Author: Syd Egan

Random Thoughts – Women’s Ashes Test – Day 2

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Two-Hundred-And-Eighhhhhhhhhty?

Word from inside the England camp is that they were pretty happy with their 1st innings total of 280 – in the entire history of women’s Tests, only one side has ever lost after posting a higher 1st innings total – New Zealand, back in 1969. [That’s so long ago it’s before you were born… just sayin’ – Ed.]

However, England have to have been a bit disappointed that it wasn’t a few more – no blame on the tail this morning, more on the batsmen who didn’t push on yesterday.

But having now seen the Aussies bat, it is clear that maybe this pitch isn’t the road everyone thought it was, as it has actually been England who have set the pace, as the worm shows:

🎵 Walking In A Perry Wonderland 🎵

(Yes… it is stuck in my head – and if it wasn’t stuck in yours before… it is now!!)

As the chart also shows, Ellyse Perry is the key player for Australia – they only started to catch up with the run rate when she got motoring in the period leading up to the new ball. England need to get her out not once, but twice, to win this Test match – that’s the key challenge – if they can do that, they will be in with a shout.

Aussies Under Marshal Law

Laura Marsh was exceptional today – bowling at the left-handers at the top of the innings, she got into a trance-like rhythm, and then just kept it there – tick-tocking through 23 overs for just 28 runs.

Bowling props also to Sophie Ecclestone (2-51) and Georgia Elwiss. (In fact, given her figures – 5 overs, 2 maidens, 0-7 – I’m surprised Heather Knight didn’t find a few more overs for Elwiss, with Nat Sciver not really looking like she was troubling the Australians too much.)

A Tail To Tell Tomorrow?

England need just one more wicket tomorrow morning and they are into the tail, with the Aussies still currently over 100 behind. Admittedly it is a tail that includes Jess Jonassen (99 in the last Test) and Amanda Wellington (116 just the other week for South Australia in the WNCL) but if England can grab almost any first-innings lead they will rightly be pretty chuffed with that, and they will certainly be the ones sleeping easier tonight after having a winning day today.

Random Thoughts: Women’s Ashes Test – Day 1

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Gunn Fired

[That’s enough Jenny Gunn puns now Syd – Ed.]

We debated whether Fran Wilson would have to make way for Georgia Elwiss; but in the end it was Jenny Gunn who was left on the sidelines, with Mark Robinson clearly deciding that England needed Elwiss’s batting more than they needed Gunn’s bowling. Was this a good decision? Well… Elwiss didn’t exactly “fail” with the bat but it remains to be seen how we’ll feel if (when?) Australia are 300-3 this time tomorrow and all our front-line bowlers are exhausted!

Winfield Not Winning

Unlike Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Winfield has struggled to build on her 2016 purple patch – her numbers have reverted back to where they were pre-2016; and today she faced over 50 balls for just 4 runs, before getting out to a shot that she shouldn’t have gone near with a barge-pole, let alone her bat!

But… but.. but… who or what is the alternative? Heather Knight doesn’t want to open; Sarah Taylor shouldn’t open; and we’ve just got rid of all the “senior” batsmen in our Academy! If there was an easy answer, believe us, we’d be all over it – we are The Media™ – we love easy answers; but in this case there isn’t one – we just have to trust that Winfield will come good again in time.

A Way Back For England?

England just about edged the first session-and-a-half – Beaumont and Knight both played well for their 50s, but they couldn’t push on and Australia smashed the final session, as England melted in the darkness. 237-7 is not a good place to be, and you have to feel this is Australia’s game to lose now.

If there is a way back for England, it is to bat long enough tomorrow to prevent the Aussies piling on the runs during the day, and then hope that they too struggle under the lights in the evening session. In the last Test at Canterbury in 2015, Anya Shrubsole occupied the crease for over an hour for a 47-ball duck – it was widely derided at the time, but it would actually be quite a useful contribution here – the duck is intact, and she is 15 balls in already – maybe she can push on towards 50 (balls) tomorrow?

NEWS: Taylor Hits 85 & Wilson Makes Her Case As Test Warm-Up Drawn

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An unbeaten innings of 85 from Sarah Taylor put England in a position to claim a “points victory” in their day-night Test warm-up against a young Australia XI in Sydney.

Having come in with England in slightly dicey water at 91-4, Taylor built partnerships with Nat Sciver (42), Fran Wilson (45) and Katherine Brunt (43*) allowing the tourists to declare on 305-7 – an unassailable lead of 265, with 40-odd overs remaining in the day.

With Katherine Brunt rested from the attack, Kate Cross opened the bowling with Anya Shrubsole; but the target – in excess of 6-an-over – was just too big to tempt the Australians into a real chase, and they played instead for the draw – eventually closing on 182-7, after a late 3-fer for Heather Knight had made things a little bit interesting in the last couple of overs.

In terms of positives from the match as a whole, England avoided defeat (which looked a possibility at one stage) and there were runs for Winfield, who has struggled of late, and Taylor of course.

Whether anyone’s performances will have changed anything in terms of selection is an open question – Winfield was never likely to be dropped even if she hadn’t made a score here; but perhaps Fran Wilson, with her 45, has pushed the case that her runs might be worth more than Georgia Elwiss’s handful of medium-pace overs? (Elwiss didn’t take a wicket, and made 13 and 8 with the bat.)

Given that Sophie Ecclestone did not bowl at all in the 2nd innings (after bowling a lot of overs in the 1st), we’d guess that she was being rested and therefore will play in the Test, probably alongside Laura Marsh.

Probable England Test Team:

  1. Winfield
  2. Beaumont
  3. Knight
  4. Sciver
  5. Taylor
  6. Wilson
  7. Brunt
  8. Gunn
  9. Marsh
  10. Shrubsole
  11. Ecclestone

 

NEWS: Stalenburg Frustrates England In Warm-Up As Aussies Post 1st Innings Lead

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Sydney Thunder’s Naomi Stalenberg frustrated England on day 2 of their day-night Test warm-up against a young Australia XI in Sydney.

Stalenburg, looking to bounce back after a disappointing 2016/17 season which saw her average just 10 in WBBL, made 114 off 165 balls before finally being caught by Nat Sciver off Anya Shrubsole, as the Aussies battled their way past England’s 1st innings score of 231, to a final total of 271 all out.

Although none of the other Australians were able to surpass the 36 Georgia Redmayne made yesterday, they nonetheless hung around, with Molly Strano making the most significant contribution, lasting 66 balls for her 14, partnering Stalenburg through her 80s and 90s at the other end.

England used 8 bowlers, with Katherine Brunt adding 2 more wickets to the 2 she took last night, to finish with 4-37; and Sophie Ecclestone taking 2-58 off a marathon 22 overs. Kate Cross also got in on the action late-on with the tail-end wickets of Piepa Cleary (LBW) and Lauren Smith (bowled) as she finished with 2-36 off 9 overs.

Embarking on their second innings in the evening session, England lost Lauren Winfield early for 7; reaching 87-3 at stumps, having also lost Tammy Beaumont and Georgia Elwiss. Going into the final day England lead by 47 runs, with Heather Knight 34* and Nat Sciver 9* – a draw looking probably the most likely “positive” outcome for the tourists.

NEWS: Winfield In The Runs But England Bowled Out Cheaply In Warm-Up

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Lauren Winfield found some much-needed form ahead of the Women’s Ashes Test, as she made 82 off 161 balls on the first day of England’s 3-day Day-Night warm-up in Sydney.

However, wider questions about England’s batting fragility raised themselves once again, as they were bowled out for 231 by a young Australia XI – the next highest score after Winfield was Tammy Beaumont’s 28 off 74 balls, with Sophie Molineux and Lauren Smith taking 3 wickets apiece, as the Aussies took advantage of the “flexible” warm-up playing conditions to use 11 bowlers in the 71 overs England faced!

Katherine Brunt soon got stuck into the Australia XI’s reply – taking two wickets in two balls in her second over. By the close, the Aussies had recovered to 82-4, with Sophie Ecclestone and Laura Marsh taking the other wickets to fall.

England made one change to their batting order – bringing in Georgia Elwiss for Fran Wilson; and one change to the bowling – Laura Marsh replacing Alex Hartley. In terms of final Test selection, both are potentially “safety-first” all-rounder choices – with Elwiss bolstering the bowling with a few overs of medium pace, and Marsh offering a bit more batting at the tail of the innings.

However, it is quite possible that Hartley in particular could still play in the Test, in place of Ecclestone – it would be a big ask of either left-armer to play 7 days of cricket in 10 (this 3-day warm-up and the 4-day Test) so maybe England are just resting Hartley and the two will swap-out for the Test?

Kate Cross, meanwhile, was also named on England’s team-sheet, but did not bat or bowl on Day 1, reinforcing the impression that she is likely to play only if injuries intervene in England’s plans.

NEWS: Cross, Jones & Farrant Training With England Ahead Of Women’s Ashes Test

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Kate Cross, Amy Jones and Tash Farrant will all train with England ahead of the Women’s Ashes Test, which begins at the North Sydney Oval next Thursday.

Cross and Jones are in Australia playing WNCL state cricket for the Western Fury, who have won both their opening matches – Cross taking 3-26 against the Tasmania Roar; with Jones also making 48* in the same match – whilst Farrant is playing club cricket.

Although all 3 will play some part in this week’s Test preparations, with Cross likely to feature in England’s official warm-up in some capacity, reports that they have been “called-up” seem possibly a little wide of the mark – CRICKETher understands that they will be “considered for selection if required” – i.e. presumably if there are injury worries, which doesn’t appear to be the case at this stage.

With England having fought back in the 3rd ODI, changes to England’s settled batting line-up for the Test look unlikely; and (barring injuries) we’d expect at most one change in the bowling set-up; but it is more likely to be Hazell or Marsh coming in, rather than Cross, especially given that we now know that England’s other right-arm spin option – Heather Knight – has been nursing a foot injury, which would explain why she did not bowl at all during the ODIs.

England play a 3-day warm-up match, starting tomorrow at Bankstown, against a young Australia XI; with the Day-Night Test beginning at 3:30am UK time next Thursday morning.

Random Thoughts: Women’s Ashes 2nd ODI

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Game Set & Match?

With two games played, the Australians are already 4-0 up in this Women’s Ashes series, so (assuming all matches are completed) England now need to win the Test and three of the four remaining limited overs games to bring home the trophy which started life in a wok at Lords, back in 1998.

Can they do it? Yes, of course they can – England haven’t become a bad team overnight!

Will they? Um… let’s just say it doesn’t look as easy as it did this time last week!

England: Taking The Positives

  1. England didn’t bowl too badly; and Sophie Ecclestone looked “born to run”, bowling 10 overs and going at under 5 runs per over, the only England bowler to do so.
  2. Katherine Brunt passed 50 for only the second time in her long international career – fully 12 years after the first – an Ashes Test at Worcester, way back in 2005, when she came in at 10 and batted for over two hours, putting on 85 for England’s final 1st innings wicket in partnership with Isa Guha.
  3. Alex Hartley still hasn’t been dismissed in international cricket. And she took a very good catch to dismiss Tahlia McGrath, proving that she really isn’t a complete numpty! (Not pointing fingers, but it is telling that when Katherine Brunt dropped a pretty straightforward Caught & Bowled, it was all “There are no easy catches!” and “It happens – move on!”; whereas when Alex Hartley did it, it was more like “That was easy!” and “She’s rubbish – drop her!”)

England: Taking The … Not Quite So Positives

  1. If Hartley’s catch was good, Knight’s to dismiss Villani was even better, but Villani and McGrath were both dismissed on 1; and when it really mattered (Perry, on 41; and Haynes on 60) England dropped two relatively unexacting chances. Perry went on to make 67, and Haynes 89 – that’s 55 runs gone begging, which wouldn’t quite have won the game, but would have made it a damn sight closer!
  2. Brunt’s dismissal – That’s a paddlin’! Gunn’s dismissal – That’s a paddlin’! Wrap us up in woolly socks and call us Granddad, but sometimes the paddle-sweep isn’t the right shot to play… and those sometimes are ALL THE TIME when you are trying to save the game with only the tail still to come.
  3. Last time out, none of England’s batsmen exactly “failed” – they just didn’t “succeed” by going big or long. This time around, several of them failed, whilst none of them (the “recognised” batsmen) went big or long. We’re not calling for anyone to be dropped or anything at this stage in the series; but even with the best bowling in the world, if we don’t make the runs we won’t win too many matches.

Australia

Australia definitely “won” this game more than England “lost” it – 4 of their top 5 batsmen made 50s, and their innings was perfectly paced – building and building towards a total which was probably always going to be a bit too much for England, even without the dropped catches.

And then they finished England off with the ball, without Ellyse Perry, who it looks like didn’t deserve to be taken off – though she didn’t appear to realise this, as she didn’t even wait for the umpire’s say-so before reaching for her cap. But it seems that the playing conditions override the laws – so although the laws have changed to say that a delivery only has to be “high” for the bowler to be warned and then subsequently taken off; the playing conditions say that it also has to be “dangerous”, which the second of Perry’s deliveries really wasn’t.

NEWS: England Set For 2018 Tri-Series v South Africa & New Zealand

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England are looking set to host South Africa and New Zealand in a packed summer of international cricket in 2018.

England’s season will begin with the 3 ICC Women’s Championship ODIs against South Africa in June, before New Zealand come to the party for a 6-match round-robin T20 Tri-Series, culminating in a final on 1st July, at the County Ground in Chelmsford.

New Zealand will then play their 3 Championship ODIs versus England in mid-July, prior to the Kia Super League, which all of the top players are of course expected to stay on for.

With the World T20 coming up in the Caribbean that autumn, the T20 Tri-Series will act as both an early warm-up and an important yardstick of the teams’ progress in the game’s shortest format. South Africa and New Zealand will both be among the leading teams challenging for the World T20 trophy, so next summer will represent a stern test for England as they look to add a second world crown to the World Cup they won last summer!

ICC Women’s Championship ODIs v South Africa

9 June – First ODI v South Africa – New Road, Worcester, 11am

12 June – Second ODI v South Africa – The 1st Central County Ground, Hove (D/N), 1pm

15 June – Third ODI v South Africa – Canterbury (D/N), 2pm

T20 Tri-Series – England, South Africa & New Zealand

20 June – The Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton, South Africa v New Zealand, 1pm start; England v South Africa, 5:40pm

23 June – The Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton, England v South Africa, 1pm start; England v New Zealand, 5:40pm

28 June – The Brightside Ground, Bristol, South Africa v New Zealand, 1pm start; England v New Zealand, 5:40pm

1 July – Final – The Cloudfm County Ground, Chelmsford, 3pm

ICC Women’s Championship ODIs v New Zealand

7 July – First ODI v New Zealand – Emerald Headingley, 11am

10 July – Second ODI v New Zealand – The 3aaa County Ground, Derby (D/N), 1pm

13 July – Third ODI v New Zealand – The Fischer County Ground, Grace Road (D/N), 2pm

Kia Super League Finals Day

27 August – The 1st Central County Ground, Hove

Random Thoughts: Women’s Ashes 1st ODI

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A Close Game?

The scoreboard will tell you this was a close match, won with just 5 balls to spare; but on the pitch Australia’s margin of victory felt a lot more convincing than that – more like 5 overs than 5 balls! This is partly down to the completely unflappable nature of Alex Blackwell – most players would have pressed the panic button watching Tahlia McGrath make 7 off 26 balls at the other end; but Blackwell just kept playing like it was never in doubt… and in the end she was right – it wasn’t!

A Low Scoring Game?

On what all the experts reckoned was a good pitch, England’s 228 – a run rate of 4.6 – felt a little short; and indeed it was well short of the 5.7 an over England averaged at the World Cup. But Australia also fell well short of the 5.4 per over they averaged at WWC17, chasing England’s total at 4.7 an over, so by recent standards it was a fairly low-scoring game. Was this to do with all the rain they’ve had in Brisbane? Perhaps – both teams had their warm-up preparations severely disrupted; but the field of play itself looked okay – remarkably, given the pictures we saw of the rain falling and the super-soppers at work yesterday – so was there something else at work?

Two Balls Better?

This was the first time these teams have played an ODI under the new playing conditions, with two balls – one at either end – and you can tell the players aren’t used to it: more than once the bowler went to return the ball to the captain at the end of the over, only to be reminded by the umpire that he (as it was in both cases here) holds on to it now!

The men have been playing with two balls for a while now – since 2011 – and there is still debate about the effect, made all the more hazy by the pull-through of T20-style power-hitting into the 50-over game. But the change was designed to benefit the bowlers, and in the immediate short term, it does seem to have caused run-rates to fall a bit – from 5.23 an over in the year before the change, to 5.18 in the year after*.

Is that what we are seeing here? Certainly when you talk to the bowlers, the ball getting old quickly has been a constant complaint, so you’d guess they feel like it should benefit them; but obviously this is just one game, so who knows? But it is definitely something to add to the list of things to investigate in a year or so’s time!

Call The Plod!

From an England fan’s perspective, if you want to Take the Positives™ then they didn’t collapse – the top 6 all got starts, and all looked reasonably comfortable; but the problem was than none of them pushed on and they all plodded… with big, ploddy boots on!

Ideally you want players to score big runs, and if they can’t do that then you want them to score quick runs; but nobody quite did either – nobody got past 50, and the highest strike rate (of the batsmen) was Fran Wilson’s 84. Contrast Heather Knight’s innings with Alyssa Healy’s: they made similar runs (15 vs 18) but Healy made her 18 in 15 balls at a strike rate of 120; Knight made her 15 in 33 balls at a strike rate of 45 – that is a big, big difference at this (or I guess any other) level of cricket; and that’s where England really must do better.

———–

* Top 8 teams in men’s ODIs, the years before & after October 2011.

Women’s Ashes Preview Part 1 – England

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The Women’s Ashes begins with the 1st ODI, at Allan Border Field in Brisbane, on Sunday morning – starting at just after midnight UK time, with live coverage on BT Sport and BBC 5 Live.

Instinctively, you might feel England are the favourites, having just won a World Cup at which Australia under-performed, but that isn’t how the bookies see it – at time of writing, both William Hill (11/8) and Bet365 (6/4) have England and Australia at identical odds.

The ICC’s own rankings seem to agree that it is a very close call between the two sides: both have a “rating” of 128, and you have to drill down to the second decimal place before you find England ahead by 0.05 “ratings” to claim top spot.

For me, I think the rankings have a point – England are favourites… but only just!

For the first time in what feels like forever, England have a truly settled team of players who you feel all deserve to be there. At the top of the order, Tammy Beaumont and Lauren Winfield can write their own names on the team sheet; and although Winfield has looked slightly the lesser player recently, that is perhaps only because Beaumont has been so prolific, as she has transformed herself from a solid “county pro” to a World Cup-winning Player of the Tournament.

Then a middle-order of Sarah Taylor, Nat Sciver and Heather Knight is a middle order that has some serious runs in it. It says something that if you were forced to name a “weak link” here, it would be Knight, who has actually been by some way the most successful England player in Australian domestic cricket in recent years, captaining the Hobart Hurricanes to an over-achieving semi-final qualification spot in both editions of the WBBL.

Fran Wilson rounds off the batting, with the ability to play a variety of different games according to the state of the match, and her athleticism in the field at cover/ point means you can add another 2o runs to whatever she scores with the bat.

And yet for all this quality in the batting department, that is not even England’s real strength – Australia have some good bats too! But every single one of England’s bowlers would walk into Australia’s team without question.

Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole have proved themselves time and again to be warhorses on the field of play; and whilst Jenny Gunn might not “look” too threatening these days, she weaves all her years of experience into every ball and you underestimate her at your peril!

There is one question mark over England’s starting XI though – which of the four (!!) world class spinners misses out? Laura Marsh, Dani Hazell, Alex Hartley and Sophie Ecclestone can’t all play… but you’d bet Mark Robinson wishes they could!

And then… speak of the devil… there is Mark Robinson himself – the calm, gently-spoken man, who took basically the same team that never quite convinced under the previous regime – tweaked it here and there – and won the World Cup at the first time of asking!

It is still going to be close – Australia will hit some big totals and England wouldn’t be England if they didn’t collapse at least once! But overall, there is a quiet confidence about England – they have the edge, and Australia know it – hence all the “bringing the bitch back” nonsense – they can bring back all the bitch they want… but it is England who will be bringing back the Ashes!