- 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 -
Saturday, 18 January 2014
The Women's International Cricket League #WICL Changes Everything
So it is now official - the Women's International Cricket League had arrived - and I honestly don't think it is exaggerating to say that this changes EVERYTHING!
If you want to find out more, I'll leave their fantastic brand new web site - http://www.wicl.org - to do the talking on what exactly it's all about.
Suffice it to say that this is one of the most exciting developments in the history of the sport - the bold, ambitious investment in a serious, commercial future for the game, that we've been calling for so long.
It'll shake things up... it's bound to shake some people up too... but history isn't made by sitting around waiting for stuff to happen - it is made by doing. And WICL are doing!
If you want to find out more, I'll leave their fantastic brand new web site - http://www.wicl.org - to do the talking on what exactly it's all about.
Suffice it to say that this is one of the most exciting developments in the history of the sport - the bold, ambitious investment in a serious, commercial future for the game, that we've been calling for so long.
It'll shake things up... it's bound to shake some people up too... but history isn't made by sitting around waiting for stuff to happen - it is made by doing. And WICL are doing!
Thursday, 16 January 2014
England Face Cross \ Brunt Dilemma in #WomensAshes
Martin Davies over at WCB expects England to go into next week's ODIs with an unchanged team.
I'm not so sure!
Taking 6 points from the Test was obviously a massive achievement, and they say you shouldn't change a winning team; but England's selectors have got to be concerned about a batting-order which collapsed to 32/3 in the first innings and 10/3 in the second.
The obvious solution would be to bring in an all-rounder - Wyatt or (more likely) Elwiss - in place of a bowler; but this leaves the selectors with a massive headache. Assuming she is fit, Shrubsole will play, there's no doubt about that; but who do you drop between Brunt and Cross?
Katherine Brunt has led England's attack into battle on over 100 occasions; but right now, Katie Cross is in the sort of form that just can't be ignored, while Brunt had a pretty so-so Test match, even if you ignore the first-innings "red card".
It is a tough call to make though; and things only get more complicated for the selectors, because in theory Cross is going home for the T20 leg of the series, to be replaced by Tash Farrant, who is on the plane to Australia as I write.
I understand that there is nothing in the rules to prevent Cross staying on, despite not being named in the original squad; and there is a precedent for this - Heather Knight was not selected originally for the T20s last summer, but stayed on and played anyway.
(Cross probably won't thank me for mentioning this though - Knight's T20 jaunt culminated in a season-ending injury, which had her hobbling around on crutches for several months afterwards.)
My personal opinion is that Cross should play and stay. It is hard on Brunt, but that's top level sport - Cross seized a chance that I'll admit I didn't think she'd get, and she deserves a chance to finish the job she started in the Test of retaining those Women's Ashes.
I'm not so sure!
Taking 6 points from the Test was obviously a massive achievement, and they say you shouldn't change a winning team; but England's selectors have got to be concerned about a batting-order which collapsed to 32/3 in the first innings and 10/3 in the second.
The obvious solution would be to bring in an all-rounder - Wyatt or (more likely) Elwiss - in place of a bowler; but this leaves the selectors with a massive headache. Assuming she is fit, Shrubsole will play, there's no doubt about that; but who do you drop between Brunt and Cross?
Katherine Brunt has led England's attack into battle on over 100 occasions; but right now, Katie Cross is in the sort of form that just can't be ignored, while Brunt had a pretty so-so Test match, even if you ignore the first-innings "red card".
It is a tough call to make though; and things only get more complicated for the selectors, because in theory Cross is going home for the T20 leg of the series, to be replaced by Tash Farrant, who is on the plane to Australia as I write.
I understand that there is nothing in the rules to prevent Cross staying on, despite not being named in the original squad; and there is a precedent for this - Heather Knight was not selected originally for the T20s last summer, but stayed on and played anyway.
(Cross probably won't thank me for mentioning this though - Knight's T20 jaunt culminated in a season-ending injury, which had her hobbling around on crutches for several months afterwards.)
My personal opinion is that Cross should play and stay. It is hard on Brunt, but that's top level sport - Cross seized a chance that I'll admit I didn't think she'd get, and she deserves a chance to finish the job she started in the Test of retaining those Women's Ashes.
Wednesday, 15 January 2014
England Top Playing Time Table
The following table shows the number of days of cricket played since the 2013 World Cup.
* One Test = 4 Days
A table like this is never completely fair, of course: Ireland have just played their T20 WC warm-up tournament, whereas India are yet to do so; and Australia's situation is made to look more respectable only because they've played two Tests.
Nevertheless, I think it is instructive. England fans may kvetch about our team's place in the ECB pecking-order, but at least we are playing matches regularly - India haven't played a single game since last April; and since the WC, Australia have played the two Ashes series and nothing else.
| Team | T20 | ODI | Test* | Total |
| England | 10 | 8 | 8 | 26 |
| West Indies | 10 | 9 | 0 | 19 |
| Sri Lanka | 10 | 6 | 0 | 16 |
| Pakistan | 7 | 8 | 0 | 15 |
| South Africa | 6 | 8 | 0 | 14 |
| Australia | 3 | 3 | 8 | 14 |
| Bangladesh | 6 | 6 | 0 | 12 |
| Ireland | 5 | 6 | 0 | 11 |
| New Zealand | 4 | 3 | 0 | 7 |
| India | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
* One Test = 4 Days
A table like this is never completely fair, of course: Ireland have just played their T20 WC warm-up tournament, whereas India are yet to do so; and Australia's situation is made to look more respectable only because they've played two Tests.
Nevertheless, I think it is instructive. England fans may kvetch about our team's place in the ECB pecking-order, but at least we are playing matches regularly - India haven't played a single game since last April; and since the WC, Australia have played the two Ashes series and nothing else.
Tuesday, 14 January 2014
2014 Fixture Update - England Women v India
Although there still hasn't (as far as I'm aware) been any official announcement, a second Royal London ODI against India has crept in under the radar - at the Home of Cricket in London on August 25th 2014.
We now have two confirmed ODIs for India's tour:
The T20s which follow are:
We now have two confirmed ODIs for India's tour:
- 25 August 2014 - ODI v India @ Lords
- 29 August 2014 - ODI v India @ Scarborough
The T20s which follow are:
- 1 September - T20 v India @ Chelsford
- 3 September - T20 v India @ Northampton
- 7 September - T20 v India @ Edgbaston
Monday, 13 January 2014
Womens Ashes Test Day 4
Random thoughts on the #WomensAshes -
- Which idiot said Australia would win this game?
- Although Katherine Brunt remains the nominal leader of England's attack, and took the first over as usual today, for most of the past year it has been Anya Shrubsole who has looked the more dangerous. We saw that again today. Brunt opened, but it wasn't until Shrubsole came on that things... magic things... started to happen.
- Ellyse Perry was deservedly MVP, but she looked absolutely knackered when she came on to the field at the end. The commentators kept asking why she hadn't bowled "earlier" / "sooner" / "before X", but she bowled more overs than anyone else on either side in this game, and was clearly suffering.
- England by contrast shared things round a bit more, and not being over-reliant on one player has got to be an advantage going forwards into the rest of this series, with less than a week until the ODIs.
- At 3:56 this morning, former England player Beth Morgan tweeted Isa Guha: "Memories of Bowral Ish?" She was referring to England's last Test victory down-under back in 2008. Of course Beth and Isa both remember Bowral - they were on the field that day - but most of* the rest of us don't because those were the days when all the coverage you got was a next-day report hidden in a dark corner of Cricinfo. How brilliant is it that this time we will all remember, thanks to the wonderful live video provided by Cricket Australia? Hopefully they've set a precedent which the ECB can follow next summer... if SKY (who own exclusive rights to all cricket played in England, but seldom exercise those rights for women's cricket) will let them.
Sunday, 12 January 2014
The Match That Saved Test Cricket
Before this match concludes - before the joy of victory or the misery of defeat can color my judgement - I offer some thoughts on what this Test means for the future of the long-form game.
Women's Test cricket is in a bad way. In the past 5 years, just 4 Tests have been played, all of them between England and Australia; and you have to go all the way back to 2007 to find the last Test involving any of the other nations*.
And it wasn't just the quantity that was at issue, it was the quality too. As the game at Wormsley last summer petered-out into a bore-draw I found myself privately questioning whether the format had any future at all.
But now... oh boy! The past three days has been the most joyous sporting spectacle I've witnessed in many-a-year.
Yes, we've seen four (count 'em!) insane batting collapses, but they've been driven by quality bowling from the likes of Perry and Cross; and what's more, on three occasions so far, we've then seen the game subsequently wrestled back into balance, with bravery and fortitude from Brindle, Perry and Edwards.
By this time tomorrow, someone will have won and someone will have lost. Eleven women and their fans will be in heaven, while eleven other women and their fans will be somewhere else entirely!
One thing is for sure though - we may never see another Test that doesn't involve England and Australia... but this game has guaranteed that Ashes Tests are here to stay!
(Though possibly with slightly fewer points attached! Somewhat counter-intuitively, the very closeness of this game makes it even less likely that the losing side can come back to win the series, due to the devastation they will inevitably feel in the wake of their defeat.)
----------
* South Africa v The Netherlands in July 2007.
Women's Test cricket is in a bad way. In the past 5 years, just 4 Tests have been played, all of them between England and Australia; and you have to go all the way back to 2007 to find the last Test involving any of the other nations*.
And it wasn't just the quantity that was at issue, it was the quality too. As the game at Wormsley last summer petered-out into a bore-draw I found myself privately questioning whether the format had any future at all.
But now... oh boy! The past three days has been the most joyous sporting spectacle I've witnessed in many-a-year.
Yes, we've seen four (count 'em!) insane batting collapses, but they've been driven by quality bowling from the likes of Perry and Cross; and what's more, on three occasions so far, we've then seen the game subsequently wrestled back into balance, with bravery and fortitude from Brindle, Perry and Edwards.
By this time tomorrow, someone will have won and someone will have lost. Eleven women and their fans will be in heaven, while eleven other women and their fans will be somewhere else entirely!
One thing is for sure though - we may never see another Test that doesn't involve England and Australia... but this game has guaranteed that Ashes Tests are here to stay!
(Though possibly with slightly fewer points attached! Somewhat counter-intuitively, the very closeness of this game makes it even less likely that the losing side can come back to win the series, due to the devastation they will inevitably feel in the wake of their defeat.)
----------
* South Africa v The Netherlands in July 2007.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)