When is an ODI not an ODI? When it’s part of the 2001 Women’s European Championship, that’s when! England sent what they then considered to be an “A” side to that competition, and have always refused to recognise the matches as official ODIs. The ICC however does consider them to be full ODIs, including Ireland’s 56 run victory over England at Reading. So depending on which you believe (and… honestly… we go with the ICC on this one) this is either the first or second time Ireland have beaten England in an ODI.
Through sunshine and rain, and at one stage both at the same time, Ireland stuck in there to better England off the final delivery, when a fielding error on the boundary by Hollie Armitage allowed the ball to trickle over the rope with 4 required. Armitage looked like she wanted the ground to swallow her up, but no one player loses a game by themselves. The error behind the stumps by Bess Heath which had conceded 3 byes in the 20th over was equally critical; but the same applies – it was England who weren’t quite good enough on the day, not Armitage or Heath.
With half the day lost to the weather, it was past 3 in the afternoon when the players finally took to the field to play a 25 overs per side game – soon reduced to 22 overs after a further break for rain, making it more a slightly elongated T20 than a shortened ODI. This undoubtedly played into Ireland’s strengths; but England would still have been firm favorites, even after getting bowled out with 7 balls remaining.
Despite losing 8 wickets in the second half of their innings, England still managed to go at a decent clip – maintaining a run rate in excess of 6 an over to get them to 153, to which one run was added by DLS as a result of the reduction in overs during England’s innings. In T20 terms, that’s about 139 – not a huge score, but by no means a poor one either. (A typical 1st innings score in a T20 between the ICC Championship sides is 138.) England yet again had Tammy Beaumont to thank for the bulk of their runs, adding another 50 to the 150 she made in the 2nd ODI, to finish the rubber with 212 runs and a Player of the Series medal.
With an ask of 7 an over, there was only one way for Ireland to play if they were going to win the game – go on the attack, which stand-in captain Gaby Lewis did with aplomb. Kate Cross had taken Ireland to pieces in the first game, but Lewis was able to put that out of her mind and go on the attack in Cross’s first over, striking her for two 4s, which set the tone for an innings of 72 off 56 balls. If she’d stayed in, Ireland would have won easily, but Bess Heath held onto an edge off Lauren Filer, and with 137 on the board and 18 still required, Lewis was going to have to watch the rest of the game from the boundary like any other spectator.
The ask was less than a run a ball, but not a lot less – 18 off 22 – so Ireland needed to maintain their impetus to take it to the final over with 8 required. Kate Cross could have bowled it, but she handed the ball to Mady Villiers, who did not let her down, helping to complete a run out, then taking two wickets by keeping it simple and bowling at the stumps, leaving Ireland’s No. 9 Alana Dalzell to face the first and only delivery she’s received this year (!) in international cricket, needing 4 to win the game.
A record 10th ODI hundred from Tammy Beaumont, pulling her clear of Nat Sciver-Brunt and Charlotte Edwards at the head of the all-time list of England centurions, drove England to a massive 320 as they crushed Ireland in the 2nd ODI in Belfast.
Beaumont carried her bat for 150 not out – the second highest ODI score of her career – hitting the last 50 of those runs at a Strike Rate of over 200, as England piled on the pain in the last 10 overs, which went for 99.
By the 10 over mark in Ireland’s reply they had collapsed to 24-6 – the DLS par score at that stage, a whopping 221, with the only remaining doubt being whether we’d make it to the requisite 20 overs to constitute a game. At one point with about 8 overs bowled, the skies blackened and there was a scurry to rescue laptops and notepads from the front row of the press gazebo as a flurry of rain blew in; but in the end it was academic: Ireland beat the rain, bowled out within 17 overs for 45 – their lowest ever total in ODIs.
Other open question at 10 overs: would today’s debutante, Georgia Davis, even get a bowl, given how fast the game was slipping away from Ireland? But she did get her hands on the ball, and did take her first wicket, bowling Alice Tector, to whoops and cheers from the posse of Sparks players, led by Abbey Freeborn, who had made the trip over to Belfast to support her. The grin on her face as she made her way back to fine leg in front of her mates at the end of that over, was perhaps the most delightful thing I saw all day – Irish eyes might not have been smiling, but Davis ones were!
Davis then added the final wicket to her haul to finish with 2-19, with Freya Kemp also taking a brace, though the latter looked far from convincing with the ball. Kemp did however blast a rapid 65 off 47 balls with the bat – a welcome return to form after a dismal Hundred averaging just 7 at a Strike Rate of 89. She did have one enormous slice of luck today – if there had been umpire reviews, she would almost certainly have been run out early-doors; and her batting remains a tad one-dimensional. Her big shot is the slog-sweep over midwicket, which bought her half her boundary runs today – and you’d think an Australia or an India would bowl better lines to her to cut off that option, or at least put a fielder out there on the midwicket boundary. But you can only play the balls you are bowled, and Kemp was entitled to take full advantage as she did.
Another player who looked better than she has done recently was Lauren Filer, who bowled with the aggression of a woman with a point to prove after being left out of the World Cup squad. She was a little bit all-over-the-place in the first ODI on Saturday, but today she found some extra nip in what were definitely “nippy” conditions, and the Irish batters looked terrified. Filer finished with 3 wickets, but it could easily have been 5 or 6, and if she can work out how to bottle-up the way she bowled today and bring it to every game, there will be more World Cups in the future for sure.
Despite the record bowling performance though, the day belonged to Tammy Beaumont. The first time I saw her play an innings which offered a hint of what was to come was a battling innings for Kent, opening the batting with Charlotte Edwards, whose 9 ODI hundreds Beaumont pulled clear over today. Her trademark shot back then was a punched drive down the ground through mid off; but of today’s 150 runs, not a single one came in that area – instead it was the pulls through midwicket that she worked hardest, as well as running hard between the sticks, putting the teenagers on the field to shame with her pace over 22 yards.
What was the same as that early innings for Kent was the ability to dig in and fight – it wasn’t easy going early on, and she didn’t really find a groove until those final few overs; but it shows real temperament to not force the runs when they aren’t quite coming, and then to explode into life when they are. In the fifteenth year of her international career, having batted at almost every position in the lineup (in her ODI debut, she came in at 10!), Tammy Beaumont has seen it all. But more importantly, she has now done it all – she’ll be remembered as one of the greats, and we’ll miss her when she goes.
Six wickets and a cool, calm 38 not out from Kate Cross was enough for England to secure victory against Ireland in the 1st ODI at Stormont in Belfast.
On what locals told us was the finest day of the summer in Northern Ireland, the Irish (whose team comprises members from both Northern Ireland (part of the UK) and the Republic of Ireland) opted to bat first having won the toss, and would probably have settled for anything over 200, which is where the threshold of respectability lies in ICC Championship cricket right now – a “typical” 1st innings score being between 200 and 300, with 250 the average in recent years.
England got the early breakthrough, with Kate Cross going up twice for LBW to Una Raymond-Hoey in the opening over, and getting the decision at the second time of asking; and Ireland also lost Gaby Lewis in the powerplay – dismissed by the perfect Lauren Filer delivery, bouncing into the rib-cage of Lewis, who could couldn’t get her glove out of the way in time, sending a catch lolliping up to Hollie Armitage at slip.
This brought local girl Amy Hunter (born in Belfast) and Orla Prendergast (last seen playing for The Blaze in regionals) together, who put on 53 to steady the ship as England struggled to drive home any advantage those early wickets might have given them. That’s not to say that Hunter and Prendergast quite got away from England, but both were able to milk relatively easy runs from Hannah Baker and Ryana MacDonald-Gay, and if it hadn’t been for a lapse in concentration from Hunter right after the drinks break at 16 overs, the two might have done a lot more damage.
Prendergast showed her worth to this Ireland team, continuing to push on with Leah Paul, including hitting the only 6 of the innings, before eventually holing-out off Kate Cross in the 31st over for a well-made 76 off 87 balls. It was a rapid ride downhill for Ireland from there, as they slipped from 151-3 to 210 all out as Kate Cross completed her 6fer, meaning ultimately that they left the field disappointed, with a total they would probably have taken at the start of the day.
With 5 debutantes in their lineup, including 3 making their first appearances for England – Baker, MacDonald-Gay and Paige Scholfield – there was definitely potential for England to collapse in a bundle of nerves, especially if they lost a couple of early wickets. With Emma Lamb having departed early, England could have done with Tammy Beaumont sticking around but she got an unplayable delivery from Prendergast – very likely the Ball of the Series, it nipped in at pace between bat and pad to take the very top off the off bail – a delivery that would have dismissed Meg Lanning in her prime.
It was left to two of those debutantes – Scholfield and Hollie Armitage – to get England back on track, under a fair bit of pressure with only 32 on the board, but whilst both might be debutantes, neither are dilettantes, and at 28 and 27 respectively both have years of professional cricket behind them. That experience showed, as they worked the field in a 62 run partnership that tested the captaincy of Gaby Lewis, who found herself chasing the gaps – plugging one, only for Scholfield and Armitage to find another.
Neither Scholfield (31) nor Armitage (44) were able to push on quite as far as they no doubt would have liked, but their partnership of 62 ensured that England had the platform they needed to go on and win the game.
England definitely had the edge at the half-way point in their innings, but it wasn’t a done deal, with WinHer giving Ireland still a 24% chance at that stage.
It took the most experienced player in the side – the captain Kate Cross, selected for this role very much because England wanted someone who could be a calm head in a crisis, to come in at 8 and get England over the line. If Hollie Armo was Bob The Builder, and Scholfield, Freya Kamp and Bess Heath were Scoop, Muck and Dizzy; then Cross was Wendy – turning up in the final act to do what needed to be done and finish the job!
Cross was understandably delighted at the end, basking in the glow of a Player of the Match award in her first game as captain (something which Heather Knight also achieved, back in 2016 against Pakistan), but Ireland will retain some hope that they can take something from this series against an England team that were definitely a step below the usual 1st XI. Ireland have some decent players in the likes of Prendergast and Hunter, who look capable of winning a match on their day; but it will definitely take “their day”, with Ireland’s fielding in particular looking amateurish compared to England’s, leaking runs they could ill-afford to as England closed in on their total. If Ireland can keep heart, it looks set to be an interesting next 10 days on the Emerald Isle.
Let’s start by looking at some data from The Hundred and the Charlotte Edwards Cup.
First, The Hundred …
PLACE
PLAYERS USED
PLAYERS PLAYING ALL GAMES
ALL ROUNDERS
LOW IMPACT PLAYERS
Spirit
1
13
9
3
3
Fire
2
12
9
3
4
Invincibles
3
12
10
1
3
Superchargers
4
12
10
1
5
Rockets
5
12
10
3
5
Originals
6
13
8
2
7
Phoenix
7
13
7
2
4
Brave
8
13
9
0
3
All-rounders: 100+ runs plus 5+ wickets or wicket-keepers scoring 100+ runs. A ‘low-impact’ player took <5 wickets (i.e. wasn’t primarily a bowler) and scored <50 runs (i.e. did not contribute significantly with the bat.
Sticking with the same team is obviously fine if you’re winning, but 3 teams (Originals, Superchargers and Phoenix) won only 3 games and SB won just 1. It’s thus extremely telling about the deemed quality of the possible replacements that the coaches stuck with so many under-performing players in these circumstances.
The Hundred is promoted as the premier short-form competition and one might expect international players to dominate the batting and bowling tables. As this article will show, this was certainly true of the women’s competition, but far less so in the men’s Hundred (16 of the top 20 run scorers were English, 6 of whom were ‘uncapped’ [at international level] and 11 of the top 20 wicket-takers were English, 2 of whom were uncapped).
The Aussies are rightly renowned for their endless stable of all-rounders; producing 7 of the 15 all-rounders – compared to just 3 English players (Gibson, Sciver-Brunt and A. Jones).
Similarly, of the 12 bowlers taking 10+ wickets only 5 were English and just 3 (Davis, Arlott and Levick) were uncapped. Moving down the wicket-taking table, 19 bowlers took between 5-9 wickets with slightly better representation at this level from domestic uncapaped players (Gray, Pavely, McDonald-Gay and Corteen-Coleman).
Only 4 keepers scored more than 100 runs (3 non-English players: Redmayne; Mooney; and Bryce; plus Jones). (More on keepers who can’t bat in the next section.)
Finally, 34 out of 100 players were ‘low impact’. A good argument can be made that for some younger players mere participation is a valuable learning experience and it’s true that when teams are packed with International players and an innings lasts just 100 balls many players will have limited opportunities to make an impression. Nevertheless, this still seems a very high proportion.
In summary, the tournament was dominated by international players (with non-English international players very much in the ascendancy) and very few uncapped players made a credible case for higher honours. Most worryingly, squad depth – as illustrated by squad deployment – is extremely thin.
Turning to the CEC …
PLACE
PLAYERS
PLAYERS PLAYING 9+ GAMES
ALL ROUNDERS
LOW IMPACT
Blaze
1
14
9
2
2
Stars
2
16
7
1
3
Vipers
3
17
7
3
3
Sparks
4
15
10
1
2
Thunder
5
19
5
1
8
Diamonds
6
15
9
3
2
Storm
7
16
5
1
4
Sunrisers
8
14
8
1
5
All-rounders: 100+ runs and 7+ wickets or keepers with 100+ runs. The criteria for low impact players is far less onerous than for The Hundred: 0-1 wickets and <60 runs.
With only a sprinkling of overseas players and limited appearances by England players, the CEC provides a platform for domestic players to shine.
Most of the small number of international players participating did well; the Aussies providing 4 of the 11 all-rounders. A further 3 of the all-rounders were keepers, starkly highlighting the domestic system’s failure to produce batting/bowling all-rounders.
Another phenomenon is the continuing existence of keepers who can’t bat. Even allowing for the higher prevalence of slow bowling in the women’s game (which arguably means superior keeping skills can compensate for weaker batting) it seems an untenable anachronism that there were 4 keepers who averaged less than 8.5 with the bat. (NB Any good upcoming young batters with ‘good hands’ would be well advised to consider becoming a batter-keeper to maximise their prospects.)
But what’s been apparent for several years is the uneven spread of talent across the 8 teams. Take the bottom 4 teams …
Thunder’s team composition was very volatile which partly explains the high number of low impact players (more players playing a small number of games). But they had just 1(!) bowler with more than 7 wickets (F. Morris with 9). And whilst they do have several players capable of chipping in with wickets – unfortunately none displayed much batting prowess. With only 3 players scoring more than 100 runs (plus one other scoring 75 runs), Thunder’s tail effectively starts at 5. By any metric this is a weak team – but, notwithstanding this lack of batting and bowling strength, there were 3 teams beneath them!
Northern Diamonds tends to do better in the longer game – although they were CEC runners up in 2021. The younger generation has been brought up on T20, but only 2 domestic batters with 60+ runs (Heath and Armitage) had a SR of 100+. Heath was denied the gloves on occasions and unless she improves rapidly, I predict she risks being usurped as England keeper-in-waiting by Bryce switching her allegiance post the world cup. The bowling attack is skilled, but shallow, and Slater stands out as the best emerging talent.
Western Storm have long struggled to develop or attract talent to the south-west (which may not bode well for Somerset’s Tier 1 recruitment prospects). Knight scored most runs (155) in just 3 games which tells its own story (all other teams had at least 2 batters with more runs than this – and Sparks had 5) although one bright spot was Corney. However, of batters scoring 60+ runs, only Knight and Wellington had a SR of 100+. Only 3 bowlers took 7+ wickets; Smale being the domestic success. And Storm’s decision to play Wong and Anderson (neither of whom could get a game for their employer, Sparks) over their local talent reflects a lack of viable options.
And finally, Sunrisers. Sunrisers utilised the smallest number of players and surprisingly had 5 batters with 100+ runs; although their top 2 run scorers (Gardner and Scrivens) had SRs of 108 making it hard to post imposing targets. The resurgent Villiers, Gray and Munro were the only bowlers to take more than 7 wickets, although only Munro’s SR suggested a degree of penetration.
But here’s the most worrying statistic: 30 of the 126 players who made an appearance met the (unchallenging) criteria for low impact players. Whilst injuries and limited appearances partly explain this number 18 of this 30 are currently-contracted players.
Quite simply, the current talent pool isn’t deep enough to meet the current requirement for professional players, yet Project Darwin will see each of the 8 Tier 1 teams recruit 15 players (in addition to which Yorkshire is apparently assembling a team in preparation for becoming Tier 1 in 2026).
Put another way, that’s over 50 more contracted professionals.
For women’s cricket to grow standards in Tier 1 need to be uniformly high – both to prove the sceptics wrong but, more importantly, to ensure that the first impressions of those coming to the game will be positive (since a few disappointing experiences would be hard to subsequently change). A rational ECB realising this and looking at the data should have decided to start with 6 Tier 1 counties and specified the conditions (spectator/viewer numbers, broadcast/sponsorship revenues, etc.) which would need to be met before Tier 1 was expanded without pre-determining what the end state (timescales and number of Tier 1 teams) must be.
A successor article will illustrate why prioritising optics and selective narratives and mandating how many and which clubs will ascend to Tier 1 (and by when) is both sub-optimal and risks doing significant harm to the women’s game.
England have announced their squads to tour Ireland in September and to contest the World Cup in UAE in October – with one notable omission.
Despite the fact that the Ireland squad seems tilted towards experience over youth (Georgia Adams and Mady Villiers are both included, while Kate Cross will captain), England coach Jon Lewis confirmed on Tuesday that Kirstie Gordon has opted out of the tour:
“We had a discussion with her, around multiple different scenarios that could play out for her in the future.”
“We came to the conclusion that the right thing at this point in time was to focus in on playing domestic cricket and then potentially come and play for England further down the line in other series or tournaments.”
Gordon already has 6 England caps, but the key factor was probably that the Ireland tour directly clashes with the last group-stage match and the semi-finals of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy.
With Blaze currently in fifth place and all still to play for, Gordon is likely focused on ensuring that her team, the Blaze, have the best chance of winning the last ever RHF.
Interestingly, though, it seems that her conversation with ECB Director of Women’s Cricket Jonathan Finch also involved proud Scot Gordon raising the question of a possible return to her home nation. “I’m pretty sure [Scotland] was [part of the conversation],” Lewis said.
Gordon last represented England in July 2019 and, under ICC regulations, would now be immediately eligible to play for Scotland should she choose to do so.
Lewis, though, said that England have promised Gordon a return to England colours “down the line in other series or tournaments” – presumably as a nice carrot to prevent her head being turned by the historic chance to represent Scotland in their first ever World Cup appearance.
CRICKETher 