After their win against MCC at Lord’s last week, Middlesex will go into the opening rounds of the Women’s County Championship next weekend with some confidence, hoping to avoid a repeat of last season where they lost their first two matches to Lancashire and Yorkshire.

“We didn’t start as well as we wanted to!” admits co-captain Natasha Miles.

Victory by the narrowest of margins against Berkshire was followed by two more defeats, to Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire, leaving them with 1 win from 5 by the end of May. Mired in the relegation zone, it didn’t look good for Middlesex going into the T20 season.

“It was a difficult time for us,” acknowledges coach Sanjay Patel. “We were up against it – availability wasn’t great; the England girls weren’t around; and we had some freak injuries – it was all doom and gloom!”

But the T20 season offered an opportunity for a fresh start, and Middlesex grabbed it – winning 5 of their 8 matches, finishing with big wins against Warwickshire and Kent in the final round to lift them to a second-placed finish in the table.

“The T20 came at a really good time,” says Patel. “We played some fantastic cricket and the belief that I keep telling the girls that I have in them came through in the T20 and it freed them up a bit.”

When the County Championship resumed, however, staying up still looked like a tough ask for Middlesex, with back-to-back fixtures against Sussex and Kent – traditionally two of the strongest sides in the competition.

“We were under massive pressure – I didn’t sleep for days!” recalls Patel.

Middlesex pulled off the win against Kent, but other results meant that the match against Sussex had become a relegation “final”.

Players on both sides rose to the occasion: “It was one of the best games of cricket I’ve ever seen – proper cricket – the challenges were there, mentally and physically,” says Patel.

But thanks to a fantastic performance from all-rounder Sophia Dunkley – top-scoring with 63 and taking 3 wickets – it was Middlesex who came out on top.

“We learned so much from those two days,” says Miles. “Everything we put into those two games we took into our winter training and now we’re bringing it to the season coming.”

A few new faces will join the ranks this season, alongside established stars like co-captain Naomi Dattani and former England veteran Beth Morgan. Patel takes us through the roll-call:

“There’s Emma Albery, who is at university in York – a young exciting middle-order batsman who bowls a little bit of spin; and Rebecca Tyson, who is the youngest – a left-arm seamer; while Iqraa Hussain will keep wicket in the 50-over. Iqraa and Emma have come through our junior program, while Rebecca came through our regional trialling program from Hertfordshire.”

“Katie Woolfe is also like a new player – she was injured for most of last year with terrible shin-splints and pretty much missed the whole season – but she is a really exciting young opening bowler, who is in the England Academy program.”

Miles is also excited about their new “overseas”, Hayleigh Brennan – a British passport-holder from Australia, who played against England in the Governor General’s XI match during the recent Women’s Ashes tour, and made one appearance for the Melbourne Stars in WBBL03.

“We only just met Hayleigh this weekend – she is going to offer a lot of experience opening the bowling alongside the younger girls that are coming through,” says Miles.

So… the big question: will this be Middlesex’s year?

“We are optimistic,” says Miles; and Patel agrees:

“I’m not a big one for making predictions,” he says. “But I say to the girls: if we play to our potential, we will beat anyone!”

The MCC’s inaugural Women’s Day at Lord’s woke the old ground from an 85-year slumber as Middlesex played on the main square for the first time in their history.

Middlesex Women’s Cricket Club was founded in 1933 and played its first county match in June 1934, against the Civil Service (which… yes… was a “county” in those days) but it was not until yesterday – April 24 2018 – that they got to play properly at The Home of Cricket, and they made the most of it, beating a strong MCC side by 6 wickets with one ball to spare.

The MCC XI were led by Charlotte Edwards, and included current England players Georgia Elwiss and Sarah Taylor, but it was Durham’s Elysa Hubbard and former Berkshire Beaver Alex Rogers who opened the batting, putting on a century-stand for the first wicket, with Rogers eventually falling for 72, as Maia Bouchier finally held a catch (off Bhavika Gajipra) after more than a few sitters had been put down by Middlesex, doubtless due to a combination of nerves and the unfamiliarity of playing in a big stadium.

The MCC closed on 145-3, which looked competitive; and although openers Tash Miles and Naomi Dattani got Middlesex off to a good start, the asking rate began to creep up, until it exceeded 9-an-over at one stage; but a fantastic knock from Bouchier got it down to 30 off the final 4 overs, and then 8 off the last 6 balls, with Bouchier finishing on 39* as Middlesex celebrated the win.

Earlier in the day, over 5,000 kids from local schools had cheered every ball as two MCC XI’s, including a few England names of yesteryear, played a knockabout exhibition match, notable mainly for Claire Taylor gamely trying to hold back and not make everyone else look too silly as she dominated some very friendly bowling to lead her team to victory.

The children were also treated to games and coaching sessions on the Nursery Ground, and if the measure of the day as an “event” was to be judged by excited grins on happy faces, then it certainly hit the mark, perhaps demonstrating that you can get kids enthusiastic about cricket, even without resorting to 100-ball Countdown Cricket… or “Crockit” as our own teenager has now officially termed it!!

England’s Academy have lost all 4 games of their One-Day Tri-Series versus Australia and South Africa in South Africa.

England – at a slight disadvantage coming into this tour off the back of their off-season – were bowled out in every match, losing twice to Australia and twice to South Africa.

In the first match, Izzy Cloke and Sophia Dunkley combined with 3 wickets apiece as Australia were bowled out for 169; and Dunkley then went on to hit 57 off 62 balls as England chased hard, but eventually fell short by 9 runs.

That was pretty much as good as it got for England, whose batsmen didn’t hit another 50 in the series. Dunkley top-scored again with 38 in the second match against South Africa, as England were bowled out for 152, which the South Africans chased with 10 balls to spare.

In their third match, England collapsed to 83-7 before Tara Norris added a bit of respectability – hitting 38* as they finished 144 all out, which Australia easily chased inside 37 overs; and then in their final game yesterday, England laboured to 138 all out off 48 overs, which South Africa knocked off in just 26.3 overs for the loss of only 3 wickets.

Dunkley aside, the only real success story from the trip in terms of numbers was Durham’s previously unknown leg-spinner Helen Fenby, who bowled 25 overs, taking 3 wickets at an economy rate of 2.72. (Lancashire’s Emma Lamb also had a reasonable return with the ball, taking 5 wickets at 3.53; but considering her status and seniority, had a massively disappointing tour with the bat, averaging 6 with a highest score of 12.)

England will, not unreasonably, chalk this up as a “learning experience” but the gulf between them and Australia’s next generation in particular, who won all 4 of their matches, must be worrying. By 2020, when these players are starting to come to maturity, all the Aussies will be full-time pros playing 50-over WNCL and T20 WBBL in the toughest leagues in the world… whilst all the England girls will have to look forward to professionally is 5 weeks of Noddy Cricket in “The 100”. If Mark Robinson isn’t more than slightly concerned by that… he should be.

In a joint statement, Somerset County Cricket Club and Gloucestershire County Cricket Club have said that they are “100% committed to supporting Western Storm and the KIA Super League” despite the ECB announcing last week that both would be disbanded following the inauguration of “The 100” in 2020.

The clubs state:

“At this week’s meeting of CEO’s and Chairmen, we discussed the future of the women’s game at length and whilst it was decided that the new women’s competition would be aligned to the men’s, it would be so only in structure and not necessarily in geography.”

“We are all excited by the prospect of the new 100-ball tournament, despite neither Taunton or Bristol being selected as a host venue for the men’s competition, and we are delighted that both venues could very well be staging fixtures in the women’s competition.”

What does this mean in practice?

Well… the ECB’s announcement said that there will be: “aligned competitions for both men’s and women’s teams – sharing a common format, brands and identities.” So we know that there will NOT be a team called Western Storm!

But this does indeed leave space for the one of the “100” franchises to base their women’s team at Taunton and Bristol, and this possibility seems to have been dangled in front of Somerset and Gloucestershire at last week’s meetings.

Assuming there is at some minimal semblance of geographic correlation between the men’s and women’s teams, there is only one remotely plausible candidate for this – the franchise based at Cardiff. But there may be potential issues with any outcome which looks like Cardiff “offloading” their women’s team elsewhere – not least in terms of potential applications for regional government funding, which would mandate gender-equality; and of course it is not necessarily the case that they would even want to do this anyway.

Nonetheless, the press release can be read as Somerset and Gloucestershire throwing their hats into the ring to effectively be able to continue to run the Storm, albeit under a new “brand”, after 2020 as part of the “100”.

Chestertons, one of London’s top estate agents, is giving away 1,000 tickets to see a historic match at Lord’s Cricket Ground to celebrate its new sponsorship of women’s cricket at Middlesex Cricket.

On Tuesday 24 April Middlesex Women will play a Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) side captained by former England skipper Charlotte Edwards at Lord’s. It will be the first time in their history that Middlesex Women have played on the main ground at Lord’s – ‘The Home of Cricket’ – and fans are being given the chance to claim one of the thousand tickets that Chestertons has pledged to give out.

The 1,000 tickets will be given to the first people to visit: http://bit.ly/chestertons-womens-cricket and enter their details. They will join what is expected to be the biggest ever audience of a domestic women’s cricket match in England. The current (modern*) record stands at 3,413 but over 5,000 are expected at Lord’s on the 24 April, including thousands of children from local schools.

Middlesex Women is the latest team to benefit from Chestertons’ support of women’s sport. In 2015, the agent announced sponsorship of London Welsh Women and in 2017 it was instrumental in securing the first female captain of an England polo team, Hazel Jackson, at Chestertons Polo in the Park.

Giles Milner, Head of Marketing and Sponsorships, commented: “We’re very excited to be sponsoring women’s cricket, a fast emerging sport that had a huge boost last summer when England won the ICC Women’s World Cup at Lord’s. The tide has definitely turned for women’s sport in general, with attendance, publicity and awareness growing quickly, and we are proud to be at the front of it in London.”

Over recent years, Chestertons has emerged as one of the most diverse supporters of sport, culture and charity in London, sponsoring a range of events, teams, institutions and initiatives from Chestertons Polo in the Park, now the biggest three-day polo tournament in the world; the Royal Academy of Arts and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Richmond Cricket Club; St Mungo’s homeless charity; and has even started curating its own programme of niche art events, Chestertons Art Programme.

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* 15,000 people once watched Yorkshire Women v Lancashire Women, but that was in a place called “History”, which was a really long time ago** so we’ll let them off!

** 1949 to be precise – at Roundhay Park in Leeds!

If this was the Commonwealth Games – currently taking place in Gold Coast, Australia – then England flying home from India with two silver medals in their bags might be thought quite a creditable achievement.

But it isn’t – it is cricket – and coming second in the Tri-Series versus India and Australia, and then second again in the bilateral ODI series against India, is probably not what England ideally wanted.

Of course, there is an element of being able to argue that the end-results didn’t really matter – a throw-away T20 “cup” and 3 non-Championship ODIs are both things you can afford to lose – no one will remember these reversals if England go on to win the World T20 in the Caribbean in November.

It was also a weak England team, without Sarah Taylor and Katherine Brunt – and they were consciously “experimenting” by bringing in Bryony Smith, Alice Davidson-Richards and Katie George for the Tri-Series; and bedding-in a new ODI opening partnership, after Lauren Winfield’s slump in form made her continued position at the top of the order untenable.

The new opening partnership for the ODIs – with Danni Wyatt joining Tammy Beaumont up-top – was definitely a success, with 70+ partnerships for the 1st wicket in the 1st and 2nd ODIs – it will be a big surprise now if that is not the opening partnership we see this summer against New Zealand and South Africa.

Wyatt herself was with little doubt England’s star player on this tour, with 304 runs (across both series) at an average of 38, and a Strike Rate of 143; though it bears pointing out that India’s star – Smriti Mandhana – made a lot more runs (389) at a better average (78) with a Strike Rate also well over 100 (108) despite playing one less match.

Elsewhere in England’s batting line-up, Nat Sciver (180) and Tammy Beamont (200) made runs, as did Amy Jones (143), although of course most of them came in her “deserved a” 100 in the final ODI. But there have to be some concerns about Fran Wilson – averaging 19; whilst Heather Knight didn’t quite fire, making starts but not passing 40 on the tour; and Georgia Elwiss, drafted in for the ODIs, also had a tour she will probably want to forget, making 11 and 1.

With the ball, Sophie Ecclestone and Dani Hazell were England’s stand-out performers – Ecclestone taking 10 wickets at 4.5; and Hazell 9 wickets at 4.8 – both can probably start shopping for a trip to the West Indies in the autumn… though hopefully there won’t be too much time for them on the beach, as England will be too busy winning the thing!!

With Katherine Brunt home injured, and Anya Shrubsole also missing the T20s and still clearly working her way back to full match fitness in the ODIs, England experimented with various other quick bowlers, but we are unfortunately still no nearer to the answer of who our backups are for Brunt and Shrubsole when they are unavailable… or indeed who will replace 32-year-old Brunt longer-term.

Tash Farrant didn’t have a bad T20 series – she went at 8-an-over, but to be fair that seems to be the new normal, especially when you are playing Australia! She is not an “out and out” quick though, so England probably don’t see her as a long-term opener. Katie George is still clearly as raw as onions; whilst even at county, ADR is more of a batting than a bowling all-rounder. Meanwhile, Kate Cross can’t get a game, and Freya Davies can’t even get a plane ticket.

So what is the long term answer? I’m not sure England know! I’ll be accused of “wearing a Berkshire hat” here, but… Lauren Bell, possibly? She is rawer than George, but terrifyingly quick when she gets it right, and England’s coaches might just be hoping that Brunt can carry on for another 2 years until Bell is really ready.

Lancashire captain Megan Fairclough has announced her retirement from county cricket in order to pursue a new life with her partner in Milan.

Fairclough, who captained Lancashire to the T20 and County Championship Double last year, played 11 seasons for Lancashire, taking exactly 100 wickets for the county, with best figures of 4-9 versus Durham in 2015.

Fairclough took over the captaincy at a difficult time, following Lancashire’s ignominious relegation from Div 1 after losing all their matches in 2015; but she led them back to promotion again the following year, and then to their double-triumph in 2017.

Talking to the Bolton News, Fairclough said:

“I’m 26 years old, so it’s an early retirement. You never say never. If things change and I come back to the UK or go somewhere else more dominated by cricket, of course I’d look at playing again.”

“I wish the girls and the coaching staff all the best. I will be following from Milan.”

This Tri-Series was a batsman’s paradise if ever there was one. Good pitches meant batsmen were rewarded – and bowlers punished – with an average run-rate of 8.09 runs an over across the whole tournament. As Martin Davies of Women’s Cricket Blog put it after the Aussies posted 209 against England: “Who’d be a bowler?”

In this environment, one bowler stood out above all the others – not only did Megan Schutt take more wickets than anyone else, but she did so at an Economy Rate of 6.28. Now 25 years of age, Schutt is practically middle-aged in cricketing terms, and like South Africa’s Marizanne Kapp seems to have figured out that having a plan… or perhaps more accurately having lots of plans, and sticking to them like superglue… is actually the bowler’s most valuable weapon of all.

Having been dropped in 2014, medium-fast seamer Delissa Kimmince made her come-back for the Southern Stars in the T20 round of the Women’s Ashes, and her performance on this tour to India has validated that recall, with 8 wickets at 7.76.

But will Kimmince be in Australia’s starting XI in the West Indies at the World T20? Well… an interesting point made by Snehal Pradhan on our recent podcast was that the pitches here have been very good and friendly to the quicker bowlers. Seamers dominate this list – unusually for a women’s tournament, especially one held in the sub-continent – but will the pitches be the same in the West Indies? Or will they be slow turners that produce a very different list come November?

Bowling Ranking = Wickets / Economy

Perhaps unsurprisingly after becoming only the second woman to make two T20 hundreds, England’s new T20 opener Danni Wyatt tops the batting rankings for the T20 Tri-Series, with 213 runs in total. Although over half her runs came in that century innings of 124, she only had one real failure – 6 in the penultimate group game versus Australia – and even then she maintained a Strike Rate of over 150, finishing the tournament with the leading Strike Rate of 182.

It has to be said though that although the numbers (just) favour Wyatt, second-placed Smriti Mandhana was actually the most impressive batsman in the tournament – playing just 4 innings to Wyatt’s 5 due to India not making the final, she too had one failure (3 against Australia) but she passed 50 in each of the other 3 innings she batted, making 67, 76 and 62* at a Strike Rate of 165.

Despite having sat out of one game, Meg Lanning makes the list at No. 3, after her explosive performance in the final, scoring 88* at a Strike Rate of 196 as Australia made their record total of 209. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of that innings is that she did it mostly in 4s – 16 of them, to just the 1 six.

Batting Ranking = Runs * Strike Rate