- England were quite aggressive in their selection. By fielding Katie Cross - an out-and-out bowler - ahead of the all-rounder Georgia Elwiss, they stated their intent to win the game, rather than just not lose it!
- At 30-something-for-3 England might have been wondering if they had made the right decision on Cross/Elwiss; but Arran Brindle, whose classical, scholarly approach to her cricket is well-suited to the Test format, led the recovery.
- Lydia Greenway also played well, I thought - although she didn’t make big runs, she played the innings she needed to play at that stage of the match.
- I described Nat Sciver before as "a keeper" (as in, "we'll keep her"!) and her innings today totally underlined why.
- This wasn’t the BEST day… but it wasn’t a total disaster in the end either: we recovered from the mini-collapse; Anya Shrubsole got those two fantastic late wickets; and Brunt, Shrubsole and Cross is a strong attack to take to the Southern Stars tomorrow.
- The live feed on the Cricket Australia web site is great. It’s obviously done on a budget - hence no replays - but the picture quality is good, and there are enough cameras to catch most of the action - though the (apparently brilliant) catch that dismissed Brunt eluded them/us.
- I’m not sure I can take three more days of Aussie commentators spending half the time discussing men’s cricket though! (And Isa Guha needs to remember that she is talking to the audience, not the person next to her - I know your co-commentator hasn’t head this story before, Isa, but we have… three times now!)
Friday, 10 January 2014
Women’s Ashes Test Day 1
Random thoughts, brought to you in conjunction with coffee - a LOT of coffee:
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When I saw the team selection the first thing that concerned me was the length of the tail. Rather controversially I reckoned it started at No7 (the 2nd innings might disprove this but the 1st innings has not). Sciver needed a Laura Marsh to block at the other end but instead got ....... um.
ReplyDeleteThe selectors have certainly taken the aggressive route in not going for the extra batsman, which is credible, especially when as holder of The Ashes, one only needs to draw the series and blanking the Test might have been an approach some might have adopted.
Sciver, or should that be sICvEr, was apparently somewhat surprised to be selected for the Test. I would have thought she is a nailed on selection for all 7 matches. Well done Nat.
Suspect the 1st hour will be crucial tomorrow. Would imagine the Aussies would be quite happy to score no runs during the Brunt & Shrubsole opening spells provided they lose no wickets.
I actually agree about the tail. Isa said on commentary that [paraphrasing] "England bat right down because Anya opens for Somerset." I thought that was... er... generous, to say the least!
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