Katya Witney at Weetwood 

Winning her second toss of the day, Langston again elected to bat in the much-anticipated roses match.

Elise Good showed her intent immediately opening the batting, hitting Nat Brown over her head to get the scoreboard ticking in the first over. Hannah Buck scored the first boundary of the innings, tickling Brown off her hip and down to the fine-leg boundary.

However, Phoebe Graham halted the opener’s advances, sending the ball crashing into Buck’s stumps as the right-hander looked for an expansive drive.

After being dismissed off the third ball she faced in the morning game, Armitage looked in the mood to score, driving her first ball aerially down to the boundary.

Good departed in Alex Hartley’s first over, chipping a catch to Sophia Turner at short mid-wicket who took it well jumping to her left. Yorkshire ended the powerplay at 20 for 2.

Armitage continued to advance the run rate, scoring a boundary down to long-on off Emma Lamb’s first delivery. Phoebe Turner matched her energy, lofting Hartley over her head in the 7th over for another boundary but was out caught attempting to cut the ball to the rope off the last delivery of the over.

Yorkshire reached the halfway stage of the innings on 48 for 3, with a fair platform to build on. However, they had a stroke of luck minutes later as Armitage was dropped on the long-on boundary off a difficult chance.

Langston and Armitage upped the ante in the middle overs, taking their side to 74 for 3 by the end of the 13th, but Armitage was bowled off Hartley’s last delivery, the ball clipping the top of the bails leaving the white roses 88 for 4 going into the final five.

Langston fell shortly afterwards, and Yorkshire were in danger of squandering the platform they had built. Rachel Slater went next, coming down the wicket to Lamb and getting herself in a tangle, Jess Woolston followed her back to the dug-out in the next over.

Yorkshire limped to 109 for 8 at the end of their innings and, considering Lancashire’s total of 174 for 3 on the same pitch that morning, they looked well short.

Indeed, with Georgie Boyce scoring consecutive boundaries off the second and third ball of the innings, fears that Yorkshire did not have enough on the board were well-founded.

A six from Lamb put Lancashire a third of the way to their target by the end of just the third over.

Yorkshire didn’t take their chances either as Boyce was badly dropped at mid-on off the last ball of the fourth over and dropped again shortly after. Boyce then went on to bring up Lancashire’s fifty in the sixth over with back-to-back fours off Rachel Slater.

The white roses dropped Boyce yet again in the seventh over, this time compounded by the fielder tipping the ball over the boundary for six. Boyce brought up her half-century with the following ball.

With her team needing just seven to win in the twelfth over, Lamb chipped the ball in the air, and finally Yorkshire took a catch, an easy chance falling to Woolston. However, the result was now a formality.

Boyce wrapped it up in the following over, sealing the deal somewhat anti-climatically with a leg-by.

It was a statement from Lancashire. Despite riding their luck slightly, they looked the far better side, taking advantage of their regional and international players. They will take some beating on finals day next weekend.

Follow @KatyaWitney on Twitter

Katya Witney at Weetwood 

On an overcast day at Weetwood CC, far from the glorious sunshine of the week before, Yorkshire held out against the Northern Representatives to claim a thrilling victory.

Yorkshire won the toss and elected to bat but were soon in trouble after Summer Carrington took the wickets of Buck and Armitage in her second over.

At 19 for 2, edges continued to fly. Phoebe Turner got a thick edge on a ball from Abigail Glen which flew through the vacant slip region and hit another up in the air a few balls later, narrowly avoiding the hands of two chasing fielders.

Turner rode her luck, giving a couple of half-chances to the Rep fielders but she was finally bowled by Emily Sutton in the eighth over, leaving Yorkshire 39 for 3.

Bath Langstone showed positive intent from the off as she came to the crease, flicking her first delivery from Sutton elegantly down to the leg-side boundary. Elise Good followed up in Sutton’s next over, skipping down the wicket and belting her down the ground for four.

However, just as Langston and Good were looking productive for the White Roses, Good mistimed an aggressive shot off Sachi Pai, getting a leading edge straight to Alice Clarke at mid-off.

Emma Marlow now joined Langston at the crease and after hitting Pai for a powerful four down the ground she was almost caught at square-leg, the ball falling just short of the fielder.

Marlow was out the following over, swiping at a ball from Ray and only succeeding in edging through to the keeper leaving Yorkshire 84 for 5 going into the final five.

Despite the steady flow of wickets, Yorkshire managed to keep the runs ticking over. Rachel Slater was caught off a no-ball from Ray in the 16th and dropped twice in consecutive balls in the 18th before she was bowled by Glen.

After an entertaining finish from the tailenders, Yorkshire set a target of 118.

Rebecca Duckworth and Abigail Glen made a slow start for the Northern Reps, unable to score fluently off some tight bowling from Beth and Rachel Slater.

However, after the first boundary came in the seventh over the Reps were able to gain some momentum with Glen taking Grace Hall for 11 off her first over.

By the halfway stage, Yorkshire were still searching for the breakthrough with the Reps’ openers having scored 47, just shy of where Yorkshire were at the same stage but without the loss of wickets.

It was beginning to look ominous for Yorkshire until Armitage found an opportunity in the 13th over, taking the crucial wicket of Glen, bowled off a full delivery.

The Rep’s slow scoring rate in the first few overs began to hurt them as they struggled to up the pace. Despite Duckworth’s best efforts playing a couple of beautiful cover drives off Armitage, the Reps found themselves needing 44 off the final five. Not impossible, but tough.

Hall’s well bowled slower ball gave Yorkshire the wicket they were searching for in the 18th, Duckworth departing for 38 and bringing Alice Clarke to the crease.

The Reps were scoring at the required ten an over, however, helped by an unfortunate misfield from Rachel Slater who tipped a catch over the boundary for six and needed 16 from the final over to claim victory; but Hall held her nerve well after bowling a full toss, limiting the Reps to nine off the over and seeing her side home in thrilling fashion.

Follow @KatyaWitney on Twitter

A swashbuckling 88 off 62 balls from captain Grace Scrivens was not enough to prevent Kent going down to the second of two defeats in the T20 Cup versus Sussex at BACA in Brighton – Kent’s first reversals in the format since before the pandemic.

Opening the batting in the second match of this double-header, 18-year-old Scrivens treated the Sussex attack with growing contempt, building to a crescendo in the 17th over when she walloped fellow teenager Mary Taylor for 15 runs including her only 6.

Dominating both sides of the wicket, Scrivens was assisted by some woefully poor fielding, perhaps reflecting that the County T20 Cup is now essentially an amateur competition. In those circumstances, you’d expect a full-time professional to be a class above, as indeed Scrivens was. With Charlotte Edwards taking notes from the boundary, it wasn’t hard to wonder if we might be witnessing a future England coach get an early glimpse of her future England captain?

Ultimately Scrivens fell in the final over – stumped coming down the track to Chiara Green – but the 145-7 on which Kent finished looked like a good total on a chilly, overcast day, with some big boundaries that held the ball up in its tracks, with fielders more than a few times able to retrieve it having come to a standstill a few feet short of the rope.

In reply, Sussex lost Mary Taylor early, bringing Georgia Elwiss to the crease. Elwiss was initially happy to play second-fiddle to Ella McCaughan, on her way to 32 off 35, but upon McCaughan’s dismissal picked up the pace in a partnership of 79 with Paige Scholfield. Scholfield’s 47 off 27 broke the back of the chase, and although she was comically run out, ending up at the same end as Elwiss who had shown absolutely no interest in a second run following a quick single off Ryana Macdonald-Gay, the stage was set for Nancy Harman to help finish things off with a quick-fire 15 off 8 balls – her and Elwiss getting Sussex home with 6 balls to spare.

It gave Sussex their second victory of the day, after a somewhat less exciting match earlier had seen them win by 8 wickets, having restricted Kent to 90-7 off their 20 overs, with Scholfield taking 3-14, bowling with visibly more zip than last season, having apparently fully recovered following a back operation last spring.

A run-a-ball half-century from McCaughan did the business for Sussex in the chase, with a little help from Scholfield (27 off 17) to get the job done with 6 overs to spare. Sydney Gorham was the only Kent bowler to take a wicket, snagging the scalp of Elwiss caught behind; though 17-year-old Alexa Stonehouse (0-10 off 3), who is heading to Trent Rockets in The Hundred this year, also looks like she may be one to keep a close eye on over the next couple of seasons.

Stumped – a memoir of the author’s days as a cricket umpire – is a book of two innings: the first his early years, umpiring men’s league cricket in Kent; and the second, his seasons umpiring women’s cricket in Melbourne.

Its 200-odd pages are divided more-or-less chronologically into 51 short chapters, the very longest of which can be read in a couple of minutes, almost all of which centre around a particular match, often using it to reflect upon a wider facet of the game: pubs (very much part of the game in Kent apparently), teas, LBWs, and so on!

For women’s cricket aficionados, the second half of the book will obviously be the focus. After umpiring a handful of men’s games upon his return to Australia after his years as an expat in England, and not enjoying the more combative experience, Harrison informed the convenors of the Cricket Victoria Premier Umpire’s Panel that he would continue as an umpire only if he were able to stand exclusively in women’s cricket.

They acceded, and so the next few years were spent in the women’s game in and around Melbourne, watching the rise of the likes of Sophie Molineux, Elyse Villani, and of course Meg Lanning, about whom he describes a memorable incident arising from the Australian captain-to-be encroaching upon the pitch when fielding at silly mid on during a club match.

“By law, that is a ‘No Ball’ and I called and signalled exactly that,” writes Harrison.

“What followed was a wildly disproportionate reaction from [Lanning] as she expressed her obvious displeasure and absolute disbelief at the decision…. In the end, I suggested that she should contact the MCC, if she wanted to seek any clarification (or have the law changed).”

The whole book is chock-full of such anecdotes, recorded with wry, dry Aussie humour, which slip down like a pint of bitter on a hot day. And like that pint of bitter, it will be followed by another and another, until the barrel is dry. It’s the kind of book to have by your side, ready for a wet weekend when you still need your cricket fix. And in that regard, it won’t disappoint.

Katya Witney at Moorlands

Yorkshire comfortably beat Notts by seven runs at Moorlands CC to give each team one win from two in the second round of the Vitality County T20.

Fresh from a five wicket win over Northeast Warriors on the neighbouring pitch, Nottinghamshire elected to bat first with Teresa Graves and Sophie Munro opening up proceedings.

Graves fell off the third ball of the match, getting a thin outside edge off Langston’s bowling through to the keeper.

Yorkshire kept the bowling tight early on, learning from their mistakes bowling first in the previous fixture. The pressure paid off in the fourth over as Munro was dismissed by Slater leaving Notts in trouble at 12 for 2.

After the fifth over, Notts were able to find more scoring opportunities with Higham and Yvonne Graves finding the boundary rope more easily.

Higham’s cameo came to a premature end however, after she danced down the pitch to Marlow, missed the ball and was clean bowled for 25 off 17, leaving Notts 59 for 3 at the half-way stage.

Graves followed Higham back to the pavilion an over later, top edging a short ball high into the air off Hall to give Langston a simple catch.

The wickets were fairly processional for Notts after Higham fell. Knowling-Davies was out trying to break the deadlock, swiping across the line to a delivery from Hall leaving them 86 for 5 going into the final five.

Kite was out caught on the boundary off Marlow halfway through the 16th over followed by Porter in the 18th, who was run-out thanks to a good throw to the keeper from Armitage.

Owen brought up the hundred for Notts in the penultimate over before being caught by Armitage and Notts finished their innings on 114 for 8 after Slater was caught off the final delivery of the innings.

Hall was the standout bowler for Yorkshire taking 3 for 9 off her three overs, finding control and forcing errors from the Notts batsmen with her tight lines, keeping Notts to a total which felt slightly short on such a flat wicket.

Armitage and Marlow came out to open for Yorkshire and got off to a quick start. Yvonne Graves over-pitched to give Armitage the opportunity to score consecutive boundaries in her second over. By the end of the fourth the white roses were 29 for 0.

Teresa Graves pegged the batters’ advances back however, conceding just a single from her first over and in the following over Kite bowled Emma Marlow to bring Notts back into the game with Yorkshire 36 for 1 off six.

Higham and Graves continued to restrict the batters but still found ways of keeping the scoreboard ticking over. By the end of the tenth over, Yorkshire were 53 for one needing 62 to win.

Glen fell from the final ball of the tenth over from a top edge high in the air but Armitage remained cool and collected, continuing to knock the ball around and pick off the boundaries.

She brought up her fifty in the 14th over, scoring at over a run a ball before she was out just a couple of deliveries later. However, by that point the equation was simple with the required run rate at just over four an over and plenty of wickets in hand.

Yorkshire wrapped the game up with three overs to spare, Langston with a beautiful cover drive to bring up the winning runs.

A comfortable win in the end leaves Yorkshire second in the table, quite some distance from top placed Lancashire, with Notts down in fifth.

Follow @KatyaWitney on Twitter

Katya Witney at Moorlands

Beth Harmer’s explosive innings saw Derbyshire over-power Yorkshire in a 40-run victory at Moorlands CC.

After electing to bat Derbyshire lost Allen early on, bowled by Bethany Slater in her first over.

Harmer and Bryce then teamed up to form a superb partnership, Harmer taking the lead scoring role and finding the boundary with ease, a couple of sixes off her bat ending up in the trees around the boundary edge.

Making the most of the flat surface and a couple of dropped chances, Derbyshire scored at ten an over during the opening five and Yorkshire looked rattled by the pace at which particularly Harmer were scoring.

Harmer raced to fifty off just 24 deliveries, she made the most of the short boundaries depositing the ball over the flags four times on the way to her half century.

As the innings neared the half-way mark, Yorkshire were starting to look ragged. A free hit after a no-ball off Holly Armitage was dispatched to the rope by Harmer and at the end of the tenth over Derbyshire were cruising at 106-1.

Against the flow, however, Harmer tamely chipped a loopy delivery from Armitage straight back to the bowler, ending her assault which saw her hit 70 off 35 deliveries.

Following her dismissal the batters were unable to keep scoring as freely as they had been, Armitage providing good control.

Jess Woolston was also able to dry up runs and was unlucky to be hit for two consecutive fours by Bryce at the end of the 16th over, the latter an edge down to the third man boundary.

After a beautiful shot back over the bowler’s head for four from Darlow, Derbyshire passed the 160 mark going into the final two overs and Bryce brought up her fifty in the 19th over, scoring at more than a run a ball.

Another boundary from Darlow in the final over of the innings set the target for Yorkshire at 183. From where they were at the half-way stage Yorkshire did well to limit them to below 200.

Good and Armitage opened the batting for Yorkshire, Armitage getting into her stride against the spin of Darlow, scoring a four off her first delivery.

Thatcher was the stand-out bowler, dismissing Good in her second over after she top edged to mid-wicket. She almost dismissed Armitage three balls later but the catch was dropped on the boundary edge.

Glen was next to go missing a straight delivery from Darlow and Yorkshire were in trouble at 19 for 2.

Looking to advance the scoring rate, Armitage hit Katie Wolfe for consecutive boundaries before she was dismissed by Thatcher after she had struck a huge six over the pavilion.

Turner fell next trying to smash Thatcher down to long-on and Langstone followed shortly after, edging a Darlow delivery through to the keeper leaving Yorkshire struggling at 100 for 5 with five overs remaining.

A lengthy break in play followed as Tash Allen received treatment for a suspected dislocated shoulder after landing awkwardly trying to save the boundary.

Play resumed but the match was all but decided. Marlow and Woolston batted to the end but Yorkshire fell well short, only reaching 134 for 5 at the end of their innings.

It was never really in doubt for Derbyshire and at no stage in their innings did Yorkshire look like reaching the target. No one managed to score as freely as Harmer had, her innings the stand-out performance of the match.

Follow @KatyaWitney on Twitter

Berkshire got their season off to a rollicking start with two convincing wins against Shropshire at Falkland CC.

The first match of the day was dominated by Mia Rogers, who made an early-season bid for inclusion in Sunrisers’ starting XI when regionals begin in four weeks time.

Shropshire had chosen to bat first after winning the toss, but Rogers’ sharp keeping allowed Berkshire to confine them to 88 for 7 in their 20 overs. Her contributions included whipping off the bails to assist in the run outs of Amy Griffiths and Alice Dixon, snaffling a skier sent up by Lauren Kenvyn (22) to break a 50-run partnership with Alexandra Hale, and two nifty stumpings to hand debutant Kali-Ann Doherty her first two wickets in senior county cricket.

Opening in conjunction with another of the Berkshire debutants, Abigail Avery (27* off 39), Rogers started in measured fashion but grew in confidence as her innings progressed, eventually smashing Kenvyn for six over deep midwicket.

As Berkshire raced along to their total, the only question was whether Rogers would be able to reach her half-century before they ran out of runs needed. It was touch and go but finally, having got back on strike in the 13th over with just a single needed for victory, Rogers pulled confidently for four to finish on 50 not out (from just 35 balls), handing Berkshire a 10-wicket win.

In the second match of the day, with Berkshire batting first this time, Rogers initially picked up where she had left off, but smacked it straight to cover in the fifth over when on 13. Instead Berkshire captain Ashleigh Muttitt did the heavy lifting, driving hard down the ground en route to a run-a-ball 34.

Emily Perrin (3 for 18) dented Berkshire’s efforts as they lost three wickets in the 13th and 14th overs with the score on 83, but Freya Johnson successfully defended the hat-trick ball and Berkshire added 23 runs in the final five overs to finish on 116 for 6.

Shropshire made a go of it in the run chase, reaching 37 for 1 in the powerplay as captain Lara Jones (24 off 27) gave off-spinner Hollie Summerfield some punishment.

But Jones was caught pulling Ava Lee to backward square leg in the 9th and Summerfield had the last laugh with a tidy spell at the death that strangled any last hopes of Shropshire getting across the line. Amanda “Steamer” Potgeiter helped things along with a direct-hit run out from mid-on to see off Hale for 0.

In a dramatic final over, with Shropshire needing an improbable 27 for the win, Freya Johnson finished things off in a style for the Beavers by taking four wickets – three of them bowled – as Shropshire were all out for 94 off the final ball of the match.

The double-win puts Berkshire top of Group 2 of the Women’s County T20 competition, ahead of rivals Worcestershire and Staffordshire.

If you could pick one moment to “cut out and keep” from the career of Anya Shrubsole what would it be? The retrospectives and social media posts which greeted her retirement from international cricket, aged 30, suggest two in particular stand out: the 2017 World Cup final of course, but also Anya with her hand on the shoulder of a distraught Dane van Niekerk at the end of the semi-final against South Africa.

For me, it was neither of those, but a moment in the field playing for Berkshire. I can’t remember exactly when it was, nor who Berkshire were playing. I’m pretty sure it was at North Maidenhead, though I might be wrong about that too. It’s not important though. The batter (who shall remain anonymous because… I don’t remember her either) struck the ball firmly square of the wicket, and Anya went steaming off in pursuit.

I can think of a few international players would would have thought “county game; nobody watching” and if not given up, perhaps turned the dial down a little, but Anya put in a full-on last ditch dive… and, in a moment that could have been scripted by Buster Keaton, face-planted over the boundary into the deck-chairs of a group of fleeing spectators – not just any spectators either, but her own family and friends!

Emerging from the ensuing rubble, Anya herself was the first to see the funny side.

For me, that moment sums up Anya Shrubsole – the commitment… the effort… and the ability despite those things, to nonetheless not take it all too seriously. Without that, none of the “big moments” of her career would have been able to happen.

It’s easy to forget that England only got to Lord’s in 2017 because of Anya Shrubsole. England needed 3 off the final over in their semi-final against South Africa, and that became 2 off 3 balls when Laura Marsh was bowled by Shabnim Ismail. With 8 wickets down, in a home World Cup semi-final, in front of a crowd of thousands at Bristol, and with millions watching on TV, this was totally unchartered territory for players who had debuted in the amateur era.

Out walked Anya – not really a recognised batter, despite having once scored a freakishly fast century for Somerset against Wales in 2013, to face the biggest 3 balls of her life. She needed just one, almost absent-mindedly swashing the ball for 4… and the rest is history. Because of that ability to not take it all too seriously, she’d treated one of the best bowlers in the world, on one of the biggest stages in the world, like it was just a game in the park, and taken England to a World Cup final.

Don’t take that to mean she didn’t care though. Back in the days of the old Women’s County Championship, promotion and relegation between Div 1 and Div 2 was decided via a play-off between the bottom placed team in Div 1 (Warwickshire, that year) and the winner of Div 2 – Anya’s Somerset. Warwickshire were, I’m sure they’d be the first to admit, a bit of a shambles that year, while Somerset were at their peak with Anya, Sophie Luff and Fran Wilson, who all made scores as Somerset posted 220.

Warwickshire’s reply was held together by Helen Shipman, but when she was dismissed for 124 (with one Anya Shrubsole running the length of the field to shake her hand as she walked off) the game looked to be Somerset’s to lose, with Isabelle Watson and Liz Russell (Warwickshire’s 8 and 9)  ending up needing 15 to win off the final over, bowled by… you’ve guessed it… Anya Shrubsole.

As I wrote at the time:

To screams of delight from the pavilion, Shrubsole’s first two balls were dispatched for four, and suddenly it was on! A single followed, then another BIG heave for four and it was down to two-from-two – a single from the penultimate ball brought the scores level (which (I believe???) meant that Warwickshire had actually already survived) but they made sure of it with another single off the final ball.

Somerset had lost and Anya left the field in tears – she cared, and the only thing she didn’t care about was who knew it.

How much she cared about Somerset in particular – her “home” in every sense – was emphasised shortly afterwards when a directive came down from the ECB that all England players were to move to Div 1 counties, to try to keep the top flight as strong as possible. I’m sure Anya didn’t actually put it quite this way, but her response essentially consisted of two words, the second of which was “off”.

One of the photos doing the rounds on social media these past couple of days was taken by a journalist late into the after-party following the World Cup win at Lords. The truth behind that photo is that Anya wasn’t really enjoying that evening – it was a fuss, and she didn’t much like a fuss, especially when she was in the middle of it. She wasn’t there for the glory, or the gold watch she got for being Player of the Match. She might have been a professional cricketer, but at her heart she remained an amateur of the best kind – she was there to have a game of cricket with her mates and help them win – that’s the heart (and sole!) of Anya Shrubsole.

This week:

• Our #CWC22 post-mortem
• Where do England go from here?
• Latest team news in The Hundred
• New Australia contracts
• Our thoughts on the FairBreak Global tournament

Five years ago, Meg Lanning sat in a press conference in the media centre at Derby, barely able to hold back the tears after Australia’s elimination from the 2017 World Cup at the hands of the Harman Monster.

They seemed not to be tears of sadness so much as of disbelief: a woman for whom everything had always gone so right, could barely understand where it had gone so wrong.

A thousand journalist have written a thousand pieces about how Lanning and Australia used that moment to pivot to another level, but it wasn’t clear until today just how high that level was.

Australia’s 356-5 is not the highest total ever made – not by a long stretch – but of the 15 games above it in the all-time list, almost all are horrendous mismatches between a top side and a minnow – England’s own 373-5, against South Africa in the group stages of the 2017 World Cup, being the most glaring exception to prove that particular rule.

But to have made that total in a final, with all the weight of expectation and history upon them, was the pinnacle of all this side has achieved since that day in 2017, including two T20 World Cup wins, and two Ashes triumphs.

No one doubted going into this World Cup that Australia were the best team on the planet, but others had ambition to match them, at least on their day, as India had done when they broke their record 26-match winning streak last September, or New Zealand did in the warm-ups.

But once the competition-proper started, Australia never looked even remotely vulnerable. Their victory against India was a fascinating case-study in how in cricket there can be lies, damned lies, and scorecards. It looks close in the book – Australia winning by 6 wickets with 3 balls remaining – but in reality it was a cakewalk. They might have cut it a little fine, but the end result was never in doubt. Then in the semi-final, they carved up the West Indies – lest we forget, the team that beat them in the World T20 final as recently as 2016.

But still there was hope for England, after they steamrollered South Africa in their semi-final. Their Ashes defeat was ancient history, and they were on a roll with 5 wins on the bounce. It was a long shot… but it was, at least, a shot.

Winning the toss was a bonus for England – they were in control, and they chose to insert Australia. It was a brave decision, but it won’t have been a spur-of-the-moment one – Heather Knight, Lisa Keightley, and the rest of the management team will have given it careful thought and concluded that bowling Australia out and then chasing maybe 250 represented their best chance of winning the game.

It was a gamble, but it didn’t come off as England’s opening bowlers went wicketless in the powerplay once again. Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole have been such a formidable opening partnership for so long now, pulling so may rabbits from so many hats, that it’s hard to remember there was ever any alternative; but the Australians know them too well now. The rabbits have fled the hat, and Alyssa Healy and Rachael Haynes navigated the remaining empty hats with ease. Nat Sciver, who has taken Healy’s wicket 5 times since the last World Cup, was brought on, then Charlie Dean and Sophie Ecclestone had a go… but none could break the opening partnership until very-nearly the 30-over mark, when Haynes finally played a rash shot off Ecclestone and was caught by Tammy Beaumont.

It was a chink of light for England – Australia were only 160, and England could still have wrapped them up for 250 and gone on to win the game. It was the next partnership that killed them. Employing the “left-right-left” tactic, they sent in Beth Mooney ahead of Meg Lanning, and her and Healy proceeded to put on another 156, while England were reduced to the roll of mourners at their own funeral.

Healy’s dismissal with 5 overs remaining was largely academic, as were the 3 additional wickets that fell – Australia could have declared* on 316-2 and England still wouldn’t have won.

And though I’ve been quick to criticise England in the recent past, it wasn’t because they batted particularly badly – they came out and gave it a go. Tammy Beaumont, who has been starting out quite circumspectly of late, hit the gas from the off, as did Heather Knight. Five of England’s top 6 finished with Strike Rates of 100 or more. England were ahead of the worm for almost their entire innings, and the 285 runs they made would have won every other World Cup final in the competition’s history by a country-mile.

On any other day, against any other team, Nat Sciver’s century would have resulted in a winners medal and the Player of the Match award.

Just not on this day, against this Australian team, in this mood.

Because today wasn’t really about England – it was about Australia.

Two years ago at the MCG, in front of 80-thousand people, Alyssa Healy’s 75 off 39 balls blasted Australia into the stratosphere in the T20 World Cup final against India. How do you top that? By scoring 170 off 138 balls in a 50-over World Cup final – that’s how! If Healy’s innings was not the greatest of all time (and I don’t think it quite bettered the Harman Monster, played under more pressure given the match situation when Harmanpreet came in that day in 2017) then it was certainly a close second, and guaranteed her not only Player of the Match, but also Player of the Tournament, after also making a century in the semi-final.

Mooney we’ve already mentioned, but Megan Schutt with two early wickets, and Alana King who broke through Sophia Dunkley and Katherine Brunt to expose England’s tail, both played vital roles; as did Jess Jonassen who cleaned up the tail – catching Charlie Dean, and taking the wickets of Kate Cross and Anya Shrubsole to close-out the game. Australia’s bowling attack has perhaps partly surfed in the wake of their formidable batting line-up recently, but like Bob the Builder, working together they get the job done, and there is no better example of that than the 10 wickets they took today.

Meg Lanning has longed for her Australian team to be considered a “great” team, but there has always been a question mark. Because for all the winning streaks and Ashes and T20 World Cups, they hadn’t won a “proper” 50-over World Cup. Now they have, and no one can argue any more. Australia joined the greats today, and there wasn’t anything England, or anyone else, could have done about it.

——————

* Obviously they couldn’t “legally” have declared, despite what that dog on those ads keeps seeming to suggest! (I’ve no idea what the ads were for, but… cute dog!)