When: Thursday @ 4.10am in the UK

Where: BT Sport

Perth Scorchers

Batting

In Form

• Elyse Villani – The captain has led from the front this season with 481 runs at a Strike Rate of 134.
• Nicole Bolton – Has made her case for a return to the Southern Stars T20 side she was dropped from in 2016, with 440 runs at 101.

Watch Out For

• Lauren Ebsary – The 34-year-old veteran has played a crucial role down the order for the Scorchers, with 155 runs at 117.

Bowling

In Form

• Katherine Brunt – The leading wicket-taker in WBBL03, with 22 wickets; and the lowest Economy Rate in the competition*, going at just 4.61 runs per over.
• Piepa Cleary – With 12 wickets and an Economy Rate of 6.02, her medium pace has kept things tight in the middle overs.

Watch Out For

• Nat Sciver – The England all-rounder hasn’t had a great WBBL with the ball, taking just 4 wickets at 7.78 – so she is due a performance, and she likes a big stage!

Sydney Thunder

Batting

In Form

• Rachel Haynes – The Southern Stars stand-in skipper might not actually be Meg Lanning, but she has been doing a pretty good impression recently – leading the Aussies as they retained the Women’s Ashes, and scoring 425 runs in WBBL, at a Strike Rate of 121.
• Alex Blackwell – The Thunder captain has been her usual solid presence in the middle order, making 329 runs at 99.

Watch Out For

• Naomi Stalenberg – She might have slipped slightly out of the limelight recently, with the emergence of Beth Mooney and Ashleigh Gardner; but she has still made 226 runs at 115 in WBBL03, with a top score of 48.

Bowling

In Form

• Rene Farrell – With 17 wickets at 5.85, the semi-retired Southern Star (she quit ODIs but remains theoretically available for T20 selection) continues to show that whatever “it” is… she’s still got it!
• Sam Bates – The young left-arm spinner has had a break-out season for the Thunder, taking 16 wickets at 5.78.

Watch Out For

• Belinda Vakarewa – Vakarewa narrowly missed-out on Women’s Ashes selection this time, but she has had a good WBBL with 11 wickets at an impressive Economy Rate of 5.53 – is this her big chance to make a case to add to her 1 (so far) international cap?

——————–

* Minimum 10 overs bowled!

After the long World Cup summer, followed immediately by the Women’s Ashes, the English contingent at the WBBL was reduced to just 5 this season – so at (roughly) the half-way point in the season, how have they all been doing?

The leading English player this term has undoubtedly been Katherine Brunt at the Scorchers, who has taken 11 wickets at a very economical 4.78 runs-per-over – this ranks her 2nd overall in WBBL, behind only Dane van Niekerk with 16 wickets at 5.37.

Also at the Scorchers, Nat Sciver ranks 10th overall with the bat, having hit 197 runs at a Strike Rate of 132. (Though to put this in a little perspective, 8 players have scored over 50 runs at a better Strike Rate.) However, Sciver has been much less successful with the ball – she has bowled 22 overs in all (only one less than Brunt) but has taken just 2 wickets, conceding an expensive 9.45 runs-per-over.

Opening the batting with Suzie Bates for the Strikers, Tammy Beaumont has been a solid performer, averaging 24; whilst at the Stars, Georgia Elwiss has made herself a reliable presence in the middle-order, including a match-winning (and player-of-the-match-winning) 59* against the Renegades last weekend.

Finally, Lauren Winfield has had a bit of a nightmare with the Hurricanes, who are propping-up the table without a win so far. Winfield started the season opening the batting, but has subsequently slipped down into the middle-order – it doesn’t seem to have helped much though, and she currently averages just 9 with a top score of only 15.

Tammy Beaumont
Adelaide Strikers
Runs: 195
Highest Score: 46
Strike Rate: 98

Katherine Brunt
Perth Scorchers
Runs: 68
Highest Score: 29
Strike Rate: 81
Wickets: 11
Economy: 4.78

Georgia Elwiss
Melbourne Stars
Runs: 118
Highest Score: 59*
Strike Rate: 105
Wickets: 2
Economy: 7.94

Nat Sciver
Perth Scorchers
Runs: 197
Highest Score: 84
Strike Rate: 132
Wickets: 2
Economy: 9.45

Lauren Winfield
Hobart Hurricanes
Runs: 72
Highest Score: 15
Strike Rate: 80

JANUARY: Rachael Heyhoe Flint Died on 18th January – at which ground did she make her highest Test score of 179?

• The Oval

FEBRUARY: Who won the World Cup Qualifying Tournament in Colombo?

• India

MARCH: Who was the highest run-scorer in the Rose Bowl ODI Series between Australia and New Zealand?

• Beth Mooney

APRIL: Rene Farrell announced her ODI retirement in March, after how many ODIs?

• 44

MAY: Which New Zealander scored 122 off 78 balls against Middlesex in the County Championship?

• Sophie Devine

JUNE: Who were the first team to win a match at the World Cup?

• New Zealand

JULY: Who ran out Sarah Taylor for 54 in England’s narrow World Cup semi-final win v South Africa?

• Dane van Niekerk

AUGUST: Lancashire won the Women’s County Championship, but who came second by just 1 point?

• Yorkshire

SEPTEMBER: The Western Storm won the Kia Super League – who was their leading wicket taker?

• Stafanie Taylor

OCTOBER: With the Women’s Ashes in progress, what was the series points score on the last day of October?

• Australia 4 – 2 England

NOVEMBER: Who recorded their first ever ODI victory over New Zealand on November 5th?

• Pakistan

DECEMBER: Who replaced injured Heather Knight as captain of Hobart Hurricanes in WBBL?

• Corinne Hall

A job advertisement uncovered by Martin Davies of Women’s Cricket Blog appears to confirm that the Kia Women’s Super League is set to be thrown under the juggernaut of the new Men’s City T20 in 2020, with the last edition of the competition coming in 2019.

The recruitment ad for a “Head of New T20 Operations”, posted to the ECB Careers web site, states (emphasis ours):

“For the first time in this country, this will be a domestic competition that involves teams not based on the existing county structure. 8 newly formed teams will play 36 games over a 5 week period, with many of the top English and overseas cricketers competing. Each team will have a designated Home Venue, which will be one of this country’s leading cricket grounds. ECB is also exploring launching a women’s competition running in parallel with the same format and the same team brands. Some games in the women’s competition are likely to be played at different venues to the men’s games.“

Other runes also point in a similar direction: back in September we observed that Kia’s sponsorship of the Super League had been extended only until 2019, allowing the ECB room to manoeuvre the competition out of existence at that point; and it was also noted at the time the TV contracts were announced that although “a” women’s T20 competition was part of the deal, the exact details appeared to have been kept deliberately vague.

There is no doubt that the model the ECB is pursuing has been unbelievably successful in Australia, where the WBBL is now arguably the highest-profile women’s team-sport competition on the planet, with attendances and TV audiences far exceeding English football’s Women’s Super League for example.

However, this is not the first but the second shake-up the women’s game will have undergone in the space of 5 years, and there will be losers as well as winners, even if the City T20 overcomes the reservations of those serious cricket fans who (with good reason) remain highly sceptical of the entire concept, in a country where a smaller proportion of the population (and a far smaller proportion of the cricket-watching population) lives in the cities around which the competition will be based.

The most obvious loser would be the Loughborough Lightning, who would basically be Alderaan in this scenario to the City T20’s Death Star. (If you don’t understand this reference, please refer to your nearest 8-year-old child… or 40-year-old man… but basically, Alderaan didn’t come out of the encounter in too healthy a state!!)

The Surrey Stars would also be in the firing line, with a London franchise more likely to head to Lords than The Oval.

But in the case of the franchises which would likely survive in all-but-name (the Southern Vipers, Yorkshire Diamonds and Lancashire Thunder) the actual people involved – coaches… managers… marketing staff – many of whom have worked extremely hard (in some cases unpaid) to grow the Kia Super League, would find themselves thrown out into the cold – all their efforts for nothing.

And what of the fans, who have built loyalties to “their” teams? These allegiances grew notably even between KSL-01 and KSL-02, judging by the colours on show at Finals Day in 2017; and the increased TV coverage next season looked set to build upon that by reaching into even more living rooms.

But will the little girl who buys a Loughborough Lightning shirt in 2018 be able to exchange it for a Birmingham one in 2020?

Will she even want to?

That is the question the ECB have to ask themselves now.

The ECB have announced the fixture list for the new “Super-Sized” Kia Super League, with sides playing each other both home and away in 2018, extending the season to 32 matches, compared with just 17 this year.

The competition begins at the County Ground in Taunton, with the Western Storm playing the Yorkshire Diamonds on Sunday July 22nd; and concludes just over a month later, on Bank Holiday Monday August 27th, at the County Ground in Hove with the now-familiar 3-team Finals Day.

The season will feature 8 double-headers with men’s T20 Blast matches, at venues including Headingly, Old Trafford and (for the first time) Edgbaston, which will host Loughborough Lighting v Western Storm, on same bill as Birmingham Bears v Lancashire Lightning.

The TV schedules on Sky are “TBA” but we’d assume that it will be at least the 8 double-headers, plus the opening fixture and Finals Day.

Double Headers

Friday July 27 @ Headingley – Yorkshire Diamonds v Lancashire Thunder & Yorkshire Vikings v Birmingham Bears

Sunday July 29 @ Taunton – Western Storm v Loughborough Lightning & Somerset v Middlesex

Tuesday July 31 @ The Oval – Surrey Stars v Lancashire Thunder & Surrey v Glamorgan

Friday August 3 @ Old Trafford – Lancashire Thunder v Western Storm & Lancashire Lightning v Leicestershire Foxes

Tuesday August 7 @ Old Trafford – Lancashire Thunder v Surrey Stars & Lancashire Lightning v Durham Jets

Wednesday August 8 @ The Ageas Bowl – Southern Vipers v Yorkshire Diamonds & Hampshire v Somerset

Tuesday August 14 @ Hove – Southern Vipers v Surrey Stars & Sussex Sharks v Glamorgan

Wednesday August 15 @ Edgbaston – Loughborough Lightning v Western Storm & Birmingham Bears v Lancashire Lightning

Australia’s 50-over WNCL goes into the WBBL “break” with 17-times champions the New South Wales Breakers atop the table and already looking odds-on to make a 22nd consecutive final.

The Breakers opened their season with a 6-wicket victory over the Queensland Fire, powered by a 93-ball century from Rachel Haynes; and Haynes was in the runs again, top scoring with 83 in a 90-run win over the Vic Spirit.

Following the Women’s Ashes it was Alyssa Healy who led the charge for the Breakers with 99 off 89 balls in a 7-wicket smackdown of the Western Fury; and then it was Ellyse Perry who stood up with 127 in a 97-run thumping of ACT Meteors, despite 4-24 off 10 overs bowled by the Meteors overseas star, South Africa’s Marizanne Kapp.

Second-placed Western Fury were run close in the opening game against the South Australia Scorpions – after the Fury posted 323-4, with centuries from Elyse Villani and Nicole Bolton, it looked to be all over for the Scorpions at 168-5, before a century partnership from Amanda Wellington (116) and Tabatha Saville (53) took the Scorpions close… but not quite close enough, as they were bowled-out in the 49th over, just 21 runs short.

The Fury had a rather more straightforward win over the Tasmania Roar, easily chasing 222 with 11 overs to spare; but were again run close by the ACT Meteors – Kate Cross the hero for the Fury that day, taking 3-22 as the Meteors were bowled out 23 short of a 237 run target.

In third place, the Queensland Fire may have one less win than the Fury, but sit just 2-points adrift of final qualification, after picking up 3 bonus points with big wins against the Roar and the Scorpions – Jemma Barsby taking 4-7 as the Scorpions were bowled out for just 104, chasing 163.

The Scorpions and Meteors, also with 2 wins each, will still believe they have a chance too if they can win both their remaining games and other results go their way; but it is probably game-over for the Vic Spirit already, as it is for the winless Roar.

The competition now takes a break whilst the players go off to their WBBL teams – not resuming until mid-February, when we have the last two rounds, with the final on February 24th.

There is no doubt in our mind as to who should have been Player of the Series in this Women’s Ashes instead of Heather Knight. Not that Knight had a BAD series, of course – she scored four fifties, and played two particularly crucial innings – batting out for the draw in the Test and backing up centurion Danni Wyatt in the remarkable last T20.

But for us, the outstanding performer over the series was Aussie quick Megan Schutt, with 18 wickets – a full third of the “bowling” wickets taken by Australia across the 7 games – in conditions where England’s celebrated pace duopoly of Shrubsole and Brunt could muster just 10 wickets between them.

England’s leading bowler was Sophie Ecclestone, with 9 wickets at an Economy Rate of 4.35. Jenny Gunn took more wickets (11) but was the most expensive front-line bowler on either side over the course of the series – going for 6.37 an over.

Ellyse Perry underlined her status as the world’s leading all-rounder, coming in 3rd in the bowling rankings in addition to her 4th-place in the batting rankings.

The only other player to make both “Top 10s” is Katherine Brunt, who is looking like an increasingly key player in England’s line-up. It is difficult to see Brunt carrying on to the next World Cup, when she’ll be 36, but maybe it is possible if England can manage her more as a batting than a bowling all-rounder going forwards, hints of which emerged when she came on 1st change in the 2nd and 3rd T20s. (She opened in the 1st, but presumably only because Anya Shrubsole wasn’t playing.)

Bowling Ranking = Wickets / Economy