In the press box for a women’s international, there is usually* at least one television screen showing the game, upon which somebody occasionally tries to turn the sound up to hear the commentary. I’m not a very assertive person generally, but on these occasions I find myself suddenly turning into one – strongly requesting that the commentary be turned off again because I find that it tends to bleed into what I write.

As a society we treat television with a reverence we once reserved only for altars, and when the commentators say something, the words turns to truth inside your brain like those of a priest.

Watching a series on the sofa at home however requires the commentary – silence is too weird and there is no option to just hear the ambient sounds of the game – so we are stuck with it. Words turning into truth: England bowled brilliantly; England batted brilliantly – they said it, so it must be true. And the scorecard reflects that: South Africa bowled out; and England winning with 75 million balls to spare.

South Africa 125 v England 128-1 #SAvENG 🏏

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2024-11-30T18:34:22.354Z

And yet… sometimes reality breaks through the veneer. Danni Wyatt-Hodge attempts a lofted drive over midwicket. It comes off the toe-end of the bat. “Wonderful batting,” screams the commentary. The ball plugs a few yards short of the boundary. “She might not quite have timed it, but…”

So was it “wonderful batting”? Even if she “might not quite have timed it”? Let’s ask Barack Obama!

“Wonderful batting… she might not quite have timed it, but…"

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2024-11-30T18:00:58.235Z

Thanks Barack – I agree!

I get that the job of the commentator is to apply lipstick, even when it’s a pig; but honestly – sometimes you wish they’d just admit that it’s a pig. Because this game was a pig. South Africa didn’t care; England didn’t care; nobody really cared. You could see from the reactions of the players – England didn’t really celebrate wickets or catches; South Africa shrugged and looked slightly sheepish as they collapsed first with bat and then with ball.

It doesn’t help when you go into a match missing so many of your match-winners. In the past couple of years, only 4 batters have won more than one T20 match for South Africa – i.e. been the top performer in a game South Africa won: Tazmin Brits (6 times); Laura Wolvaardt (5); Chloe Tryon (2); and Marizanne Kapp (2). Of those four, just one was playing today – Tryon; with Brits “rotated”, Wolvaardt unwell and Kapp rested, after playing in WBBL.

South Africa were never going to win this game, so you have to ask: what was even the point? Why were England there? If you are going to have a practice match, have a practice match. Put some cones out – go crazy! Everyone bats twice; one hand one bounce; jokers are wild! But please… don’t make the rest of us watch it, while the commentators pretend this pig is a princess.

I could say more – about how England bowled poorly; and batted little better.

Or… or…

I could go and have a beer and a pizza.

🍻 🍕

————–

* Yup – usually! (For a men’s international, there will always be a TV; but for the women’s matches it isn’t always the case, often because at the smaller grounds like Leicester we’ve been shuffled off into a hospitality suite which doesn’t have a Sky feed for the TV.)

For just the 4th time in over 200 T20 internationals, England posted a total of over 200 versus South Africa in Benoni. To put that in perspective, a typical 1st innings score in games between the 10 sides that competed in the recent T20 World Cup is 147 – a number England flew by in the 15th over of their onslaught.

England 204-4 v South Africa #SAvENG 🏏

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2024-11-27T17:32:06.091Z

The only thing that looked like potentially stopping England was when a floodlight cut out at the end of the 9th over, causing the umpires to suspend play for some minutes while power was restored. It appeared to be the result of a localised power cut – the drone camera showed the entire town apparently without power – a common fact of life in South Africa. When we were there for the World Cup last year, all of the grounds had industrial generators to provide backup power in these circumstances, so presumably one of these failed to start up when the grid went offline.

For South Africa, this was the 3rd time an opposition has hit 200+ against them, but the first time ever outside Somerset – the two previous occurrences having occurred on a single day in 2018, when first New Zealand (216) and then England (250) did the damage in a Tri-Series at the County Ground in Taunton.

The only time a side hitting over 200 has ever lost a women’s T20 international was when Hayley Matthews hit 132 to help West Indies overhaul 212 against Australia last year; and South Africa initially came out like a team who knew the odds were stacked against them, going at under a run-a-ball in the powerplay to reach 30-1.

Annerie Dercksen looked to inject a bit of impetus into South Africa’s chase, and with her and Laura Wolvaardt at the crease the hosts actually topped 10 runs per over in the post-powerplay early middle phase, before Dercksen discovered (as so many have before) that swiping across the line to Sarah Glenn is a dangerous game.

Even before Dercksen was dismissed for 24 off 15, the required rate was beginning to ratchet up, from just under 13 at the end of the 10th over to more than 18 at the end of the 15th; and although Tryon’s and de Klerk’s innings of 30 and 32* might look on paper to have been the more significant contributions, the pressure was well and truly off for them, with absolutely zero chance of South Africa getting anywhere near England’s total by that stage.

England 204-4 v South Africa 168-6 #SAvENG 🏏

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2024-11-27T19:08:26.341Z

Nonetheless, the fact that South Africa actually outscored England at the death is worth noting. Glenn aside, England’s bowling was scrappy – reflected in the fact that although England were the ones that scored 200, South Africa struck the two highest grossing overs of the game – 18 off Dean in the 10th, and 21 off Nat “Shiver” Brunt, as the South African commentator kept referring to her, in the 19th. Lauren Filer was wildly inconsistent, and Freya Kemp once again didn’t look like an international class bowler – something with which Heather Knight presumably agreed, because she didn’t give her another over after the first one went for 14.

Glenn though was at her gravity-defying best, taking all 4 wickets bowled by putting pressure on the stumps and using her limitations as a weapon – a bit of variation in pace and length; a bit of overspin – just enough to slide the ball past the batters when they were tempted to play across the line.

The award of Player of the Match to Glenn was perhaps an indication that England’s massive 1st innings total was given a significant boost by a poor South African performance with the ball and in the field. Danni Wyatt-Hodge’s partnership of 112 off 63 balls with Nat Sciver-Brunt would have been somewhat smaller if Wyatt hadn’t been dropped twice early doors – the Jafta chance behind the stumps would have been a spectacular take, but the Mlaba one of the boundary really should have been taken.

What England did do well was to relentlessly keep going towards the 200. Once Wyatt-Hodge was out would have been easy to retrench and slip back to 175/185; and with the first 5 balls of the 17th over having gone for 4 singles and a dot, the 200 was slipping away. But Sciver-Brunt wasn’t having any of it – stepping up and bashing the final delivery of the over for 6 to maintain the momentum. A useful cameo from Amy Jones, in the kind of situation where she excels – playing a short innings to put the cherry on the cake – sealed the deal for England’s batters; and as we’ve noted, the psychological barrier of 200 is a formidable one. It proved far too formidable for South Africa today.

A half century from England’s clockwork soldier – Nat Sciver-Brunt – got them over the line in the 1st T20, despite a team performance that was really little improved from their previous outing – the humiliating defeat to West Indies in their final group game of the World Cup last month.

Even so, England probably still wouldn’t have won it, were it not for a disastrous 15th over bowled by Ayanda Hlubi which cost 22 runs. How much must Laura Wolvaardt have been wishing she could have turned instead to Marizanne Kapp, who is being rested for this series having been playing for Melbourne Stars in WBBL?

South Africa 142-5 v England 143-6 #SAvENG 🏏

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2024-11-24T15:08:35.352Z

The trajectory of England’s innings was clearly heading for defeat going into that over, although to fair with NSB at the crease you never know.

South Africa 142-5 v England 143-6 #SAvENG 🏏

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2024-11-24T15:07:42.257Z

But at a stroke, they went from being slightly behind the rate, to well ahead of it, and with Sciver-Brunt ticking along like a Swiss clock England were able to see out the game with 4 balls to spare.

England had one other huge slice of luck at the death – Sciver-Brunt was hit on the pads by Nonkululeko Mlaba with ball tracking showing that the ball was hitting the stumps; but to South Africa’s frustration it was only just hitting, and “Umpire’s Call” came into play, so because the umpire had originally called it ‘Not Out’, it stayed that way.

I wasn’t previously a huge fan of “Umpire’s Call” but reading Daisy Christodoulou’s brilliant book on VAR in football has somewhat changed my mind on this – although it leads to decisions that are objectively “wrong” (like this one) it acts counterintuitively to defuse the tensions around marginal decisions that exist in football by prioritising the human element in close-cut calls.

The real piece of luck for England though is having Nat Sciver-Brunt in their team at all. With Meg Lanning semi-retired, and Ash Gardner becoming more and more a spin bowler who occasionally does something with the bat, is there any doubt whatsoever who the best player in world is right now?

Matches Won for England 2022-24

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2024-11-24T15:18:42.229Z

Since the start of 2022, NSB has won 15 games for England with the bat – 6 more than the next player – Alice Capsey, who was bizarrely dropped for this series… then recalled… then told she definitely wasn’t going to play… then asked to be ready to put on the wicket-keeping gloves if anything happened to Amy Jones today!

Yes, you read that correctly – a player who has never played as a wicket keeper in a professional match, was England’s backup option if the worst happened, after Bess Heath was put on a plane back to England with a broken thumb.

To be fair, this probably falls into the categories of both  ‘Unlikely’ and ‘Could Happen To Anyone’ – most teams don’t carry around a third keeper. But it does nonetheless feel very ‘England’ for this to have happened right now. They are all-but dead in the water, being kept afloat by one exceptional player.

The rest of the batting lineup didn’t so much drape themselves in glory as cover themselves in ketchup. Sophia Dunkley, who has apparently been told she has a free pass for this series, and Maia Bouchier, both got out trying to play flashy premeditated dinks, which were wholly unnecessary at that stage in the game, with predictable results. As Taylor Swift didn’t quite say: You play stupid shots; you lose stupid wickets.

#SAvENG 🏏

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2024-11-24T14:23:55.805Z

Heather Knight faced 4 balls, and honestly looked like she didn’t quite know what country she was in. Possibly because… she doesn’t quite know what country she’s in, having gone from the UAE to Australia to South Africa in the space of a month. International travel across time-zones is hard, and it gets harder as you get older (believe me!) but hopefully the money she got from her fly-past of WBBL was worth it.

And we haven’t even got to the bowling!

After the previous generation of England coaches worked so hard to turn Lauren Bell’s potential into consistency; the currently generation are starting to look culpable for totally breaking her. We’ve seen death overs before where she’s been taken to town by brilliant batting; but this felt like something else – Nadine de Klerk (whose own recent form with the bat has been indifferent, at best) didn’t need to take her to town – she took herself, willingly.

Sophie Ecclestone didn’t really have a great day with the ball either, getting through her 4 overs mostly on reputation; though being introduced in the 3rd over probably didn’t help. Heather Knight seems to be calling on her earlier and earlier, desperate for something to happen when her initial plans wobble; but it is very odd considering how adamant England are that their best batter (NSB) can mess others around to enter the fray at her prefered moment after the powerplay, moving Capsey hither and thither as collateral damage; but not their best bowler?

For everyone else, it is hard to look at the figures and say they were “bad” exactly; but they weren’t good. Sarah Glenn looked a bit off; Freya Kemp is not really an international class bowler in her current form; and Charlie Dean bowled one very good ball, but that was about all. Collectively, it’s the same old same – England failed to take wickets – they simply don’t have any penetration beyond Ecclestone, who most teams wisely now just try to see off.

But they still won. And in the moments after the final ball was bowled, the camera panned to Jon Lewis in the dressing room looking rather smug. He was right – they are a brilliant team, and winning this match proved that. Didn’t it?

This week:

• All the gossip from THAT Jon Lewis presser
• Is Instagram really to blame for England’s World Cup woes?
• Does the uneven spread of England players across the counties matter?
• Shock exit for Strikers in WBBL

It was classic Jon-Ball™ – exciting, big-hitting, fearless cricket. It was inspiring. It was entertaining. And it knocked England out of the World Cup in the final match of the group stages.

England 141-7 v West Indies 142-4 #T20WC

— CRICKETher (@crickether.bsky.social) 2024-10-15T17:15:20.954Z

It was that West Indies powerplay that changed the game – England had made a pretty reasonable 141, which is (just, but a single run) better than the average first innings total in T20s between the sides competing at this World Cup over the past 2 years. West Indies couldn’t afford to be complacent chasing a total like that, and 9-and-a-half times out of 10 you’d have backed England, who haven’t lost to the West Indies since their group stage defeat to the then-hosts of the 2018 T20 World Cup in St Lucia.

West Indies needed something special and they got it from Qiana Joseph, who has never made an international 50 before. She attacked England’s bowling and the gods willed her on, as she was dropped 5 times on her way to 52 off 38 balls, with 2 6s and 6 4s. The dropped catches weren’t all easy chances, especially the 3rd and 4th ones, with Maia Bouchier running round the boundary, though we have seen Bouchier pouch more difficult opportunities. But Dunkley in the 2nd over, and Capsey in the 5th, could have… should have… would have… made all the difference if they’d held on. Catches win matches.

Those 67 runs off the powerplay – a Strike Rate of over 180 – put the West Indies in such a commanding position that they could afford to slow down substantially, which is just what they did – pootling along (at least by the standards they’d set in the first 6) at around 6 an over through the middle overs.

In fact, they almost pootled a little too much, with a required rate which had been well under 6, getting back to a run a ball in the last 5 overs, with two new batters at the crease. On the sofa next to me, Raf Nicholson was contemplating the possibility of a rewrite to her “on-the-whistle” (yes – they still call it that!) report for the Guardian. But cometh the hour, cometh Deandra Dottin, as if the scriptwriters had known it all along, walloping Charlie Dean for a 4 and then 2 6s to claw back the initiative. Ecclestone ultimately nailed Dottin in what turned out to be the final over, but it was all too late. Aaliyah Alleyne came in and stroked her first ball beautifully through the covers for 4, then finished the job 3 balls later with another 4. Game, set and match to the Windies.

Do England have any excuses? Jon Lewis pointed out afterwards (whilst saying that he “wasn’t making excuses”) that it was England’s first chance to play in this stadium, with it’s “Ring Of Fire” lights which can make it challenging to judge the high ball; but on the other hand, England have had far more chances to play under lights in general than the West Indies over the past few years – they’ve played 17 T20s under lights in the past 3 years (only Australia (19) have played more) whist the West Indies have played just 9.

The truth is that England probably did score enough runs to win on any other day, but this wasn’t any other day. They had their own big bit of luck with Nat Sciver-Brunt being given not out LBW after the West Indies had already burned both their reviews – if they’d had another review, NSB would have been walking off and England would not have got to 141.

The Heather Knight situation didn’t help. Despite England literally having had Knight sit out of a match last summer to simulate her being unavailable, England didn’t really know how to manage the game without their all-powerful skipper. Nat Sciver-Brunt is a remarkable player, but she is not a captain, and she just looked slightly lost, trying to bring both Amy Jones and Sophie Ecclestone into the decision-making as England faltered.

Arguably, Knight choosing to not come out to field was an interesting decision of itself – she walked off, and she was fit enough to have been ready to bat again at the end of the innings if required, so could she have fielded? It was almost like she was protecting herself ahead of a semi-final which didn’t come partly because she wasn’t out there.

What this did show is that there isn’t another captain in this group, and that Heather Knight will be right to continue in the T20 captaincy through to the 2026 World Cup in England (as we expect to happen) because there is no other option – Knight has played a blinder in ensuring that there are no successors breathing down her neck. But Grace Scrivens has to be be brought in to the ODI side now to allow her to take over the ODI captaincy after the 50 over World Cup in India, and the T20 leadership in 2026. The tours to South Africa and Australia are what England need to be looking to now, and Scrivens absolutely must be on those planes.

England made their statement of intent with the most emphatic win we’ve seen yet, chasing Scotland’s 109 within 10 overs after England’s openers were apparently advised that winning within 10 overs would put them ahead of West Indies on Net Run Rate and mean they could lose their final match (v the Windies) and still qualify for the semi-finals.

Scotland 109-6 v England 113-0 #T20WC

— CRICKETher (@crickether.bsky.social) 2024-10-13T13:18:11.459Z

In fact, the circumstances where this would happen are quite narrow (though obviously still possible), and England certainly shouldn’t be relying on it; but if it got the England openers focused and playing the way they did, that’s what matters, and maybe that’s what Jon Lewis had in mind – we already know that he isn’t above playing psychological games with his players! The unbeaten Wyatt-Hodge-Bouchier partnership of 113 off 100 balls was probably the most entertaining hour of the tournament so far – there were no 6s, which have been incredibly hard to find at Sharjah; but there were 19 4s as England conquered the Bryces’ army and sent them homeward to… think again?

Actually, that wouldn’t be fair – Scotland should really go homeward in the knowledge that everything has gone pretty well. They might not have won any games, but they weren’t humiliated – they didn’t get bowled out for 24 or anything like, and they made over 100 twice, against Bangladesh and England. For a first World Cup, it is a pretty good return.

England march on, but they still really need to beat West Indies in their final group game to guarantee a semi-final spot – there are a few scenarios where they lose narrowly and still go through, but not many of them. And it was the other group that was supposed to be the Group of Death!

England will obviously be delighted with the result, given the romp with which the game ended, but there should be some reflection on the bowling, which (stop me if you’ve heard me say, stop me if you’ve heard this before, before!) lacked penetration – it took them 10 overs to take 2 wickets, which is going to be a problem if it is repeated in a semi-final against Australia or India.

Lauren Bell was brought into the XI, it seems to give her some game time in case England want to play her later in the competition, with Linsey Smith missing out. Sarah Glenn didn’t have a great game, and my guess is that Smith will be back for the West Indies, and probably the rest of the tournament, in place of either Glenn or (more likely) Bell – not because Bell did much wrong, but because the entire exercise confirmed that UAE is a slow bowler’s paradise. (Unless your name is Megan Schutt, who does seem to have mastered the conditions in a way that none of the other “pace” bowlers have.)

Scotland 109-6 v England 113-0 #T20WC

— CRICKETher (@crickether.bsky.social) 2024-10-13T13:18:39.119Z

On the other hand, if England can bat like this a couple more times, they won’t need to take too many wickets – the World Cup is now just 3 wins away, and England are motoring.

Any England win, the group is decided on points and NRR becomes irrelevant:

For completeness, if the match is rained off, the group is also decided on points:

If West Indies win, things get more interesting – all 3 teams will be level on 6 points, and NRR comes into play. Let’s assume England bat first and score 130.

West Indies chase 130 in 20 overs:

West Indies chase 130 in 15 overs:

So if England score 130 and lose very narrowly, they can go through; but if they lose anything other than narrowly, they will fall behind South Africa on NRR and go out. This goes for scores up to 134 – if England score 135+ and West Indies win even narrowly, England will fall behind West Indies and South Africa on NRR.

What if they score 199?

West Indies chase 199 in 20 overs:

West Indies chase 199 in 15 overs:

So England still go out if they lose!

Finally… let’s try 201!

West Indies chase 201 in 20 overs:

West Indies chase 201 in 15 overs:

So… South Africa are through unless England very narrowly lose a very high-scoring game; and England will out out if they lose, unless they lose very narrowly and score either 134 or less or 201+.

(Or am I wrong?!?!)

A totally different approach to batting on the low, slow wicket at Sharjah carried England through to a vital win over their main Group B rivals, South Africa. It may have gone to the final over, but it felt like England were always in control, managing the chase with precision.

South Africa 124-6 v England 125-3 #T20WC

— CRICKETher (@crickether.bsky.social) 2024-10-07T16:54:50.217Z

Batting first versus Bangladesh on Saturday, England made 118 – on paper a very similar total to today’s 125 runs – but they were such different runs. Against Bangladesh, England looked to drive everything, and eschewed the sweep shots that have been such a productive, trademark area for them in recent years. Just 13% of England’s runs against Bangladesh were scored backward of square – and in so-doing they made it all look like very hard work.

Today’s approach was totally the opposite: 43% of their runs scored behind square. On the scorecard that meant 42 runs scored to fine leg/ square leg, compared with just 11 versus Bangladesh; and suddenly batting looked a lot easier. Of course, it was a different wicket, but it wasn’t like they had suddenly relocated to Derby – it was still essentially the same conditions, but a whole new approach adopted.

Marizanne Kapp kept things quiet in the powerplay, pulling two maidens out of the bag; but then Alice Capsey, helped by coming in at her more natural position of 3 rather than 5, gave England’s chase the little jolt they needed with a quick cameo of 19 off 16 balls, pulling out that sweep shot for a couple of boundaries early in her innings. Capsey’s impetus got the run rate up to within touching distance of where it needed to be, and England were able to keep it there as Nat Sciver-Brunt and Danni Wyatt worked the gaps and ran hard.

Acknowledging that boundaries were going to be tough to find, they poked the ball into the pockets with the metronomic regularity of a snooker player potting red after red. For those who remember the glory-days of snooker in the 1980s, it was more Steve “Boring” Davis than Alex “Hurricane” Higgins, but it bears remembering that Davis won 6 World Championships, whilst Higgins won just 2.

With 4 overs left, England still needed a run a ball; but Kapp was bowled-out by that point, and though they lost Danni Wyatt off the last ball of the 18th over, it didn’t affect their momentum in any way, partly because Heather Knight faced just 1 ball, taking a leg-bye off de Klerk, leaving NSB to finish what she’d started at the other end, potting the final black with 4 deliveries to spare.

Earlier, England had delivered an efficient bowling performance to restrict the South Africans to 124.

South Africa 124-6 v England 125-3 #T20WC

— CRICKETher (@crickether.bsky.social) 2024-10-07T16:55:15.100Z

The middle overs were where South Africa let themselves get behind the game a little bit, particularly overs 7-11 as Anneke Bosch delivered the finest masterclass in anti-nominative-determinism since former Conservative cabinet minister James Cleverly – struggling to bosh anything much at all. It was a barely disguised blessing for South Africa when Bosch failed to get bat on an attempted ramp, and Kapp was able to come in and get things going for South Africa, making a quick 26 at a strike rate of 150, before Annerie Dercksen added an even more handy 20 not out off 11 at the end.

Dercksen hasn’t had much opportunity to show what she can do with the bat for South Africa – she has played 15 T20s now, and has only batted in 7 of them. But in those 7, she is averaging 22 at a strike rate of over 140, and there is definitely a case that she should be coming in above Chloe Tryon, who wasted 5 precious balls for 2 runs at a crucial point in the game. Had Dercksen faced those deliveries, and South Africa put another 10 on the board… who knows?

As it was, the result put England in pole position in Group B and means that South Africa really can’t afford a slip-up now – if they win both their remaining games (v Scotland and Bangladesh) they should be okay, but there is actually one scenario where even if they win both those games they don’t qualify, so they may end up cheering for England in their last match v West Indies, should it come down to it!