Ahead of this year’s Hundred tournament, coach Jon Lewis called for his England players to “show up”. And to be fair, some of them have – Nat Sciver-Brunt and Danni Wyatt are the top two leading run-scorers, while Lauren Bell has 9 wickets to her name and has been one of very few bright spots for Southern Brave this season.

But if Lewis thinks that The Hundred has proved him right about his prospective World Cup squad, he should have been paying closer attention to Welsh Fire’s 9-wicket hammering of the Brave at the Utilita Bowl on Wednesday.

First, Fire bowled Brave out for just 103. As per, Hayley Matthews (4 for 14) and Jess Jonassen (3 for 21) proved good bang for their overseas buck, but the role of Freya Davies – keeping it tight in her opening set, sending down 11 dot balls out of the 20 she bowled, and coming good with 2 wickets at the death – was also crucial.

Fire then chased down their target of 104 in just 74 balls, thanks to a rollicking start from Tammy Beaumont, who smashed Freya Kemp’s first set of five for 18, to take her to 22* from 9 balls – a strike rate of 244. (She reached her half-century a tad more sedately, finishing on a strike rate of 148.) In the process, Welsh Fire became the first team to qualify for this year’s finals.

Davies was dropped by England last summer, and has gone on to outbowl every one of her international teammates (bar Linsey Smith) in this year’s Hundred comp. In the group stages, she has taken a wicket in every game bar one, and proven economical to boot, with returns of 1-19, 0-11, 2-19, 1-19, 2-12, 2-17 and 2-14. She has also demonstrated her ability to reliably bowl at any phase of the game, which is a rare ability in short-form cricket.

Beaumont hasn’t had the best Hundred with the bat – “I was due a few, I’ve been pretty rubbish so far!” she said on Wednesday – but the impressive array of strokes she whipped out against the Brave showed that she has still got it, despite having played very little T20 cricket for England in the past 2 years.

Perhaps more importantly, she has successfully turned the Welsh Fire brand from perennial losers into a genuine team who people actually enjoy playing for: a huge achievement in franchise cricket.

And finally, she was – once upon a time – England’s reserve wicketkeeper. The current candidate for that role is Bess Heath, who Lewis didn’t trust with the bat against New Zealand and whose highest score in The Hundred is 15.

If we’re honest, Lewis has basically already selected his World Cup squad. After England’s whitewash against New Zealand, he admitted as much, telling the assembled media: “My preference would be we get on the plane tomorrow.” A plane which neither Davies nor Beaumont would have been on.

The danger of that approach was always apparent: that far from “showing up”, players might instead show HIM up – exposing the flaws in some of his proposed selections, and with no more international cricket left in the interim to attempt to put things right.

Beaumont was as diplomatic as you would expect her to be when asked if, in Lewis’s shoes, she’d be getting on the phone to Freya Davies (not to mention herself!) right now – “That’s not for me, that’s on him.”

Fortunately, I’m the CRICKETher Editor and I can say what I really think: Lewis has backed the wrong horses.

London Spirit beat Manchester Originals by 8 wickets at Lord’s on Friday, leapfrogging Oval Invincibles into third place courtesy of a superior net run rate.

It means that defending champions Southern Brave are now out of the tournament – which will come as a bit of a shock to anyone used to seeing anything Charlotte Edwards touches turning to gold. It also now looks increasingly likely that it will come down to a battle between Oval Invincibles and London Spirit as to who finishes in third place and thus progresses to the Eliminator – making Sunday’s match between the two at The Oval an effective quarter-final. (We can’t wait!)

Spirit were chasing just 113 after another lacklustre effort with the bat by Originals, but had barely made their way out of the starting block by the halfway point, posting 49 for 2 from their first 50 balls compared to the 48 for 3 which Originals had managed. At that point, Georgia Redmayne was 21* off 31, and had hit just two boundaries – one off the first ball, and one off the 45th – a drought-and-a-half when you’ve only got 100 balls to play with.

In fact, when a caught-and-bowled chance popped out of Fi Morris’s hands, you’d have been forgiven for thinking that the drop was actually a deliberate ploy by the fielding side, who were presumably quite happy to continue bowling at the player who looked to be killing the game. “I dug myself into a little bit of a hole at the start. I was wondering if I should retire myself!” Redmayne said afterwards.

But five balls later, Originals opted to take their strategic timeout, and Redmayne had a moment to gather her breath, and listen to her coaches. The message? “Hold my feet, play good shots, find space, don’t panic.”

She went on to hit 45 from the next 28 balls she faced, and Spirit romped home the winners. Has a strategic timeout ever backfired so spectacularly against the fielding side?

It was just one of a number of decisions which Originals captain Sophie Ecclestone didn’t *quite* get right on Friday – another one being the determination to bowl out seamers Kim Garth, Lauren Filer and Alice Monaghan, leaving Fi Morris with 10 balls in the bank, despite the fact that all five Originals wickets had fallen to spin.

Originals have picked up just two wins from six matches in this tournament so far. There are a number of things that aren’t going to plan – Mooney has scored 92 runs in six innings, averaging just 15; Sophie Molineux never even made it onto the plane after being forced out with a rib fracture; they lost Mahika Gaur at the eleventh hour – but maybe Ecclestone’s captaincy is also one factor in the equation?

This is a bowler who recently enjoyed a record-breaking run of 34 consecutive innings for England taking a wicket (34!!!) And yet so far in this year’s Hundred comp, she’s taken just four wickets. She is ranked 27th if you judge her by the CRICKETher Ranking System (wickets divided by economy), or 23rd, if you use Women’s Cricket Blog’s System. That’s an even bigger issue when you consider that Originals have the worst balls-per-wicket ratio of any team in the comp:

If you’re one of those people who thinks that Ecclestone is the answer to England’s Non-Existent Captaincy Succession Plan, you perhaps need to ask yourself: are you happy to risk that dip in form being replicated on the world stage?

Originals have the best T20 bowler in the world in their ranks (Ecclestone), and one of the best T20 batters in the world (Mooney). And yet they now have just a 1% chance of limping through to the knockout stages. It’s probably fair to say that in 2024 they have proved to be one of those franchise teams whose sum is smaller than its component parts.

New Zealand Cricket turned down the chance to play a Test match as part of their recent women’s tour to England, CRICKETher can reveal.

The ECB officially invited NZC to play a Test in March 2022, when tour arrangements were initially being made, but the offer was declined.

Instead, the tour – which concluded at Lord’s on Wednesday – consisted entirely of 50-over and 20-over matches. All eight of the games were won by England.

New Zealand have not played a women’s Test since August 2004, but the recent revival of the format – with England, Australia, India and South Africa now regularly participating in Tests – had sparked hopes that New Zealand might also consider adding multi-day cricket to their schedule.

England played their first Test in India for 18 years in December, while last summer the ECB hosted the first five-day women’s Test since 1992 as part of the multi-format Women’s Ashes series. 

A spokesperson from New Zealand Cricket said: “This decision (to decline) was based on strength and conditioning and preparation rationale, and most importantly, playing as much white ball cricket as possible in the lead-up to the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup.”

CRICKETher also notes that participating in a single Test would have cost New Zealand Cricket over $100,000 in match fees due to the recent equalisation of match fees with the men – a substantial sum which they can presumably ill-afford.

Suzie Bates, who has represented New Zealand since 2006 but never had the opportunity to play a Test, told the BBC this week: “In my long career, there hasn’t been a Test match. I have a little bit of envy when I watch the Ashes, of players that are playing the same sport as you that have those opportunities. You wonder what it would be like.“

“With the limited resources that we have currently, they [NZC] see more bang for their buck in the 20-over and 50-over format. It comes down to resources and time and money. They’ve made the decision that Test matches are not the priority right now.“

“I’m still hopeful that [a Test] may come in the future – that once the growth of the global women’s game starts to get more traction, the boards will see value in that.”

Kirstie Gordon says that the first ever professional Nottinghamshire Women’s side will be known as the Nottinghamshire Blaze, after she was announced as the county’s first signing on Wednesday.

Gordon was speaking after The Blaze comprehensively beat Sunrisers at Lord’s on Thursday, continuing their unbeaten run in the Charlotte Edwards Cup with an eighth successive win.

It makes Notts the first county to confirm that a regional brand-name will carry over into the new era. By contrast, Surrey have already ruled out continuing to use the Stars name, preferring the women to simply be known as Surrey.

The Blaze brand is only two years old – the team moved over to Trent Bridge from Loughborough last year – but they have enjoyed enormous success under Gordon’s captaincy, reaching the 2023 Lottie Cup Final, and having already guaranteed themselves a spot at this year’s Finals Day on Saturday 22 June.

“We feel like we’ve created a bit of an identity with the Blaze,” Gordon told CRICKETher. “For now, we want to stay as the Blaze.”

Gordon also confirmed that coach Chris Guest, Director of Cricket James Cutt and the rest of the Blaze staff would be transitioning over to Nottinghamshire at the end of the season.

“For us it’s been a very easy transition,” she said. “We’re based at Trent Bridge already, our staff are staying the same. For me it was almost like renewing a contract again. It’s all been very seamless.”

Gordon, who was appointed Blaze captain at the start of the 2023 season, said that it had not yet been 100% confirmed whether she would be leading Nottinghamshire next year, but that she hoped to continue in the role: “I really enjoy it and I feel like I’m growing into it.”

The left-arm spinner is currently top of the Lottie Cup wicket-taking charts with 17 scalps in 8 matches, and said that she was pleased with her form going into Finals Day next weekend.

“I’ve bowled more overs in the powerplay this year than I have before,” she said. “I want to keep challenging myself to be better, and bowl in the tough phases of the game.”

Intriguingly, she appeared to rule out a personal return for Scotland, after her old team finished as runners-up in the Qualifying Tournament last month to set up a maiden appearance at the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in October.

“I was very pleased for Scotland, having been there in so many World Cup Qualifiers before and had those really difficult times,” she said. “I’d never write anything off, but I feel at the minute like I’m pretty comfortable where I am in my career.”

Gordon was part of both the main England squad and the England A side over the winter, so this suggests that the intriguing prospect of the proud Scot appearing for England AGAINST Scotland in their World Cup group-stage clash – scheduled for 14 October – is still very much on the cards.

Given her recent form with the ball, CRICKETher certainly wouldn’t rule it out!

Paige Scholfield says that she is so happy at the Stars that she “didn’t even bother looking” elsewhere, after Surrey announced her as one of their second group of signings for the 2025 season.

Scholfield, who moved to South East Stars from the Southern Vipers two years ago, was likely to be in high demand among the counties – especially after scoring three half-centuries in the first five rounds of the Charlotte Edwards Cup.

But in an exclusive interview with CRICKETher in the wake of Stars’ 6-wicket win against Sunrisers at Lord’s, she said that she had refused to even countenance a move elsewhere.

“I’ve found my home,” she said. “I’ve really enjoyed the environment – Mybs [Coach Johann Myburgh], Stevo [Assistant Coach Darren Stevens], the whole lot.”

“I’ve had such a great time here with the Stars and I want to stay a part of that. I couldn’t be prouder to call Surrey my home.”

Scholfield declined to confirm the exact terms of her deal, but CRICKETher understands that Surrey have offered multi-year contracts to a number of Stars players, including captain Bryony Smith, who was unveiled at the weekend as the county’s first signing.

Scholfield added: “This is my family now and I’ll be staying here for a long time.”

On Thursday at Lord’s, Scholfield fully justified the faith of the powers-that-be at Surrey, striking a 35-ball half-century as Stars beat Sunrisers to go top of the table in the Charlotte Edwards Cup.

Scholfield personally sealed the deal by smashing back-to-back boundaries down the ground off the final two balls of the run-chase, to ensure she simultaneously reached her personal milestone and secured the win.

In another coup for Surrey, Alexa Stonehouse – who had also been announced as a Surrey signing on the morning of the match – took two wickets in her opening three overs, including the huge scalp of Grace Scrivens, as Sunrisers were reduced to 27 for four by the end of the powerplay and never quite recovered.

As Stars slowly but steadily morph seamlessly into Surrey – with more signings from the current squad expected to be announced over the coming days – the county will be well-pleased with their day’s work.

Bryony Smith has described her decision to sign as Surrey’s first ever women’s professional as a “no-brainer”, after she was announced on Sunday as the first player to sign a contract for any of the eight new Tier One teams.

Smith will become Surrey’s first ever female professional and will also captain the Surrey Women’s side, continuing in the role which she has performed for the Stars since 2021.

The news was announced by Surrey ahead of the Stars-Surrey double-header at The Oval, which saw Stars storm to a six-wicket win against reigning champions Southern Vipers in the first leg.

“I always knew I was going to stay, unless something miraculous happened,” Smith said, speaking exclusively to CRICKETher after the match.

“I’ve been here since I was 9, and I can’t see myself playing for any other club.”

Smith refused to confirm whether any of the other Tier One sides had approached her, but CRICKETher understands that at least one other team had expressed interest in signing the 26-year-old.

She described her conversations with Surrey as “very casual”, involving a chat over coffee with Surrey Director of Women’s Cricket Emma Calvert.

“She said: ‘we want you here, and we want you to lead this team – here’s the offer!’,” Smith told CRICKETher. “I went away and thought about it, but it was a no-brainer.”

Calvert labelled Smith “one of the outstanding leaders on the domestic circuit and a fantastic leader”.

Surrey will now look to assemble the remainder of their 2025 squad. Smith said she would not be involved in selection decisions, but hoped that the Surrey team would look similar to the one she currently leads in regionals.

“I’ve got nothing to do with contracts, which I think is the right way to do it,” she said. “We’re a super-tight group here, and hopefully we keep a pretty similar group [next year].”

South East Stars got their 2024 Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy campaign off to a winning start with a 4-wicket win against reigning champions Southern Vipers.

But, on a freezing cold day at Beckenham, Vipers made them fight for the win tooth-and-nail, taking the match right down to the 50th over before Ryana MacDonald-Gay finally hit the winning run.

Elsewhere, Storm were bowled out for 114, Blaze for 135 and Thunder for 165 in three one-sided contests. By contrast, this had all the feel of the two strongest sides in the competition laying out their cards early.

Jon Lewis doesn’t seem to frequent regional cricket, but if he did, he would certainly have watched this match with interest. The story of the day was two England bowlers-turned-batters – Freya Kemp and Tash Farrant.

Kemp, who sadly reignited her old back injury over the winter and didn’t even warm up to bowl today, came to the crease in the 30th over with Vipers 150 for 3. Ella McCaughan (30), Charli Knott (41), Georgia Adams (33) and Georgia Elwiss (44) had got Vipers off to a solid but by no means rollicking start, but it was the more aggressive approach from Kemp (50 off 47 balls) which catapulted their total above 250.

It might have been enough were it not for Tash Farrant’s spectacular effort – 94 off 97 balls, the only bum note being the missed sweep which saw her adjudged LBW to Knott, six runs short of a century.

Given that Farrant has played only a handful of matches in the past couple of seasons due to a stress fracture in her spine, and the highest she has batted for Stars previously is no.4, chucking her in at the top of the order felt like a big call from Johann Myburgh. But it paid off handsomely: Farrant hitting an opening stand with Bryony Smith of 165 runs, which is Stars’ highest partnership for any wicket, ever.

When you suffer recurring back injuries as a fast bowler, life is tough. Could Farrant rewrite her future career as a very good domestic batter? Could Kemp rewrite hers as an international pinch hitter in T20 cricket?

It was after Farrant and Smith were dismissed, within 6 overs of each other, that things got a bit sticky for Stars. With 10 overs remaining, they still needed 60 runs at a run-a-ball – they had 7 wickets in hand, but it felt like the pressure was on.

But at the best possible moment Sophia Dunkley finally found some form, hitting an unbeaten 48 from 60 balls which was almost certainly the difference between her side starting the season with a win and starting with a loss.

Even with wickets falling at the other end in the death overs – ADR bowled swiping across the line, Phoebe Franklin run out looking for a second run that wasn’t there, and Aylish Cranstone skying one to mid-off – Dunkley kept her head, doing enough to keep Stars on track until they finally got over the line with 3 balls remaining.

CRICKETher understands that the England players were mostly given a choice about whether they turned out for their regions this weekend. After a long winter (she only got back from New Zealand 10 days ago!), no one would have blamed Dunkley for sitting this one out. But no – she showed up, and Stars (and the comp) were richer for it.

England recovered from 166 for 7 to post 252 in Hamilton, eventually winning the match at a canter (by 56 runs) and with it the series.

But the scoreline rather belies the fact that England very much did the hard yards to get the win under their belts.

Tammy Beaumont was named Player of the Match for her 81 from 96 balls, continuing an emotional rollercoaster of a tour which has so far involved picking up her 100th T20 cap after a two-year wait, only to find herself dropped from the team for the final two matches of the T20 series.

Her runs were crucial today but – as Beaumont herself admitted post-match – it was all rather scrappy at times; and someone really needs to have a gentle word about her overuse of the ramp shot. And of course, she could really have done with pushing on to three figures – instead, her wicket sparked off the loss of six English wickets for 59 runs. Deja vu, anyone?

For once, New Zealand put up a fight with the bat without relying on the usual suspects – Izzy Gaze and Brooke Halliday’s 100-run partnership between the 20th and 40th overs slowly ramping up the pressure.

But New Zealand didn’t have a Beaumont-esque platform to fall back on: they were already way behind the required rate when Gaze and Halliday came together, and the pair never quite managed to catch up, meaning it was always possible that things would go belly up at the death – as indeed they did.

There was a slightly weird moment of anti-climax at the end where no one seemed to know if Bernadine Bezuidenhout (having limped off nursing a hamstring injury during England’s innings) would be batting or not. The cameras showed her sat padded up, but when it came to it, with an unlikely 50-odd runs required in 5 overs, the decision was made not to send her in. The commentators were incredibly critical of this, and in one case even vocally criticised her “lack of commitment to her country”, which seemed unfair given that we have no way of knowing how serious her injury might be.

From England’s perspective, it was great to see another confident knock from Amy Jones, following hot on the heels of her 92* in Monday’s game. A hallmark of Jones’s career has been the “coming of age knock” – every couple of years, she has one good outing with the bat, and the media then proclaim that Jones Has Finally Arrived™️. Next game, she clambers firmly back into her shell… and so the cycle goes on. After Monday’s match, Jones talked about having put in “a bit of work around my mental game” – let’s hope she is right and the boom-and-bust cycle is well and truly broken.

After a record-breaking partnership with Charlie Dean on Monday, this time Jones shared the stage with Kate Cross, who as Alex Hartley reminded us on comms, knows her way around a bat. England scored 63 runs in the final 10 overs:

The flip side of this, of course, is that the middle order failed again. Serious questions have to be asked about their mindset – one collapse can be disregarded as an accident, but three in the space of one tour looks like carelessness. England have done what they went to New Zealand to do, claiming two series wins… but there is certainly no room for complacency.

At the halfway point of the fourth T20 at Wellington, the cameras zoomed in on New Zealand captain Sophie Devine, sitting away from the action, nursing a freshly-inflicted quad injury. Her gloomy face told a thousand stories: she knew, as we all did, that – with England having put 177 on the board – the game was as good as over before New Zealand even faced a ball.

All of the talk ahead of this game had been about the return of England’s four WPL superstars, but Maia Bouchier completely stole the show with a smart, powerful innings of 91 off 56 balls – her highest ever score in T20 cricket – after Jon Lewis wisely chose to promote her to the opening spot in place of Sophia Dunkley. You can’t say she hasn’t earned it.

New Zealand should have come into this match full of confidence after England’s messy collapse handed them the third T20 on a plate, but they didn’t field like it. Five balls in, Bouchier (on 1*) edged Rosemary Mair through slip: oddly, Devine ducked out of the way, seemingly assuming that keeper Izzy Gaze would dive for it – it wasn’t clear if Gaze had called for it or if Devine just misjudged it?

Bouchier was put down twice more, on 31* and 44* – a missed caught and bowled from Jess Kerr followed what we might term an anti-double-play by Gaze, in which she first fumbled Bouchier’s edge and then missed a stumping chance, off the same delivery. Gaze is still young (just 19 years old) so this might sound a bit harsh… but if she is going to be New Zealand’s wicketkeeper of choice, they just can’t afford for her to be that much of a liability when she is stood up to the stumps.

Bouchier took full advantage, going on to hit 12 fours and two sixes in an innings which could have been tailor-made to promote NZC’s Poi initiative – plenty of Poi Whiua (twirl your poi and cheer) going on in the crowd.

England’s post-powerplay consistency was remarkable – only one over after the six-over mark went for less than 8. (That was the 14th, the only one bowled by Suzie Bates, who followed up her magical death over in the last game by being NZ’s most economical bowler in this match, which does rather beg the question as to why she doesn’t bowl more these days?)

Perhaps surprisingly after such a good WPL, Alice Capsey struggled for fluency, but to her credit recognised this and ran hard, in order to give the strike to Bouchier as much as possible. Then, after Bouchier was dismissed in the 18th, Heather Knight and Nat Sciver-Brunt upped the pace even more, with a partnership of 35 off 14 and an enormous 18-run final over.

In reply, New Zealand were actually ahead of England at the end of the powerplay, with 47 runs to England’s 35. But with both Bates and Melie Kerr already back in the dugout, and Devine unable to bat, you couldn’t help but feel that it was only a matter of time. There was a strong feeling of deja vu from the first match of the series: as soon as the field went out, New Zealand just couldn’t find the necessary boundary options to keep up with the required rate.

In the end, the only question was whether or not they would get bowled out. It was a fate they managed to avoid, finishing 7 down – but with England winning the match by a huge 47 runs, and with it the series, it will be scant consolation.