In a two-part special, James Piechowski reviews England’s summer v Pakistan.

I arrived at Grace Road, Leicester on a damp Monday afternoon to see a sodden outfield and a sharp shower, which had the spectators rushing for cover from the downpour. The umpires did their best to keep everyone’s hopes up with regular inspections of the squelchy surface, but it was no surprise when play was called off and we moved onto the reserve day. Fortunately I was able to stay locally, there was no more rain, and the tiny returning crowd were rewarded by a good day’s cricket on a largely dried field, that saw England restrict Pakistan to a sub-par 165. England’s bowling had not looked especially threatening, but Pakistan failed to push along at a rapid pace. They could have made over 200, though, if not for Knight’s intervention when she brought herself on as 4th bowling change. Seeing as England later suffered early losses in their reply, this was perhaps as important as her half-century that would follow in England’s chase. Knight bowled well, using flight to deceive the Pakistan batsmen who could, too often, only lob the ball back up in the air, either into the grateful hands of England fielders in the outfield or straight back to a delighted Knight. Sidra Ameen made a well-crafted 52, but could have picked up more singles, and this would turn out to be her best effort of the series. She would eventually be dropped in the T20s, one of several puzzling selection choices made by Pakistan as the series progressed.

In England’s chase Winfield didn’t give herself a chance though, nicking off to the first ball. She had looked to chase a wide one, nearly overbalancing as she lost her shape. She then walked on Nain Abidi’s claim of a catch, which some suggested may not have been taken above the floor. A familiar sense of doom enveloped the ground, as England had puzzlingly picked only 2 specialist batsmen for this match, one of whom had already been dismissed. England were 0-1. Would we see a slow and stodgy crawl to the target, punctuated by regular wickets? It could well have been, and when a bright and breezy innings from Elwiss was truncated by the sound of the death rattle from Sana Mir’s delivery bowling her, England were in a real spot of bother at 33-2.

Where was Fran Wilson? Surely, England needed her stick-ability about now? But in stepped Knight, who played solidly and calmly, and along with Beaumont they started to assert themselves as Pakistan’s bowling wilted. They had a new belief in themselves, no doubt in part at least instilled by Mark Robinson. In a microcosm of what was to come later in the series, Beaumont used her feet well to work the ball round and hit over the top. Her dismissal, top edging Asmavia at about the halfway point, only brought in Sciver who again in an ODI played one of her busy, positive knocks. Knight just managed to make 50 before the target was reached thanks to Sciver’s selflessness, and England made it home at a canter with 18 overs left. I rushed off to catch a train to Worcester for the next game the following day. Little did I know what was to come!

Rain from a grey, overcast sky threatened to ruin the morning’s play at New Road but thankfully it never really materialised. What certainly did materialise was aggression from England, and their opening pair. Having been inserted by Pakistan they started well and pushed on, keen to reach the tiny 50m boundaries, prepared as instructed by coach Robinson, as often as possible. Nothing Pakistan tried worked, with only the impressive Maham Tariq and Sadia Yousuf showing any semblance of control. Winfield, an imposing and muscular presence at the crease, was bristling with intent, unleashing a series of booming straight drives, and vicious pull shots, as harsh on anything short as she was was excellent at putting away the full toss, and in fact any bad ball. Her ability as a dominant opener looked unquestionable. She liked to get on top of the bowling early on and force them into mistakes. Pakistan certainly obliged with some wayward bowling and many fielding mishaps.

The opening pair marched on unhindered. There was a sense of joy around the ground as first Winfield, then Beaumont registered their tons. Winfield had played the more aggressive innings, and made it to 123, whilst Beaumont had got bogged down a little at times, but battled through, continuing her recent excellent form. Both were out in the 39th over as they tried to accelerate further. In came Nat Sciver and she was soon under way, hitting Sana Mir for six and four. The quickish dismissal of Elwiss did not phase England and Knight joined the boundary party, although she was happy to play second fiddle to Sciver’s brutality.

21 runs were scored off the 47th over and 23 off the 49th as Sciver smashed six after six off the unfortunate Asmavia Iqbal and Nida Dar. Straight back over the bowlers’ head the ball sailed; and then way up over the leg side, over cow corner, over the groundsman’s covers – Sciver seemingly determined to deposit the ball in the River Severn. It was something to behold, and something I’ll not soon forget. Sciver had smashed 6 sixes and 7 fours in her 80 off 33 balls. Her assault was only curtailed when she was run out out at the end of the innings by Wyatt, who herself smashed a quick-fire 12*. England had done it, smashing many runs and many records, and the shackles were finally off: 378 runs had been amassed.

Pakistan’s reply never really got going, and the miserly Shrubsole was able to restrict runs and take wickets, returning figures of 4-19. Only Bismah Maroof played anything like the type of innings that would have been required, hitting 61 from 81 balls with 8 fours. Other contributions were far too slow, and Pakistan limped to 166 before being all out in the 48th over. England’s bowlers had not necessarily looked too dangerous but with a large score on the board, the run rate was just too high for them to chase.

Having been desperately disappointed by a rainy Sunday in Bristol (where England men’s ODI against Sri Lanka had been abandoned), I was delighted to wake up to a bright and sunny Monday in Taunton ready for the 3rd ODI. Again England won the toss and chose to bat, and two increasingly familiar figures made their way out in to the middle. After a solid start, the diminutive Beaumont provided a perfect contrast to Winfield’s brawn, playing square of the wicket with style and invention as she swept, reverse swept, hit over the top and drove beautifully through the covers. She was surely some type of controlled whirlwind, dervish-like at the crease. Her ability to use her feet to get to the pitch of the ball, or to hang back and play the ball late, was a feature of her batting; and coupled with her experience playing in the middle order, means that if she can see off the early overs she will be ideally placed to compose a long innings. The last century of her incredible 168* (including 20 fours) was nigh-on chance-less, and just goes to show how she can accelerate and exert real control as the innings progresses.

At the height of Beaumont’s onslaught, as boundary followed inevitable boundary, Pakistan were found to be clueless in the field and were far too reactive, moving fielders around where the last ball had gone through, only to find Beaumont smashing the next ball through the newly vacated region. This happened time and time again. If Pakistan had lost a horse because they had just shut the gate after one had bolted, there would not be many horses left in Pakistan right now!

The partnerships between the two openers across this whole summer series were remarkable. Their combined contributions tallied up 816 runs from 12 innings. A small statistical anomaly: Lauren Winfield scored exactly the same number of runs, 166, in 3 innings across both ODI and T20 formats.

England have unearthed two gems here, who complement each other ideally and they should be kept together as an opening pair whenever possible. Whether England are faced with fast bowling on a pacey track, or spin on a slow, dry turner, one of these two will be in their element. The other, I think, has enough ability to stick at it through unfavoured conditions. The biggest puzzle is how they have taken so long to shine like this, (although Winfield had shown some promise in 2014/15). We should give Robinson some credit for this, but not too much. His decision to drop Winfield for the World T20 was unwise. So in particular, Winfield had battled through to success this summer against considerable odds.

At Taunton Georgia Elwiss played beautifully for 77. She tends to take early risks and may give a chance or two, but has a resolute nature that means she can usually battle through to punish the opposition bowlers, using attractive cuts and drives through the off-side. She can hit a long ball, and once she gets in can be difficult to prize from the crease. With her obvious ability with the ball added into the mix, the only part of her game that is lacking is her ground fielding, which is not up to the standard of our best. The other question around her role is in T20. Robinson seems content to play her one game, then leave her out seemingly at random. Ideally more consistency would serve better. Credit should also go to Sciver who played a similar belligerent innings, this time just cut short of her 50 when she was caught off the bowling of Asmavia Iqbal for 48, going for another boundary. England eventually reached 366-4. With the longer boundaries and the slower start, this was in my opinion and even better batting effort from England than in the previous game at Worcester.

Pakistan’s reply got off to a bad start and never really recovered. Only Bismah Maroof, again, and wicket-keeper Sidra Nawaz with a good 47, played well enough to challenge England. Both were removed by Laura Marsh though, who returned figures of 3-29 off her allocation of 10 overs.

Alex Hartley was also bowled out on her début, and after giving away a few too many runs with some friendly full tosses, came back strongly in her second spell, only conceding 15 runs in 5 overs. Katherine Brunt (5-30) treated us to an exhibition of death bowling, castling Sana Mir and 3 more tail-enders with a series of full, straight deliveries that turned back the clock and were too good for Pakistan’s lower order. England had won the game by 202 runs and taken the series 3-0. It was an ideal start for Knight and provided at least some justification for all the changes Robinson had made. The 6 ICC Women’s Championship points were vital, and England are now in a much stronger position to qualify in the top four for next year’s World Cup.

For Pakistan, Bismah Maroof is the sort of player who would not look out of place in the WBBL or KSL, it seems a shame that she has not been participating in these competitions. In order for Pakistan to continue their improvement, it’s important their best players get experience by playing with the best. Sana Mir, although disappointed with her team’s performances, was confident they’d taken plenty of learnings from the series and almost seemed pleased that England had showed them how it was possible to play cricket, that had at times seemed more like the IPL than anything else. Maybe she thought, we could aspire to this attitude, and one day soon, too.

England coach Mark Robinson has had some interesting decisions to make in the lead-up to the T20 series against Pakistan, which begins at the County Ground in Bristol this afternoon.

The success of Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Winfield and Nat Sciver in the ODI series – who between them scored 3/4 of England’s runs* – meant that a few others hardly got a look-in. Danni Wyatt had two innings in the series, both at the death-end, scoring 12* (off just 6 balls) at Worcester and 1 (off 3) at Taunton; whilst Amy Jones’ might as well have left her bat at home – she didn’t get a single innings. Meanwhile, Fran Wilson’s contribution has been restricted to carrying drinks.

So in the name of “building for the future” it would obviously be nice for all three to get some proper time out in the middle, in what is probably England’s easiest “least challenging” (because none of them are “easy”) series of the international cycle.

But how do you do that? Do you push Winfield down the order? Now that she at last seems to have found a role? Do you drop Elwiss for Wilson? When she just scored 77 off 78 balls at Taunton?

These aren’t simple questions to answer; even before you get to the bowling!

The injury to Shrubsole has actually made things a bit easier for Robinson. Assuming he wants to play two seamers, Farrant comes in, which gets her some overs she deserves – she is a good “containing” T20 bowler, who bowls with her brain as well as her handy left arm.

But what about the spin options? After a torrid WBBL, Laura Marsh wasn’t selected for the WWT20, but her career was thrown a lifeline when she was flown to India after all, as a replacement for the injured Dani Hazell; and she seized the opportunity, and  has performed (in the words of Heather Knight) “brilliantly” in the ODIs. So do England now drop her for Hazell?

And then there is Alex Hartley. She took some stick on commentary for her performance in the 3rd ODI – she lost her line bowling to the left-hander in her first spell, and [technical jargon warning…] it all went a bit squiffy for a couple of overs; but she was taken off and came back tighter and looking more like herself. Besides, Robinson’s “big thing” is that we don’t drop people after one bad performance; so do we now do just that and send Hartley back to the bench?

The phrase “Hobson’s choice” was coined for the situation where there is only one option. But what about the time when where there are too many options? Perhaps it should be termed “Robinson’s choice”?

——————–

* Runs off the bat.

One of the most common criticisms we get from our readers is that we are too close to the England team to be objective and we sometimes hold back from criticising players we know personally.

It is a challenge that all journalists have to deal with, and for a “global media circus”, cricket (all cricket, not just the women’s game) is actually quite a small community, so it is a particular challenge in our sport; but the truth is that we are not that close to the players on a personal level.

Unlike the men’s journalists, we don’t stay in the same hotels 200 days a year, and while we have met most of the parents, and the odd boyfriend/ girlfriend, we wouldn’t presume to call ourselves “friends” with any current international player.

We know that some of them follow us on Twitter and read CRICKETher, which is nice; but others (at least two of the currently England team) take a different and equally valid approach – they block us!

Yes – ironically, while some readers think we are too soft on the team, the players themselves often feel like we are harsh, negative and unfair to them.

So which side are we on?

We want to celebrate the achievements of the England team, but we aren’t cheerleaders – what we really want to do is to share with our readers a bit of the insight and perspective that comes from having followed this sport for a long time, at both the domestic and international levels; and hopefully inform a bit of discussion and debate.

So we hope the answer is that we are on everybody’s side – the players, the fans, the women’s game, the wider game… even the ECB’s, believe it or not! It is a bit of a balancing act sometimes, but we’ll keep doing what we do – walking the wire, from point to point, hopefully getting somewhere, but maybe actually more importantly, enjoying the view along the way.

An England cap has always been something to be treasured. Lately, though, they have been so rare that had there been an England Cap-Making Company it would have had to go out of business. Only two players – Tash Farrant and Becky Grundy – have gained a debut ODI cap in the past three years, and the idea that England might look outside their pool of contracted players has – since the one-off last minute selection of Sonia Odedra in the August 2014 Test against India – gone out of the window. Alex Hartley’s selection today – long overdue – bucked a trend. It also makes her the first Child of Mark Robinson’s Revolution.

Sociologists have written entire books about what, precisely, constitutes a “revolution”. It is a question I sometimes ask my students when teaching on the subject of modern British history. “A change that happens quickly”, is normally the initial hazard at a definition. “So if I dyed my hair purple before our seminar next week,” I reply, sceptically, “would that constitute a revolution?”

In cricket terms, alternatively, one might ask: does calling up one uncapped player and one player who has not worn an England shirt since 2011 actually constitute a revolution? Fran Wilson did not even play in any of the three matches; a cynical soul (ahem) might suggest that Mark Robinson’s Brave New World looks pretty similar to the old one, minus the run-machine that was – to the end of her England career – Charlotte Edwards.

https://twitter.com/RafNicholson/status/745185030608199680

And if one possible headline from today’s game is “Brunt Takes Five-Fer”, one might well imagine that continuity, not change, has been the watchword: for all the criticism England have endured over the past few years, their bowling – almost always fronted by the ever-passionate Katherine Brunt – has rarely been the problem.

So has anything changed? Absolutely. Just look at the batting order. Lauren Winfield and Tammy Beaumont are opening: it feels familiar, until you realise that while they have both done the role previously, they have never done so together prior to this series. And until you realise that instead of weakly holeing out they are getting themselves in and staying there.

If I’d had to put money on a player coming close to beating Edwards’ record score of 173, Beaumont isn’t the name I’d have chosen; but there it is in black and white on the score sheet, and in the record books – and the way she played I don’t think anyone could argue that it doesn’t deserve to be there.

Amy Jones is behind the stumps. It would have been understandable if she had gone through this series with the media spotlight firmly upon her, stepping up as England’s first choice wicketkeeper in the absence of Sarah Taylor. Yet she has barely been mentioned. She should not take it personally; or rather, she should: going so far under the radar is a tribute to her talent with the gloves.

Of course, with Georgia Elwiss at 3 and Nat Sciver coming in up the order, Jones has not been required with the bat. Sciver is another point of interest: were she a Friends episode, she would be entitled ‘The One With the Big Reputation’. She has long been touted as England’s power-hitter; their answer to the Grace Harris’s of this world. She has never quite lived up to this billing – until her innings at Worcester the other day, that is.

Yes, Pakistan are not the strongest side; but the clinical way in which they have been dispatched should not be underestimated. England have a tally of 910 runs this series against Pakistan’s 495. It has been not just a victory but an annihilation.

Robinson’s Revolution does not look like I thought it would a few weeks ago. In this case revolution has not, really, been about a change in personnel, but a change in attitude and environment. Brunt – whose plain speaking makes her a pleasure to interview – summed this up after close of play. “He’s sparked something in me and it’s making me want to stick around for a while,” she said. “If you’re doing the same things over and over it just becomes a bit monotonous. I’m not a big fan of change but this change has really helped me out. It’s about pushing you out of your comfort zone, figuring out what you’re capable of, and then taking even that further. The biggest thing for me is watching everybody grow. When I look around and see these youngsters who have been around for a lot of years now really starting to flourish as players, it’s really inspiring. He’s just brought the best out of everybody.”

As Alexis de Tocqueville reminds us, revolutions are not always sudden and violent: sometimes they are slow but sweeping; sometimes they take time to make their mark. In truth, most revolutions in British history have been slow burners (quite literally, in the case of the Industrial one); set in motion by one radical event, change then unfolds gradually over time, until you look back and realise that something fundamental has changed without you quite noticing how.

Robinson’s revolution is, thus far, very much in the British mould. Will it succeed? Time will tell. But in a week where Brexit has shown just how bad the English are at dealing with radical change, it’s surely worth a go.

Thoughts from Syd Egan & Raf Nicholson (And don’t forget to add yours below!)

Short Boundaries

Tomorrow’s back page story will of course be the fact that England smashed their highest ever score in one day internationals. And yet it’s hard not to feel a bit cheated by this, given that the boundaries – at 55 yards – were at the absolute minimum required by ICC regulations. At one point Tammy Beaumont, fielding at deep backward square leg, was actually starting off outside the boundary rope to give her space to “walk in” as the bowler ran in to bowl.

Officially the boundaries are at the groundsman’s discretion. However, it’s pretty obvious from what Mark Robinson has said in recent interviews that he is strongly pushing for shorter boundaries – he thinks it encourages attacking play. Maybe; but if it turns everything into bish-bash-bosh we’re going to see a LOT of records smashed in the next few years. Surely allowing players to start mishitting sixes not only devalues the skill of someone like Nat Sciver – who as she showed today is perfectly capable of hitting big without any artificial assistance – but the women’s game as a whole?

Pakistan’s Fielding

It might be hard for their bowlers to adjust to the English conditions; but Pakistan could help themselves massively if they upped their game in the field. Leaking boundaries through your legs, or sliding past the ball and turning round to watch it pass behind you over the rope, only makes life easy for the opposition. Something to work on before Monday?

Centurion Central

We can’t remember the last time we saw two English players hit centuries in an ODI (anyone know when it was?); and the fact that the boundaries were short shouldn’t take anything away from the fact that Tammy Beaumont and Lauren Winfield fully deserved their maiden hundreds. It’s interesting that Beaumont reflected in the post-match press conference that she felt Mark Robinson’s faith in her as a batsman during the World Twenty20 had provided her with the level of confidence which she needed to translate her ongoing excellent domestic form into England level cricket. Both Winfield and Beaumont seem to be thriving under the new regime, and that’s great to see. Having said that…

England’s Batting

Mark Robinson told the press a couple of weeks ago: “Lottie would have filled her boots against Pakistan but we would not have learnt anything.” But you have to ask: what have we actually learnt here? Lauren Winfield and Tammy Beaumont can fill their boots against innocuous bowling? Nope – we already knew that! Nat Sciver can bosh it when the pressure is off? I think we probably knew that too! Yes, England were very good with the bat, but it isn’t time to get carried away yet, if only because…

England’s Bowling

We tend to think of bowling as being England’s main strength… and with Shrubsole and Brunt – the most feared opening pair in the world – why wouldn’t you? Perhaps because (whisper it) they looked a mite toothless again today. They did the job – they bowled Pakistan out – and admittedly, it is difficult when a team play as defensively as Pakistan have done, but nevertheless it wasn’t the “bossing it” performance with the ball that we saw with the bat.