When my son was a toddler, the very first phrase he learned was “Oh dear!” and for several weeks everything was “Oh dear!” this and “Oh dear!” that!

I could have hired-him out to the BBC to commentate on New Zealand’s innings today.

It began with a “Double-Oh Dear!” as “Oh Dear! No. 1” – a rank wide full toss from Katie George – was slapped not to the boundary but straight into the hands of Amy Jones by Sophie Devine for “Oh Dear No. 2”. (George at least had the self-awareness to face-palm as Devine walked back to the pavilion!)

George’s next wicket was a demonstration of what she is capable of when she isn’t spraying it for wides – Amy Satterthwaite the victim of an unplayable delivery which took out her off stump.

But the “Oh Dears!” soon continued as Katey Martin – perhaps starting to look like she is a bit out of her era in the professional age – was trapped in front by Katherine Brunt; and it was downhill from there for New Zealand.

Laura Marsh got some big turn to dismiss Suzie Bates, but Bates will feel she should have played it better – she has been out a couple of times cutting this summer – and the “Oh Dear” was then written all over her face as she had to watch her team collapse in epic style, from 75-3 to 83-8, and thence to 118 all out – a sheen of respectability added to the scorecard as Kate Ebrahim and Holly Huddlestone put on 26 for the final wicket as the White Ferns at least staggered to 3-figures.

Earlier in the day Tammy Beaumont and Nat Sciver had shown that it was possible to bat on this pitch, if you did it slowly and patiently; and although it is true that the pitch appeared to deteriorate a bit, it didn’t do it to the tune of the 123 runs New Zealand lost by!

So… where now for New Zealand? Well… Leicester on Friday for starters, where they will try to dust themselves down for a consolation win after a disappointing “winter”.

And then as they fly home, they might do well to remember one thing:

Until a couple of years ago, England used to do these kind of collapses so regularly that we started referring to it as “Doing An England” – now they are World Champions!

However bad it looks now, come 2021 New Zealand could yet be World Champions too.

A short while into New Zealand’s innings at Headingley a huge cheer went up amongst the crowd – 2,638 miles away England had scored in their World Cup quarter-final against Sweden in Samara, and with the TVs in the hospitality boxes (and the press box) tuned to the BBC, many of the 2,000-strong crowd in Leeds obviously had half an eye on the action in both of the day’s big games!

The players out in the middle were definitely not unaware of what was going on – “We got goose bumps on the pitch hearing that!” said Nat Sciver afterwards.

Another goal followed for England’s footballers and as they coasted towards what turned out to be a fairly straightforward win, England’s women were doing very much the same. Sciver diplomatically said that New Zealand are “by no means a two-batsman team” but it does rather look that way nonetheless.

Sophie Devine and Suzie Bates put on 70 for the first wicket – the sort of score you’d generally call a “strong platform” – but for New Zealand the platform is built on a middle-order made of sand, and they proceeded to lose 4 wickets for 5 runs in 3 overs, losing not only Devine and Bates, but also Amy Satthertwaite, whose purple patch in 2016-17 – when she scored 4 consecutive centuries – is starting to look like ancient history.

New Zealand’s eventual collapse to 148 all out had a horrible feeling of inevitability about it from the moment Sophie Ecclestone held  a very good running catch to dismiss Devine; and once Katie George had caught Bates off Sciver and Elwiss had trapped Satterthwaite LBW, it was time to start the crane.

This was after England had posted a score of 290-5, which felt slightly under-par at the half-way mark, for which much credit has to go to Amelia Kerr, who was the pick of the New Zealand bowlers, taking 2 big wickets (Amy Jones and Sarah Taylor) and perhaps more importantly going for just 36 runs in 10 overs.

Sciver admitted that England were wary of Kerr:

“Amelia was probably their most attacking bowler, so we were making sure that we took the easy ones against her and cashing in at the other end.”

Kerr was really the difference that meant England didn’t get past that 300 mark; but mention also must go to Katherine Brunt who produced the goods again with the bat to at least get them close – it wasn’t the prettiest cricket, but it was pretty effective, and meant Nat Sciver had more freedom to play her improvisations at the other end, knowing that there were runs coming from both ends.

In the end it was one of those improvisations that did for Sciver – LBW trying to play the “Natmeg” – but with some big boundaries and a wicket that was a bit slow, it was probably the right way to play and after going on to take 3 wickets as well, Sciver was awarded Player of the Match.

As for the White Ferns… unlike Sweden they can’t go home yet – there are still two matches more to play; and they are going to have to play a lot better than they did today or it is going to be a very long plane trip back to New Zealand at the end of next week.

Top England Women cricketers, including Heather Knight, Katherine Brunt and Nat Sciver are set to feature in a new set of collectable cricket trading cards, officially licensed by the ECB.

Heather Knight

There are over 200 cards to collect in total, showcasing players from both the men’s and women’s games. The limited-edition Trading Cards will be available at Tesco, Sainsbury’s and other stores across the UK.

Katherine Brunt

They are produced by Australian sports trading cards specialist Tap’N’Play, who also produce a set of BBL trading cards, which this year will feature 40% women players from the WBBL.

Nat Sciver

Premium cricket Trading Card sets have been popular in Australia and India for many years, but this is the first time cards featuring our top women players have appeared on general release in the UK.

Cricket is a simple game… right? The batting side’s job is to score runs; the fielding side’s job is to take wickets!

Well, imagine the scene:

It is the World T20 Final, and there are 3 overs left: the batting side need 30 off 18 balls, with Annie Accumulator at the crease, currently on 15 off 25 balls.

The bowling side bring back their star bowler, who bowls 5 dots in a row – now they need 30 off 13 balls, and Annie is now on 15 off 30 – a Strike Rate of just 50.

In desperation, Annie takes a big heave at the final ball of the over. It skies up towards the bowling side’s skipper, Rachel Reliable, at extra cover – it is going straight to her – the easiest catch she’ll ever take!

But…

Rachel knows that the next batsman in is Briana Basher – probably the only batter in the world who could hit the now-required 30 off 12 balls. So she takes a step backwards, allowing the ball to bounce in front of her, before hurling it in to the ‘keeper to save the second run.

In the post-match press-conference, after the batting side have fallen 20 short with Annie Accumulator not out on 17 off 35, Rachel Reliable holds the trophy in front of the media.

“What about that catch?” they ask.

“I just misjudged it,” she replies innocently.

And maybe she did (!) but it raises an interesting question.

These circumstances are clearly rather contrived; but there is a situation we do actually see quite often, where a fielder in the deep will chose not to go for a diving catch because if they miss it, it will go for 4 – so they prioritise saving the 4 over (possibly) taking the wicket.

The question is somewhat analogous to a play in baseball called a “Walk”, where the pitcher will deliberately bowl four consecutive “wides” to a batter, in order to prevent them hitting a home run, at which point they have to “walk” to first base – a play so normal in baseball, there are stats on it!

But would it “be cricket” if it happened in cricket?

Sophie Ecclestone was named Player of the Series for the T20 Tri-Series between England, New Zealand and South Africa and unsurprisingly she tops our bowling rankings, with 10 wickets at 7.05.

Although Suzie Bates slightly damned Ecclestone with faint praise after she took 4-18 against New Zealand in the group stages, saying “when you are chasing over 10 [runs/ over] it makes any bowler look better” Ecclestone got her own back in the final with a perfect arm-ball to dismiss Bates and essentially end New Zealand’s hopes in that match. You can watch the wicket here, and although it is easy to dis the arm-ball as “one that doesn’t spin” in fact it does spin – the application of top-spin means the ball shoots on much quicker than Bates is expecting, so that before she has even got into the cut she is trying to play, it has hit her off stump – magic bowling!

In Twenty20 cricket there is always the question of wickets versus economy – in a tight match (which only 2 out of 7 in this Tri-Series really were) an Economy Rate of 5.4 can easily be the difference between victory and defeat, so England will be very happy with the performances of No.2 ranked Anya Shrubsole this summer – with the World T20 coming up in November, she will be a key player as she looks to recreate the form which won her the Player of the Tournament at the WWT20 in Bangladesh back in 2014.

New Zealand’s leading bowler was teenage leg-spinner Amelia Kerr. Fresh from scoring her world-record double-century against Ireland, she didn’t look entirely convincing with the bat, with scores of 2, 5 and 12*; but with the ball in her hand she can do things that ought to be illegal, and while the commentators in the Sky box might be able to pick her googly, we discovered on Sunday that Sarah Taylor sure can’t and we doubt she is the only one!

Finally, it is worth noting one player who did not make the Top 10 – Marizanne Kapp had a pretty indifferent series, taking just 2 wickets and leaking runs at over 10 an over. Of course, “Form is Temporary…” and all that – less than 6 months ago Kapp was by far the most economical bowler in WBBL – but if South Africa are to compete at the World T20 they will need that Marizanne Kapp to turn up in the West Indies, not this one!

Bowling Ranking = Wickets / Economy

Surprisingly, our Batting Rankings are led not by Tammy Beaumont – the leading run-scorer in the T20 Tri-Series – but by Suzie Bates, whose superior Strike Rate gives her the edge. Bates plundered the South African bowling for 124* in their opening match, and a further 62 against them in their second game at Bristol; though she was notably less successful against England, scoring 23, 0 and 31.

Bates and Sophie Devine, at No. 3, between them scored a whopping two-thirds (66.8%) of New Zealand’s runs off the bat in the series, which really ought to be worrying them quite a lot – the next-ranked New Zealand batsman was Amy Satterthwaite, who came in 14th with just 58 runs.

For England obviously Tammy Beaumont was the stand-out star, but Nat Sciver also had a good series, despite playing a slightly more reserved game than we’ve maybe come to expect of her – she hit just two 6s in the series, and had the lowest boundary percentage of the Top 10 by quite a long way – 52%, compared with (for example) 77% for Lizelle Lee, the most in the Top 10.

Batting Ranking = Runs * Strike Rate

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.