TRIGGER WARNING: This article contains statistics that some England fans may find disturbing – reader discretion is advised.

List of teams to have scored more than 450 runs in the first innings of a Women’s Test:

1. Australia – 473 at Trent Bridge, 2023

List of teams to have scored more than 300 runs in the first innings of a Women’s Test and lost the match:

Basically… history wasn’t on England’s side when we closed last night with Australia on 328-7; but there were some prospects that they could defy it, with this being the first 5-day Test of the professional era, and the weather forecast not looking too bad for the rest of the match. (There are currently some thundery showers forecast for late Sunday, but otherwise we are looking good for a full complement of overs.)

But those prospects began to recede this morning as England took the morning session and then some to clean up the Aussie tail, with Annabel Sutherland making her way to 137* supported by Alana King and Kim Garth – the latter of whom blocked her way to a Laura Marsh-esque 76 ball 22 as Sutherland pushed on past the 100 mark.

Sophie Ecclestone bowled another 15 overs – not quite as economically as yesterday, but still impressive, while the seamers toiled in rotation at the other end.

By the time Ecclestone took the final wicket – her fifth – a few overs into the afternoon session, the numbers read:

                   Overs Wks Runs
Sophie Ecclestone  46.2  5   129
Everyone Else      78    5   331

Ecclestone’s teammates from her home club up in Cheshire had made their way down to Nottingham for the first two days of this match to support her, and they can’t say they didn’t get their money’s worth!

But whist she left the field holding aloft the match ball, the seamers went back to the dressing room battered and bruised: England’s one-spinner selection policy, and their ambitions to win this Test by bowling first, both being called into sharp question.

It’s is true that Sutherland batted beautifully. With technique the echoed Ellyse Perry in her prime, I’ve never seen her play better. But she was only batting at one end, and England really should have been able to clean up the tail for less than the 145 Australia put on today.

It is difficult to escape the feeling that whilst bowlers like Lauren Filer (and to be fair, Darcie Brown for Australia later in the day) might be fast by the standards of the women’s game, they just aren’t fast enough to really trouble the top batters, who have faced plenty of 70-75mph bowling, both from the colleagues in the nets and from bowling machines.

You need something more than raw pace to take wickets, as Australia discovered too, with Tammy Beaumont becoming the second player of the day to join The Hundred Club this evening. Beaumont was coming off the back of an undefeated double-hundred in the warm-up against Australia “A” and goes to bed tonight with another 100 to her name – avoiding the angst of having to sleep on 90-something, reaching the milestone with an over to spare before stumps.

TB might have lost her place in the T20 reckoning, but she is still giving the fight everything in the longer formats. There was a brief period early on where she looked slightly wobbly, mistiming a defensive drive which on another day could easily have carried to cover, and then almost playing-on shortly after. But having got through that, she sailed on with increasing confidence, and you wouldn’t bet against her adding another 100 tomorrow.

But it probably still won’t be enough for England to put themselves in a position to control the game. Although Nat Sciver-Brunt, going at pretty-much a run-a-ball, did push them briefly over a rate of 7 runs per over, maintaining that kind of rate isn’t realistic, so the likelihood is that even if they make the Aussies toil in the field, they won’t reach parity until very late in the day tomorrow.

They’ll then be relying on Australian skipper Alyssa Healy to decide whether or not to make a game of it – set England a target and let them chase it? Or shut up shop and play for the draw?

The one factor in England’s favour: in the drawn Test at Taunton in 2019, Meg Lanning asked the team whether they thought she should make a similar move and offer England a sniff of victory to try to win the match themselves. The team voted 10-1 to make the game safe, and a draw was the inevitable result. But the one player who dissented? Alyssa Healy!

Batting first in the Women’s Ashes Test, Australia reached 327-7 at the close of day 1.

And no, that’s not a typo – it’s the previous Ashes Test, played at Manuka Oval in Canberra in January 2022.

Here at Trent Bridge, a year-and-a-half later, Australia went exactly one run better – 328-7. They did it at a considerably faster run-rate however: at Manuka they scored at 3.4 runs per over; but with rain having taken 5 overs out of the day, and the required number of overs reduced from 100 (for a 4-day Test) to 90 (for a 5-day game), there were just 85 overs bowled today, with Australia scoring at 3.9 runs per over – half a run per over quicker.

Indeed during one phase after lunch, Ellyse Perry and Tahlia McGrath reached the positively Bazballish heights of 6 runs per over, between overs 35 and 40.

Perry and McGrath looked odds-on for at least one century between them, if not two, and had just taken Australia past the 200 mark when a little bit of Ecclestone magic did for McGrath on 61 – the ball fired-in in the direction of leg stump, pitching on middle and then straightening to take out middle as McGrath covered leg with her defence.

Ecclestone bowled on and on, in a mammoth spell of 28 overs across the rain break. It was perhaps a slightly risky move in the context of what’s to come, with Ecclestone having priors for breaking down later in the season after having been over-bowled in a Test, but this match is probably the key to England’s summer. With Australia only needing to draw the series to retain the Ashes, England’s only real hope of winning back the trophy is to win this Test, and they’d probably be quite happy if Ecclestone having to sit out the Sri Lanka series in September was the price to be paid for that.

And of course, the rewards came today, as Ecclestone maintained her control for a total of 31 overs, at an economy rate of 2.3. England’s next best was Kate Cross’s 4.3 – not bad, by any means, but a whopping 2 runs-an-over more expensive than Ecclestone. Even more importantly, Ecclestone added two more crucial wickets. Jess Jonassen was a tad unlucky to glove an attempted sweep to Tammy Beaumont at short leg who took the catch.

Alyssa Healy – the really big wicket – then followed two balls later – a quite similar dismissal to McGrath’s, playing for a ball heading towards leg but seeing it turn back past the outside of her bat and clatter into the stumps. Healy will look back and wince. Her choice to drop down the order made a lot of sense on paper, but she isn’t used to sitting in the pavilion for hours waiting her turn to come to the middle, and the concentration when she did was just a little bit lacking.

She wasn’t the only one who will be kicking herself – Perry also perished, on the dreaded 99, due to a lapse in concentration, flashing at one she could have left alone.

Australia bat deep though – Ash Gardner coming in at 7, and Annabel Sutherland at 8 meant England weren’t into the tail yet, and another big partnership of 77 took Australia past the 300 mark, which you feel means they have the right to claim they “won the day”, before Lauren Bell , preferred to Filer with the new ball, delivered the goods with a bit of inswing and an edge to Amy Jones.

England would have liked one more from the new ball, but Sutherland and Alana King survived to the close, brining to an end what turned out to be an entertaining day.

Trent Bridge seems like a really good venue to have chosen for this Test match – it is the most intimate of the “Big” grounds, with the front few rows of seats feeling much closer to the action than they do elsewhere, and there was a real buzz through the day, with a decent crowd enjoying all the hospitality on offer. Whether your tipple was Pimm’s, gin cocktails, or the more traditional pint of lager, all the concessions were open for service, which hasn’t always been the case for women’s matches. It wasn’t a “sell out” by any means, but it was definitely a much better crowd and atmosphere than any recent Test I can remember, and fully justified the decision to show faith in the bigger venues.

Will it be a venue where England get a result in a Test for the first time in nearly 10 years? It won’t be easy – the pitch is already breaking up a bit, with the ground staff called on to repair Ecclestone’s footmarks at one point, and batting on the final day will be a… well… a test, I guess! But if they can play positively tomorrow and look to bat into day 3 towards a lead of 100-150, they have a chance.

Uncapped Western Storm duo Lauren Filer and Dani Gibson have been included in England’s squad for the Ashes Test at Trent Bridge later this month.

Gibson’s call-up is not massively unexpected – she was an official reserve for the T20 World Cup and as a genuine allrounder offers quality seam bowling and aggressive batting options. If she plays, it would suggest England are planning to continue the aggressive approach which saw them almost win the last Ashes Test on the final day in Canberra last year.

Filer’s selection however is somewhat left-field – much more so than the inclusion of Emily Arlott was for the Test versus India two years ago. Filer has taken just a handful of wickets in regionals this season, and bats in the tail. Arlott of course didn’t end up playing against India, and missed out again a year later after withdrawing due to the effects of long COVID; and it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if Filer too spends the week in Nottingham carrying drinks.

Issy Wong also makes the squad, despite a run of very poor form in domestic cricket, with England clearly gambling that she will rise to the occasion for England in a way which she hasn’t done for Sparks this season.

Alice Capsey meanwhile is included, giving her the opportunity to complete the set of Test, ODI and T20 caps before the age of 19, which she’ll reach in August.

England Women’s Ashes Test Squad
Heather Knight (Western Storm)
Tammy Beaumont (The Blaze)
Lauren Bell (Southern Vipers)
Alice Capsey (South East Stars)
Kate Cross (Thunder)
Alice Davidson-Richards (South East Stars)
Sophia Dunkley (South East Stars)
Sophie Ecclestone (Thunder)
Lauren Filer (Western Storm)
Danielle Gibson (Western Storm)
Amy Jones (Central Sparks)
Emma Lamb (Thunder)
Nat Sciver-Brunt (The Blaze)
Issy Wong (Central Sparks)
Danielle Wyatt (Southern Brave)

This week:

• Thunder at Finals Day – literally!
• Farewell to Anya Shrubsole
• Weird goings on at Sunrisers
• Ashes squad announcement – who should be included based on Lottie Cup performances?

“The history books never mention the losers,” said Steve McManaman on comms during the Men’s Champions League final last night. He took a bit of stick for it on social media, but in context (i.e. sporting history) it’s true, isn’t it? Vipers retained the Charlotte Edwards cup in emphatic style at Worcester today; and no one will remember that it was Blaze who topped the table with a massive 31 points – 9 more than Vipers; and it was Blaze who won 7 games out of 7 in the group stages, while Vipers won just 5 and lost 2.

In a sense, it is a massively unfair result – Blaze were so dominant in the group stages and if anyone deserved something from the day, it was them; but trophies in this game aren’t awarded for group stages. Whilst this was Blaze’s first final since Lightning (as they then were) made the KSL final in 2018, that was the last year that Vipers didn’t make a finals day, and they have now won 4 of the 6 trophies available since the inception of regionals in 2020. That experience really told at Worcester over the past 2 days.

With Anya Shrubsole leading Vipers onto the field last night, speculation was rife that this signified her final game for the club, and she tearfully confirmed as much in the post-match interview as she received the Payer of the Match medal, having bowled Vipers into an essentially unassailable position prior to the rains last night, with Blaze 53-4 after 9.3 overs. On another occasion, Danni Wyatt (50 off 28 balls) might have argued with that Player of the Match award, but she had already bagged one bottle of champagne English sparkling wine this weekend for her performance in the semi-final, and besides… this was Anya’s day.

Blaze’s only hope was to come out all guns… er… blazing this morning. If they had been able to add another 100 runs, they might have made a game of it, but they struggled to find the boundary. Marie Kelly finished as their top scorer with an all-run 26 – no 4s or 6s at all. Given the deluge of rain yesterday, and the fact that the water table apparently remains very high at Worcester for the time of year, we wondered if perhaps the outfield had just slowed-up; but the first two overs of Vipers’ innings quickly put that idea to bed – Wyatt running riot of Grace Ballinger in the 2nd over, taking her for 17 runs. They didn’t quite maintain that pace, but by the end of the powerplay, they were already more than half-way home.

By the time they lost the wickets of Maia Bouchier in the 7th over, it was already essentially done and dusted as a contest. Ella McCaughan called Danni Wyatt through for a quick single, but Wyatt basically just shook her head and held her hand up, as if to say: “Chill, kiddo – we got this!”

Freya Kemp looked like Freya Kemp again for the first time since her partial comeback from injury, playing as a pure batter – effortlessly crashing Lucy Higham to the boundary for a consecutive 6 and 4 on her way to 13 off 8 balls; but it was left to Georgia Adams, later named Player of the Tournament, to hit the winning runs and start the celebrations.

When Australia won the T20 World Cup in South Africa a few months ago, some commented that their celebrations seemed muted – as if their senses had been dulled by so many trophy wins in the past few years. There was no such reticence from Vipers today – they enjoyed this one as much as any of the others. They might have lost 3 games already this season. They might have had a panic over the wicket-keeping role. But they are the Charlotte Edwards Cup champions again, and that’s all that history will remember.

When Bryony Smith made her ODI debut in June 2019, having played a few T20s the previous summer, I wrote a piece suggesting that then-coach Mark Robinson might have solved a big problem for England by finding a role for her which really fitted – as a bowling allrounder who could seriously hit a ball.

But Robinson himself clearly wasn’t convinced – it remains the only ODI she has played, and she didn’t win another T20 cap either until last summer. She won 5 more caps in 2022 under Lisa Keightley, but Keightley didn’t seem entirely sure what her role was either – initially selecting her to bat at 3, then bumping her down the order after Alice Capsey came onto the scene. She was then dropped completely for a winter which included the T20 World Cup, and didn’t even make the cut as Capsey’s understudy, with Dani Gibson named as the reserve for South Africa.

At Stars, however, her role has been very clear for a while: come in opening-up and use the powerplay to hit over the top – get the first punch in, leaving the opposition dazed and confused in the dust. It doesn’t always work – she is out caught a lot – but this season she seems to have added a bit more oomph to a game that was already power-heavy. The numbers speak for themselves – leading run-scorer, and the 2nd highest strike rate in the comp*.

(* Minimum 25 balls faced – the “real” highest strike rate is Freya Davies – 200, consisting of 8 off 4 deliveries faced.)

Might another England call-up – which would feel almost like a third debut – now be on the cards for Smith? It would have to be in that powerplay role – that’s her game – and Sophia Dunkley and Danni Wyatt both look quite established in those opening slots, but if one of them should fall by the wayside (and Wyatt is obviously closer to the end of her career than the beginning of it) Smith is now the obvious choice.

Getting back to the rankings, Nat Sciver-Brunt comes in 2nd, despite having only played 4 games. It feels like a long time since we’ve been able to say an Englishwoman is the Best Player in the World™ and an English player has never won Wisden‘s Leading Woman Cricketer in the World, but no one has been better-placed to change that than Sciver-Brunt is right now – all she needs to do is win The Ashes single-handedly and it’s hers! (Easy-as… right?)

In terms of up-and-coming players, the aforementioned Dani Gibson, cracking the top 10 at No. 9, is obviously the next player on England’s radar. Some players are “batting allrounders” and some are “bowling allrounders”, but Gibson is more that old-school “genuine allrounder”, who you’d pick as either. Moreover, she has really pushed-on over the winter, adding more power to her batting game, and a lovely slower ball to her seam-bowling armoury, and there is a good chance she’ll win a T20 cap this summer – if not against Australia then versus Sri Lanka in September.

Ranking = Runs * Strike Rate

During the first 3 seasons of regionals, overseas signings in the RHF Trophy and CE Cup felt somewhat ad-hoc; but increased budgets this year have meant players being signed for longer blocks on a more strategic basis. While some teams have gone down the route of hiring internationally retired superstars, such as Deandra Dottin at Thunder and Dane van Niekerk at Sunrisers (neither of whom have set the summer on fire), others have opted for utility all-rounders, like Erin Burns at Sparks and Nadine de Klerk at Blaze.

Neither Burns nor de Klerk are anywhere near superstar territory – Burns has won just 6 caps in a lengthy career, and while de Klerk has played 60-odd, she had a poor World Cup, taking just 2 wickets and finishing the competition as her side’s most expensive bowler. And yet… here we are – de Klerk finishes the group stages of the CE Cup as its leading bowler, having taken 14 wickets at an Economy Rate under 6, with Burns also making the top 10.

The one semi-retired superstar who has had a successful CE Cup is Anya Shrubsole – with Vipers missing key players throughout the competition due to England red-ball warm-ups ahead of the Ashes, their player-coach has stepped-up with 9 wickets, to keep their campaign alive into Finals Day.

The other key player keeping Vipers hanging in there (and compared with previous seasons, it has been a case of “hanging in”) has been Linsey Smith, who ranks 2nd with a tournament-leading economy rate of 4.89, despite having bowled a lot of overs in the powerplay. (And amazingly, that tournament-leading economy rate for once doesn’t need to be caveated with “minimum x overs bowled” – it is actually the real leading rate!)

In terms of future prospects 20-year old Grace Hall, in her first season with Diamonds, might be one to keep an eye on, having out-bowled a lot of bigger names to make it into the top 10. She isn’t super-quick, but with a slingy, almost round-arm action and (appropriately enough for a true-born Yorkshire lass) a great yorker, she offers something a bit different which England might want to be taking an interest in, in the near future.

Ranking = Wickets / Economy

This week:

• Who’s on track for CE Cup Finals Day?
• Our take on THAT Thea Brookes interview
• Where the PCA gets it wrong
• Syd has a bonkers idea about Bryony Smith… & an excellent one about women’s county cricket

On a breezy day at Bristol, Storm cruised to a win which was ultimately far easier than the 4-ball margin on the scorecard would suggest.

Chasing Sparks’ 135, Storm got off to a decent start, with Dani Gibson playing some authoritative strokes early on, finding the boundary in each of the first 3 overs. Gibson has been a key player for Storm this season, but she couldn’t push on today, caught low at extra cover by Erin Burns for 18 off 14.

With Ami Campbell holding on to a difficult low chance to dismiss Nat Wraith, Sparks could have had an opening, but Storm continued to tick along at just over 8 an over, reaching 51-2 at the end of the powerplay with Fran Wilson having taken over from Gibson as the playmaker.

With Irish allrounder Orla Prendergast in tow, Wilson guided Storm to 77-2 at 10 overs, gradually whittling down the rate as she dinked it all around the ground in the manner of… well… Fran Wilson.

Prendergast should have been caught on 20, skying an easy chance to deep mid on, only for Georgia Davis to misjudge it horrendously coming out of the midday sun, shrivelling in embarrassment as it plopped onto the turf a yard behind her.

The partnership between Wilson and Prendergast yielded 57 runs before Wilson’s innings came to an end for 34, stumped coming down the track to Hannah Baker, easily Sparks’ standout bowler on the day.

The runs dried up a bit without Wilson’s impetus, but this was partly achieved by Sparks bowling-out trump-card Hannah Baker, turning the required 21 off the final 4 overs into something of a formality.

Sparks had a couple of opportunities to keep it interesting – a chance to stump Luff off Georgia Davis went begging, and Luff was also dropped off the first ball of the final over; but Prendergast then guided the next delivery over the ring into the vacant outfield to bring up the winning runs, the Irish international finishing 46* off 43 balls.

Sparks (who, at time of writing, are not mathematically out of the tournament, but are very close to being so) will take the positives from a productive (if chancy!) knock of 22 off 23 from Davina Perrin and a highly professional 66 off 45 balls from Aussie veteran Erin Burns.

Perrin had her first little bit of luck on 6 when a lofted drive passed inches from Sophia Smale’s outstretched right hand as it went for 4; and was then horribly dropped by Smale the following delivery. She continued to live a charmed life playing largely over the infield, until finally caught on the ring by Chloe Skelton for 22 off 23.

At the half-way mark, Sparks were 57-3 and staring down the barrel at a somewhat sub-par total. But with Burns on 17 having faced just 14 deliveries, there was an opportunity to build something defendable, and it was an opportunity Burns took, putting on 66 with Abi Freeborn.

Neither found the boundary as much as they might have liked, but both ran hard between the wickets to make up for it – going into the death overs at 99-3 with the chance to capitalise on their wickets in hand. Burns’ innings ended on the second ball of the final over but a strong death phase took them to 135 and gave them something to bowl at, albeit ultimately not quite enough.

The win keeps Storm’s slim hopes of reaching Finals Day alive, though this may change with 3 other matches completing later today.

Sunrisers continued their winless start to the 2023 Charlotte Edwards Cup with a four-wicket defeat to local rivals South East Stars – a disappointing end to their first ever fixture at Lord’s.

Set a target of 133, Stars looked to be cruising along, adding 61 runs in the powerplay. Bryony Smith continued her form from Tuesday’s match against Vipers (when she struck 83), while Alice Capsey made an exhilarating return to the side, smashing 24 from 10 balls including some glorious aerial drives.

The pair added 30 runs in just 2 overs, but Capsey was out in the seventh, falling to a very good catch from Mady Villiers, diving forwards at long on.

Smith survived a couple of difficult caught-and-bowled chances from Villiers and Abtaha Maqsood to reach 38 from 27, finally holing out to deep midwicket in the 12th.

Stars continued to lose wickets at the back end, including two in the 16th over to Grace Scrivens, who appeared very much to be directing on-field proceedings, having regular conversations with Dane van Niekerk between balls.

But a calm innings from Phoebe Franklin (30 off 36), and a final boundary punched hard through point by Kira Chathli, finished the job with an over to spare.

Sunrisers had rejigged their batting line-up after defeat to Central Sparks at Chelmsford a week ago, with van Niekerk making her long-waited debut for the side, while Villiers was promoted to open alongside the South African.

The pair added 32 for the first wicket – though van Niekerk was put down twice in Phoebe Franklin’s opening over – but could not build enough of a platform to take Sunrisers to a winning total.

Paige Scholfield made the initial breakthrough in the fifth over, as van Niekerk’s wild swing found air and she was bowled, before Villiers bottom-edged onto her own stumps two overs later.

Sunrisers then sunk from 40 for 2 to 64 for 6, thanks partly to some atrocious running between the wickets. Scrivens was undone by a poor call from Cordelia Griffith and a piece of good fortune – Chathli fumbled the throw-in from Bryony Smith at midwicket, but the ball ricocheted off her foot and dislodged the bails anyway.

Griffith was then involved in an extraordinary mix-up with Amara Carr, which saw the two batters almost collide halfway down the wicket. Carr had to make an emergency diversion around Griffith, and was run out at the non-strikers end.

An unsettled-looking Griffith holed out to Tash Farrant at deep square leg two overs later.

It looked like humiliation for Sunrisers, until Jo Gardner and Eva Gray ensured their team at least made a decent fist of it, with a partnership of 48 for the seventh wicket, which lifted the home side above 100.

But Gardner ultimately became the third run-out victim of the innings, coming down the track from the non-strikers end while Gray remained firmly in her crease.

Sunrisers have work to do before their bottom-of-the-table clash against Thunder on Saturday.