In the 13th over of the Storm innings at Bristol on Sunday, Niamh Holland tried to play a sweep shot to a dreadful full-toss off Georgia Adams. The ball ballooned up into the air and 3 Vipers fielders descended upon it, only for it to equilaterally triangulate them perfectly and land safely on the grass between them. It was a moment that summed up a day when things didn’t quite click for Vipers.

And yet… they came away with the win nonetheless, thanks to an electrifying sprinting catch on the boundary by Alice Monaghan to dismiss Heather Knight, who was looking on course to notch up a One Woman Win for the Storm on their final visit to Bristol before they morph into Somerset at the turn of the season.

Had that catch evaded Monaghan’s outstretched grasp – as it had every right to do – it would have gone for 6, leaving Knight needing 18 off 11 balls – an ask which felt well within her, given the way she was dominating proceedings. Say what you like about the England captain (really… I have!) but she was a different class out there today, scoring 64% of Storm’s runs off the bat at a strike rate of 123. No one else was close – not for Storm (their next highest scorer was Sophie Luff who made 12 off 19 balls) nor Vipers.

The 137-9 that Viper had posted, having been put in to bat after Storm won the toss, didn’t feel par, even if it mathematically was – a typical first innings score in the Lottie Cup is 138. Oddly it was not top-scorer Georgia Adams who looked the most convincing of the Vipers batters, but Aussie overseas Charli Knott, who made 37 before having what might politely be termed a “senior moment” – dancing down the pitch to Amanda-Jade Wellington, and getting stumped as a consequence.

Wello is the Stump Queen – she has taken aroundabout 130 wickets in WBBL, with fully a quarter of them stumped. No one else comes close to that number – Alana King is closest, with 15% of 100-odd wickets stumped – so Knott needs to learn a lesson there, and… well… as Taylor Swift once so nearly said: Can you just Knott!

Vipers were kept at bay with the bat partly by a really positive performance from Lauren Filer, who took 3-8 from her 4 overs, with just the one wide in extras. They were good wickets too. She induced a poor shot from Maia Bouchier in her first over; forced Freya Kemp so far back into her crease that she trod on her own stumps; and finally did Nancy Harman for sheer pace. Filer outbowled her key rival for a slot in England’s T20 XI – Lauren Bell – with Jon Lewis there to see it too.

Both Filer and Knight deserved to be on the winning side, but with Dani Gibson still out injured, Storm just didn’t have the batting to finish the job, when all it would have taken was someone staying with Knight that little bit longer.

As for Vipers, how many times have we said about them that the key to success is winning when you aren’t at your best? Here at Bristol, we find ourselves saying it again.

This week on the CRICKETher Weekly:

• State of play in the #CECup
• What should double headers look like next year?
• Surrey announce their first 4 contracts – but where will England players end up?
• Why the USA should have hosted a women’s World Cup (not a men’s one)

Paige Scholfield says that she is so happy at the Stars that she “didn’t even bother looking” elsewhere, after Surrey announced her as one of their second group of signings for the 2025 season.

Scholfield, who moved to South East Stars from the Southern Vipers two years ago, was likely to be in high demand among the counties – especially after scoring three half-centuries in the first five rounds of the Charlotte Edwards Cup.

But in an exclusive interview with CRICKETher in the wake of Stars’ 6-wicket win against Sunrisers at Lord’s, she said that she had refused to even countenance a move elsewhere.

“I’ve found my home,” she said. “I’ve really enjoyed the environment – Mybs [Coach Johann Myburgh], Stevo [Assistant Coach Darren Stevens], the whole lot.”

“I’ve had such a great time here with the Stars and I want to stay a part of that. I couldn’t be prouder to call Surrey my home.”

Scholfield declined to confirm the exact terms of her deal, but CRICKETher understands that Surrey have offered multi-year contracts to a number of Stars players, including captain Bryony Smith, who was unveiled at the weekend as the county’s first signing.

Scholfield added: “This is my family now and I’ll be staying here for a long time.”

On Thursday at Lord’s, Scholfield fully justified the faith of the powers-that-be at Surrey, striking a 35-ball half-century as Stars beat Sunrisers to go top of the table in the Charlotte Edwards Cup.

Scholfield personally sealed the deal by smashing back-to-back boundaries down the ground off the final two balls of the run-chase, to ensure she simultaneously reached her personal milestone and secured the win.

In another coup for Surrey, Alexa Stonehouse – who had also been announced as a Surrey signing on the morning of the match – took two wickets in her opening three overs, including the huge scalp of Grace Scrivens, as Sunrisers were reduced to 27 for four by the end of the powerplay and never quite recovered.

As Stars slowly but steadily morph seamlessly into Surrey – with more signings from the current squad expected to be announced over the coming days – the county will be well-pleased with their day’s work.

Bryony Smith has described her decision to sign as Surrey’s first ever women’s professional as a “no-brainer”, after she was announced on Sunday as the first player to sign a contract for any of the eight new Tier One teams.

Smith will become Surrey’s first ever female professional and will also captain the Surrey Women’s side, continuing in the role which she has performed for the Stars since 2021.

The news was announced by Surrey ahead of the Stars-Surrey double-header at The Oval, which saw Stars storm to a six-wicket win against reigning champions Southern Vipers in the first leg.

“I always knew I was going to stay, unless something miraculous happened,” Smith said, speaking exclusively to CRICKETher after the match.

“I’ve been here since I was 9, and I can’t see myself playing for any other club.”

Smith refused to confirm whether any of the other Tier One sides had approached her, but CRICKETher understands that at least one other team had expressed interest in signing the 26-year-old.

She described her conversations with Surrey as “very casual”, involving a chat over coffee with Surrey Director of Women’s Cricket Emma Calvert.

“She said: ‘we want you here, and we want you to lead this team – here’s the offer!’,” Smith told CRICKETher. “I went away and thought about it, but it was a no-brainer.”

Calvert labelled Smith “one of the outstanding leaders on the domestic circuit and a fantastic leader”.

Surrey will now look to assemble the remainder of their 2025 squad. Smith said she would not be involved in selection decisions, but hoped that the Surrey team would look similar to the one she currently leads in regionals.

“I’ve got nothing to do with contracts, which I think is the right way to do it,” she said. “We’re a super-tight group here, and hopefully we keep a pretty similar group [next year].”

A huge last 3 overs struck by Nat Sciver-Brunt and Alice Capsey lifted England above 300 for the first time in an ODI since 2022, when they crossed that mark 3 times – twice against South Africa and once against the West Indies.

With 47 overs gone, England were 255-5, and 300 looked out of reach. NSB was on 94 off 108 (a Strike Rate of 87) and Capsey on 23 off 33 (SR 70). But in the remaining 18 balls, Capsey hit 16 off 9 (SR 178) and Sciver-Brunt 30 off 9 (SR 333), adding 47 runs in 3 overs to finish on 302-5. This isn’t quite a record – for example, India scored 62 from their last 3 overs against England at Canterbury in 2022 – but from the data on Cricsheet* it appears to be the 4th most runs scored in the final 3 overs of an ODI in the professional era; which gives you an idea of the scale of it.

NSB’s hundred – her 9th in ODIs – draws her level with Tammy Beaumont and Charlotte Edwards for the most ODI centuries for her country. It wasn’t her most fluent ton (though how good a player do you have to be, to have “bad” hundreds?) but starting with the two consecutive ramps for 4 that brought up the milestone, followed in the next over by consecutive 6s off Diana, it was an innings with the explosive ending of a superhero movie that will live long in the mind’s eye. At last, England were entertaining and inspiring, if only for 15 minutes.

Prior to that, England’s innings had followed a familiar pattern from this tour – decent numbers that you felt slightly flattered the actual performance on the field. Tammy Beaumont was clearly struggling with her timing, so what possessed her to then try a ramp – a shot that is invariably fatal if you don’t time it perfectly – will remain a mystery up there with how they built the pyramids, or why anyone bought “that” Ed Sheeran single**.

Was TB playing her last match for England here? My guess is not – I think she’ll play against New Zealand, and will also captain the team in Ireland in September; but only because the thing that should happen, won’t.

As I tweeted somewhat controversially, it feels like the time has come for Heather Knight to call it a day in ODIs. Her innings here of 12 off 17, with just one 4 off a streaky inside edge that could have gone literally anywhere, just looked tired more than anything; despite the fact that she passed on WPL and didn’t play much regional cricket leading into this series. Given that Knight isn’t going to play against Ireland anyway, I think the time is now to hand over the baton before the New Zealand series.

There are clear reasons not to give the captaincy to any of the “obvious” candidates. Nat Sciver-Brunt doesn’t appear to want it; and nor does Amy Jones. Sophie Ecclestone isn’t in the frame, or she would have retained the vice-captaincy; and Charlie Dean would create selection issues because she isn’t England’s best spinner, meaning you totally eliminate any flexibility with your spin options – you’d have to pick both her and Ecclestone for every game.

Which brings us to Grace Scrivens! No, she hasn’t played a match for England; but she is an absolutely exceptional leader and cricketing brain, as England acknowledged by making her England A captain aged just 19. It would take an extraordinary player to make her debut as captain against New Zealand next month, but I believe she is up to it, and will be a fantastic captain to lead England through the next 10 years – Scrivens should replace TB opening the batting and take over the captaincy now. It won’t happen. But it should.

Anyways… Jack Rule on Twitter called this suggestion “absolutely insane“, and he’s right! But what can I say? We are where we are, thanks to England’s refusal to engage with any succession planning; so insane is what we’ve got – embrace the madness Jack, it’s all we’ve got left!!

(Oh… and for the record, I believe Heather Knight should retain the T20 and Test captaincies over the winter; though Scrivens should play in the Tests as vice captain.)

Back on the field, England still had some formalities to complete to win the series, and Pakistan acquiesced in familiar fashion – they kept up with the rate for the first 15 overs, but having lost 3 wickets in the powerplay they didn’t have the engine-power to keep it going, stuttering before ultimately suffering yet another late-order collapse to defeat by a statistically huge margin. Muneeba Ali did her bit with 47, and Aliya Riaz chipped in with 36; but it never felt like Pakistan were going to chase 200, let alone 300.

England didn’t bowl brilliantly, but partly because they didn’t really have to. Sophie Ecclestone did however achieve the record everyone has been talking about – the fastest player ever to take 100 ODI wickets… as long as you count only matches where she actually bowled! (A definition of the record we should acknowledge that some dispute.)

Ecclestone said afterwards that she wanted to win trophies – specifically the Ashes and a World Cup – rather than break records. I instinctively feel like the fans will agree with her there; and I believe it will happen for her too. But perhaps no longer under this captain.

————

* Caveat – Cricsheet is great… and (and I’m not gonna lie, this bit is quite important!) free… but it isn’t quite complete.

** Insert literally any Ed Sheeran single here!

I had a friend at Essex University who hailed from Derby. A couple of weeks into her first term, she finally lost her temper at some poor guy who had been the umpteenth person there to mistake her for a Northerner. “I’M FROM DERBY,” she yelled, with caps-lock fully engaged. “IT’S IN THE MIDLANDS!”

And unsurprisingly, she wasn’t wrong – this part of the country has been known as the Midlands (or “Middel Lond”) since the late middle ages; and having driven past it on our way to Leeds (very-definitely in The North) last weekend, I can confirm that Derby is indeed pretty-much “in the middle” of England.

Coincidentally, “in the middle” is also an apt description of England’s performance at the County Ground in Derby today.

Let’s start with their batting performance in the 1st innings, having been inserted by Pakistan, who (correctly) believed that their only hope of victory was to bowl England out cheaply and chase a low total.

The average 1st innings score in an ODI between the ICC Championship sides since 2018 is exactly 250. England’s score today? Just shy of 250 – 243, to be exact – bang in “the midlands” of that grey area on the Ghost chart which indicates a typical score. Not only that, but you’ll rarely see a straighter line on on a chart – England plodded-along at between 4 and 5.5 an over for the whole of their innings, never really slowing down, but never taking off either.

During the innings break, a few people commented that England seemed to have played-out a lot of dots – about 26 overs of them. But this too was totally average. It varies a lot (between 30% and 69%) but England’s average dot percentage in their last 40 ODIs is 50% – so 52% today was… you’ve guessed it… right in the mid-lands!

The batting scorecard was also unusually balanced. Here are England’s batters, with their scores expressed as a percentage of England’s total – all but one in the teens, with no one batter dominating – England’s highest score being Alice Capsey’s 44.

Come the 2nd innings, the wickets were also shared around – 2 for Cross, Bell and Dean, and 3 for Ecclestone – as Pakistan made a decent effort in their chase, although somehow they never quite looked like winning.

Pakistan stayed in touch through the first 30 overs, winning that 20-30-over phase; and our Win-Her Win Predictor actually had them at 58% to win the match at the half-way point in the 2nd innings. I didn’t publish it, because it felt “wrong”, but the numbers are nonetheless what they are – a team that is over 40% of the way towards their target, still with 7 wickets in hand as Pakistan were, wins the game more often than not.

Part of the reason Pakistan were able to maintain their rate was the helpful contribution of a whopping 40 extras (mostly wides) to their total. This definitely was not the mid-lands from England’s perspective – indeed it was closer to Aberdeen! In the last 40 ODIs England have conceded an average of 14 extras per bowling innings, with the recent worst (prior to today) being the 28 they gave up to the West Indies at the World Cup in New Zealand in 2022. Both Bell (7 wides) and Cross (5 wides and 2 no balls) ended up bowing an entire additional over as a result of their prolificacy, with both (unusually in Cross’s case, less unusually in Bell’s) struggling to adapt to the left-right combination after Muneeba Ali came in.

Pakistan didn’t quite have enough fuel in the tank to get to the chequered flag, but this was their best performance of the series. Their issue is that unlike some of the other 2nd-tier sides, they don’t have that one batter – a Hayley Matthews or a Chamari Athapaththu – who will nip them the extra 30-or-40 runs they fell short today. Find her, and they actually could be in business.

By Andy Frombolton

Over the next few months each of the new Tier 1 counties will be assembling their squads.

The obvious hope from the ECB’s perspective is the creation of 8 evenly-balanced squads (or certainly a lot more evenly-balanced than is currently the case). For the individual counties, the goal will be to assemble a powerful team capable of winning competitions (and thus the winner’s cheque which would represent a significant contribution towards running costs). The best players will be trying to ascertain which county offers the optimum mix of reward and opportunity, whilst others might simply crave certainty and some will need to accept that to continue playing as a professional will require moving to a new county.

Of all the parties involved, the greatest bargaining power lies with the best players (although they might not realise it), in second place are good cricketers at Continuity Counties (i.e. the regional hosts transitioning to Tier 1 counties), in third place comes the ‘Continuity Counties’, in fourth place come the remaining players and in last place are the 3 ‘new’ non-transitioning counties.

The most likely outcome is a further concentration of talent at a few counties and the creation of at least 2 very weak counties. And, then in 2027, if all the extant counties are clever and ruthless, the 2 additional counties being elevated to Tier 1 could find it almost impossible to assemble a competitive squad.

Here’s why…

Each Tier 1 county is required to have 15 full time contracts i.e. 120 professionals in total (vs 88 now). Hence demand greatly outstrips supply and one has to question where 32 additional players of professional standard will be found.

This makes the ECB’s mandating that each Tier 1 county shall have 15 professional contracts look more like a desire for positive headlines than the result of a rational analysis regarding which arrangements would best deliver against a wider range of equity goals. Why couldn’t the ECB have allowed Tier 1 counties to experiment with different squad configurations e.g. why couldn’t a county have 8 professionals and 14 part-time players who could combine academic, work and/or personal commitments whilst also exploring the desirability and feasibility of a full-time career? Conversely the county could give opportunities to far more players and hence would be more likely to unearth talent.  Such an arrangement could have addressed a wide range of challenges regarding making cricket accessible and viable for players with other commitments. 

Each Tier 1 county starts with a clean team sheet and conversely every cricketer (barring some Northern Diamond players – messy!) is out of contract by November and thus available.

The new Tier 1 counties have been granted a ‘closed period’ during which they can seek to retain players contracted to the transitioning regional team e.g., Viper players to Hampshire. (Presumably the 3 non-transitioning counties have the same arrangement regarding their closest non-continuing region, e.g. Sunrisers to Essex?) Counties are forbidden from approaching any other players during this time.

I posited that the top players hold all the best cards at this stage. Consider first a top player at one of the 5 transitioning regions. If they’re happy to remain, then one option would be to commit to a new contract during the closed period. But if you were one of those players, and knowing your current team wants you, why wouldn’t you wait to see what other offers might come in? Whether they ultimately stay or move, this is their best chance to secure a good deal. 

Second, consider a player at a transitioning region who isn’t one of the top players but is a steady performer. Remember each county needs to contract 15 players and it’s reverse Musical Chairs (i.e. chairs have been added when the music stopped) and so will be keen to retain these individuals. Again, these players are in a strong negotiating position and, unless they want certainty quickly or are keen not to move, they too could hold out to see what other offers emerge.  

Next consider the 5 Continuity Counties. Their goal will be to retain the majority of the squad they’ve assembled during the regional era and add judiciously. Fortunately for them, there are 3 squads of players (at the non-transitioning counties) who – faced with the necessity to move (geographically) at the end of the season – are probably going to be more open to new opportunities than players at the Continuity Counties. The top players at these 3 regions will be much sought after and should be able to secure more than one offer. 

Fourth on my list are the bottom quartile of the currently-contracted professionals who have the advantage over talented amateurs and academy graduates of being known quantities at this level. Indeed, such is the surplus of contracts on offer that, provided they’re prepared to move, they too are virtually guaranteed a new contract. (Whether being recruited primarily to satisfy mandated squad numbers will subsequently equate to a fulfilling career is another issue.)

Finally, consider the 3 non-continuity Tier 1 counties. It’s naïve to imagine that the 3 impacted regional squads will simply move en masse to the successor county. This is not intended as a detrimental observation on any of these clubs, but reflects the reality that not all players will want to move to the new Counties whether this is for cricketing, location or personal reasons. And once a player is required to move from a place where they’ve established roots and connections, then for some it may become irrelevant whether they have to relocate 30 miles or 100?

As already noted, the top players at the 3 new non-continuity Tier 1 counties will be in hot demand from Continuity Counties and some will be tempted. Ditto some of the good players. For instance, a top Western Storm player might receive offers from Somerset, Hampshire and Warwickshire. From a purely-cricketing perspective, before deciding which offer to accept, they’d want to know what their envisaged role in a squad, who else was in the squad and might even make some assumptions regarding the potential for earning a share of win fees. For a Northern Diamonds player, there’s an added complication that some might have their heart set on a return to Yorkshire once they’re elevated to Tier 1 in 2 years and hence see any move as only being temporary. Leeds to Durham is 88 miles whilst Leeds to Manchester is just 44 miles and Leeds to Nottingham is 71 miles; the latter 2 options having the geographical advantage of not being in the opposite direction to all the other counties. 

The worst-case scenario for the 3 new counties is that only a rump of the donor region squad, stripped on the top and some of the good players, is prepared to move.

And let’s add one final curveball. The next round of central contracts. Without seeking to speculate about names, there’ll inevitably be some churn amongst that group at the end of the year. Perhaps a couple of current England players might already be working on the assumption that their contract won’t be renewed and be putting their name into the hat with certain counties, but for the majority their fate won’t be known until the domestic international season and the world cup is concluded. What happens to those players who lose their central contract? All the Tier 1 counties will have assembled their squads and will have allocated their budgets. Consequently, most teams wouldn’t have any funds left by the time any England player loses their central contract (unless one of their squad was simultaneously awarded a new central contract. But even then, a county would probably want a like-for-like skill swap – so a county losing one of its premier batters is unlikely to want to contract a released England bowler.)

Extrapolating the likely outcome of all these moving parts: Surrey, Hampshire and Lancashire will undoubtedly seek to position themselves as premier Tier 1 counties – with the contacts and connections to facilitate winter overseas placements, the chance to earn extra money from coaching, personal sponsorship and (in theory) a better chance to share in tournament winnings. Warwickshire and Notts should be well positioned to retained most of their current young squads and could use cleverly-targeted offers to entice top players from the 3 non-transitioning counties (whether cricket-focussed, such as guarantees about being first choice keeper, specific batting or bowling roles or captaincy or better personal security e.g. longer contracts or support for post-playing life via coaching qualifications). 

Of the 3 new counties, Essex are possibly best placed – able to offer incentives to persuade Sunrisers to move, plus draw on the deep talent pools in their own county, Kent and possibly discarded Oval players. Unfortunately, this scenario leaves Durham and Somerset starting with a diminished core of transferring players and subsequently fighting over a pool comprising primarily players who no other county has offered a contract to.

If they’re going to avoid this fate, these 2 counties will need to be part-visionary and part-moneyball and to act quickly. Durham, of course, faced a similar issue when their men’s team joined the county championship. What could they do? Grab a marque overseas player from a country which doesn’t tour much and isn’t coming to the UK for the next 2 years (or who has retired from international cricket); avoid anyone likely to be on England’s radar for the next few years; target a couple of good older players who can act as player-coaches; recruit 5-6 good players who are frustrated at their current club and guarantee them then roles they crave; and, then complete the squad with the ‘best of the rest’ (prioritising academy / local players with roots in the area over a player who’d be looking to leave at the first opportunity.) Somerset have deftly recruited Heather Knight and it will be interesting to see whether this has the same magnetic appeal as the Charlotte Edwards effect at Southern Vipers.

And finally, whoever each Tier 1 county ends up with, they should all offer everyone in their squads 2-year contracts in 2026 through to the end of 2027; thereby ensuring that Yorkshire and Glamorgan will have a tiny pool of proven players to choose from, thereby probably condemning them to be the 2 weakest teams in Tier 1 for years to come.

It’s going to be fascinating, messy and probably going to result in some massive variance in squad strengths. For the sake of the game, I hope not.

A crowd of 7,500 watched England beat Pakistan in the final T20 at Headingley, to seal a 3-0 series whitewash against the women in green.

A few folks seemed a tad disappointed with that crowd figure – apparently just over 10,000 tickets had been sold, plus “comps” (“complementaries” – tickets given away for free) so Yorkshire were hoping for 12,000, and it was a beautiful day in the West Riding, but despite the sunshine nearly 2,500 people bought tickets they didn’t use.

Nonetheless, at about 40% capacity, Headingley still felt pretty full – there were no huge empty spaces in the stands – and for a minor (and, let’s face it, pretty uncompetitive) series that feels pretty good to me. If we’re getting that for a dead-rubber against Pakistan, I reckon we are doing okay from a commercial perspective – not every series can be The Ashes.

On the field, Danni Wyatt put on a show, and looked all-but set to become the first full-member player to score 3 international T20 centuries. (It has been done twice by players from associate nations – shout out to Fatuma Kibasu of Tanzania, who scored her hundreds against Mali, Qatar and Eswatini; and Esha Oza of UAE, who did it against Oman, Qatar and Bahrain.)

With the help of some woeful Pakistani fielding (she was dropped 3 times) Wyatt made it to 87 off 48 balls before holing-out; and she did the right thing to keep pushing – given that there were still 6 overs left, the selfish option would have been to slow down and ensure she got the century, but there was clearly no thought of that in her mind.

Wyatt’s heroics meant that England powered through the middle overs, hitting at more than 10-an-over between overs 7 and 16. They didn’t have quite such a good death phase, losing 5 wickets for 33 to be all-out off the final ball; but arguably the perfect T20 innings is one where you max-out your resources, leaving nothing in the tank. The 174 that England made was by a distance the highest total of the series, and well in excess of a “typical” 1st innings score in a T20 between the ICC Championship teams.

It was certainly far too much for Pakistan, but at least on this occasion they didn’t collapse in a heap. Despite bowling their opponents out twice in this series, I don’t think England have been at their best with the ball. As I discuss on this week’s CRICKETher Weekly, recorded at Headingley before the game, outfield catches are cheap wickets for bowlers, and arguably should be discounted, as they are in what is increasingly seen as one of baseball’s key pitching metrics “FIP” – Fielding Independent Pitching. I’m not genuinely expecting cricket to suddenly change the way it calculates a bowler’s figures, but I do wonder if it is worth considering something like FIP as a supplementary metric?

England’s inability to take wickets when the opposition aren’t literally giving them away like they’re Maundy Money at Easter, has to continue to be a concern. Of course, they were without their main strike bowler today, which didn’t help. Her replacement got the ultimate vote-of-no-confidence from the captain of not bowling the opening over, but to be fair to Heather Knight, her lack of confidence looked entirely justified – she was all over the place, and how she only went at a rate of 6.25 from her 4 overs, I’ll never know. As one swallow does not a summer make, one decent ball per over does not an international fast bowler make, and England must be praying that Lauren Bell will be able to play every match when it really counts in the World Cup and the Ashes next winter.

I’ll be writing Wisden’s round-up of this series in the next couple of weeks, and cricket’s publication of record will document that England won this T20 series with some ease; but there will be caveats. Wyatt’s innings today, and Amy Jones’s keeping in the match at Edgbaston, were the highlights, but were they oases in the desert, or just mirages on the horizon? We’ll find out when the sterner tests come around later this year and next.