A Practice Match in Queenstown
A first glance at England’s first ODI match of their New Zealand might give you a misleading picture of what is going on. As we take in the batting order it looks like ‘Same old, same old’: Beaumont, Wyatt, Knight, Sciver, Jones, Wilson, Brunt, Winfield-Hill, Glenn, Ecclestone and Cross. Where have we seen that before?
But all is not as it might seem. This was one of those games that are allowed to overlook basic rules when it suits both sides. So 13 played 14, eleven fielders only at a time.
After fourteen days in quarantine England needed to give as many players as possible a spell of action. In the second innings Tash Farrant, Freya Davies and Mady Villiers took the field in place of three batters. Sophia Dunkley was the one tourist not to take part.
They played a 50-over match against a NZ Women’s Eleven which involved only six players picked for the elite squad. The basic totals:
England 299-8
NZ 279-6
England win by 20 runs
How are we to take this result? How many of us have had the experience of quarantining? With special permission the players were allowed to practice in bubbles of eight during that fortnight. How far does that go to overcome the absence of a normal life-style?
It didn’t stop the batters nearly reaching 300, a first target they had set themselves. Heather Knight stressed their desire to make their recent totals of 300+ a regular feature. ‘Recent’ is a relative term; their last ODI dates back to December 2019. Their individual knocks make you wonder they had decided to ‘hand the baton on’, once they had reached a decent score. Of the top six, five made between 27 and 35; Nat Sciver was the exception, going to an important 75. She fell lbw to the slow left armer Fran Jonas, who is 16. Katherine Brunt held the tail together, finishing with 41, run out off the last ball.
The White Ferns’ innings tells a different story. Despite the absence of their most reliable run-getters, they still came within 20 runs (another score!) of a daunting target. Their scorecard looks very like England’s: all the leading batters bar one were dismissed after reaching the 20s and 30s. But Lauren Dunn posted a warning for England with 97. Danni Wyatt ran her out three short of glory.
The bowlers didn’t find life easy; none took more than a single wicket. Two of the six wickets to fall were run-outs. Only Sophie Ecclestone returned an economy rate of under four; Cross and Glenn around double that.
Let’s agree it takes bowlers much longer to get into the groove than batters. But this was in effect a Second Eleven they were up against.
They face plenty of opportunities to set things straight: the next two matches follow on Thursday and Saturday, a tough schedule after so much inactivity.
Teams:
New Zealand
Natalie Dodd
Hayley Jensen
Lauren Down
Brooke Halliday
Nensi Patel
Katie Perkins (captain)
Katey Martin (wk)
Fran Jonas
Hannah Rowe
Kate Sims
Claudia Green
Bree Illing
Kate Anderson
England
Tammy Beaumont
Danni Wyatt
Heather Knight (captain)
Nat Sciver
Amy Jones (wk)
Fran Wilson
Katherine Brunt
Lauren Winfield-Hill
Sarah Glenn
Sophie Ecclestone
Kate Cross
Tash Farrant
Freya Davies
Mady Villiers
