v Worcestershire, who crawled to 88-8 in reply; and Kent then consigned Yorkshire to a 5th straight defeat as they restricted them to 103-6, which they chased in 18 overs.

Yorkshire did then pick up their first win of the season to beat Worcestershire, chasing Worcestershire’s 94-7 in 17.1 overs, with Abi Glen top-scoring with 30*.

The title will be decided next weekend, with Middlesex, Kent and Warwickshire all playing each other, while Sussex will be hoping to sneak up on the outside on Net Run Rate* as they face Worcestershire and Notts.

(* Assuming it doesn’t rain, I think Sussex can only win it on NRR – the maximum they can get is 24; which Middlesex will have if they win just one match, whilst if Middlesex lose both their matches, one of Kent or Warwickshire will have 24.)

[** Update – It is even more complicated than that – see comments!!]

In Div 2, Hampshire picked up two more wins, to stay top with 6-from-6; but Wales and Scotland remain close behind with 5 wins – two of those three will be promoted next weekend, when Hampshire play Wales and Northants while Scotland face Berkshire and Cheshire.

With 2 matches to go on Thursday at Bristol, England are currently in the driving seat to make next weekend’s final, despite losing to South Africa today, mainly because of their huge Net Run Rate advantage.

The remaining games are South Africa v New Zealand and England v New Zealand, and depending on the results, anything could happen in theory.

For example, if South Africa beat New Zealand and New Zealand then beat England, everyone will have played 4 and won 2, bringing it all down to Net Run Rate.

Obviously being on the wrong end of two huge totals on Day 1 makes NRR a bit of a long-shot for South Africa – but it is certainly mathematically possible!

Sune Luus had not had a great tour of England up until today. Once a leg-spinner who could bat a bit, she hardly bowls any more and is now in the side primarily for her batting, but with the bat on this tour before today, she had 3 ducks and had a highest score of 3 not-out – when she came to the crease, the England bowlers must have been thinking “walking wicket”, and not without reason!

“It hasn’t been a great tour,” Luus admits. “But it is really important to always stay in a positive mindset – I think on a tour like this you can’t lose your head!”

With England perhaps 10-20 short of a “good” score – Anya Shrubsole reckoned 170-180 was par the other day, though it isn’t quite such a road today – the South Africans had definitely given themselves a shot by restricting England to 160.

The early loss of Wolvaardt for a duck in the first over brought Luus to the crease early; but actually even earlier than she had been anticipating coming into the match – Stacy Lackay was due to come in at 3, but when she was taken poorly Luus found herself unexpectedly promoted and it turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Luus and for South Africa.

“I was due to come in at 7 or 8 but Stacey was ill – I’ve always been on my best when I don’t know I’m batting 3, so I think we need to do that more often – just don’t tell me!!”

So what did she do differently?

“Nothing special,” she says, “just focusing more!”

Luus and Lizelle Lee took South Africa past the hundred mark, never letting the required rate get away from them. They rotated the strike almost perfectly, Luus facing just one ball less than Lee going into the 13th over, but it was Lee who was doing the bulk of the scoring – 68 off 36 balls, to Luus’ 40 off 35.

Did that mean the pressure was on when Lee was dismissed on Anya Shrubsole’s return to the attack?

“No,” she says. “It is really important to back the players who are coming in next or you are going to put all the pressure on yourself and get bogged down and won’t get runs.”

And mentally freeing herself from that pressure seems to have worked a wonder – her strike rate went from 114 before Lee was out to 135 after, and even though Sophie Ecclestone produced a bit of a wonder-over, taking 3-2 in the 18th, Luus brought it home to finish the job by hitting Katherine Brunt for 4-4-6 in the 20th.

“I just stayed positive throughout this tour,” Luus concludes. “And I’m lucky it came off today.”

And perhaps she did get a little lucky – she was dropped on 25 by Jenny Gunn, and there was a big LBW shout to Hazell which TV showed was going to hit the stumps.

But T20 cricket can be very much about riding your luck – you still have to make that luck count, and Sune Luus did that here at Taunton to keep South Africa in with a shout in this Tri-Series.