- You can't help but feel that Australia lost this match as much as England won it. The Southern Stars took a long time to get started, with the run-rate not creeping over 3 until the 38th over; and though they hit out at the end, they just didn't have the platform to post an imposing total.
- The Ausies were also poor in the field. Brindle and Greenway had more lives than Sonic The Hedgehog. I thought this would be one area where the Australian's more professional setup would really start to show already, but so far it hasn't.
- All credit to Greenway and Brindle though for one of those partnerships where you really wish the Player of the Match award could be cut in half and shared.
- Brindle is actually lucky to be there, in a way - if either Winfield or Beaumont had taken their chances in the West Indies, she might have found herself watching from the sidelines; but she has proved her metal and shown once again that her nightmare at Lords last summer was just an aberration.
- Heather Knight's form is becoming a bit of a worry. Her hundred in the practice match at the start of the tour, and England's lack of credible alternatives, mean she isn't drinking in the Last Chance Saloon quite yet, but she's possibly walking in that direction again.
- This is more of a hunch than a worked-through theory, but... Powerplays really don't work in women's cricket. I'm not sure they do any harm either... but their main contribution to the women's game seems to be to confuse and puzzle inexperienced commentators who are thinking in men's cricket terms and wondering why they haven't been taken full advantage of!
Sunday, 19 January 2014
Women's Ashes 1st ODI
Random thoughts on the #WomensAshes ODI at the MCG -
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
"Brindle is actually lucky to be there, in a way" - not sure that's fair. Last summer in ODIs Brindle scored 55, 22, 21, 42 and 11 and in T20s scored 5*, 39 and 0*. I can't see anyone with these scores being dropped just because they missed the West Indies tour.
ReplyDeleteBeaumont might be a similar type of player to Brindle but her scoring rate is so inferior its hard to see her dislodging Brindle.
Winfield is pushing Knight rather than Brindle, and in the T20 might open in place of Knight regardless of Knight's current form because Knight has no history of high scoring in T20s (13, 13, 12, 10, 6, 2, 2, 1*, 0, 0), albeit only the 13, 2 and 0 are opening, the rest are No 6,7&9. Knight won't get dropped from either of the next 2 ODIs (unless we win the next and then play rotation team in the 3rd) because 3 low scores in row isn't a long enough sequence to drop someone who has previous form. I would suggest that Knight is in danger of missing the boat in the sense that a really good Ashes tour, following on from last summer, could have really thrust her in the world class category.
Can I revise my paragraph on Heather Knight? If so:
ReplyDeleteHeather Knight's form is becoming a bit of a worry. Her hundred in the practice match at the start of the tour, and England's lack of credible alternatives, mean she isn't about to be dropped, nor should she be; but after last summer she is wearing the boots of expectation; and she doesn't look comfortable in them right now.