England’s Second Warm-up Match v New Zealand
8 February, Western Province Cricket Ground, Cape Town
Changes
As expected, Jon Lewis rings the changes, ensuring that everyone has a chance to take exercise over the first two matches. The most significant point is the choice of Amy Jones to resume the captaincy as Heather Knight takes a back seat. Jones was a reluctant leader when first offered the job.
Lauren Bell, Nat Sciver-Brunt and Danni Wyatt are the other three invited to watch the game from the edge.
The game
It’s back to well trodden paths as Katherine S-B opens up against the formidable pairing of Sophie Devine and Suzie Bates.
After a demanding first over, Freya Davies is immediately hit for two fours. She goes for 13 runs (a wide in amongst). This start reflects my ongoing worry about the depth and quality of the pace bowling. How will Davies and especially Kate Cross respond?
Jones’ reaction is to introduce Sophie Ecclestone at once. She too is hit for two fours. NZ 30-0 off 4.
Cross, who needs a spot of luck after her first game, sees Dean drop a catch off her first delivery. But with her fifth it comes; a beauty beats Devine’s bat and she goes for 14/15.
Even better, Bernadine Bezuidenhout lasts one ball. The umpire has to rearrange the stumps a second time! (33-2 off 5). Cross is back in form.
Now for the first time we see an Under-19 prospect at the crease, Georgia Plimmer, who had been included in the team of the tournament last month.
In the powerplay NZ reach 38-2, thanks largely to Bates. But England have made two dents already.
Jones brings Davies back to give her a second chance. She goes for a less expensive 7 runs, including a four and a wide. (58-2).
Charlie Dean starts with an off-side wide, but compensates at once, taking Plimmer low c&b for 5. She is rapidly taking on the role once played by Ecclestone, keeping the runs down and taking wickets.
That’s half way! NZ 63-3
Sarah Glenn bowls the 11th over, taking the vital wicket of Bates, lbw for 36 off 35. She has played more devastating innings than this, so England are delighted.
They have an extra piece of luck as Kiwi batters muddle up a run; Cross runs Maddy Green out off Davies’ next ball. Fielding at mid-on, she moves to her right and hits the bowler’s stumps direct. (75-5)
This 13th over is Davies’ tightest yet, just 2 runs.
We’ve reached the stage of the game where batters can get in a fix: runs are desperately needed but wickets need safeguarding. Can they afford to take risks?
Ecclestone’s return brings the wicket England still needed. Kerr, who has scored four fours in her 24, sweeps in the air, to be caught brilliantly by Glenn, tumbling to the ground at deep square.
Interestingly Jones selects Davies to be the first to complete her ration of four overs. Brunt’s return limits NZ to four runs. 95-6 off 17.
Dean suffers a dropped catch in the 18th, but Brunt takes another c&b to get rid of Lauren Down (10/15). Her 4-0-14-1 is very reassuring.
To nobody’s surprise Ecclestone is offered the last over. She responds by giving Jones yet another in a long line of stumpings off her first delivery. Hannah Rowe (11/12). Off the last ball of all Jones repeats the dose, Lea Tahuhu going for glory, but missing.
That leaves the left-armer with 4-0-19-3 to help her retain her pre-eminent place in world rankings.
NZ 114-9
The Reply
Another potentially soppy question: will England go flat out for an early win, or grind the opposition down, giving nothing away – a cruel way to dispirit them? Lauren Winfield-Hill for one knows she is playing for her place in the side next week.
First she and Sophia Dunkley face Eden Carson, a young off-spinner, who is probably unfamiliar to them. After taking a look LW-H puts her sixth ball away for 4.
Maybe the opening question wasn’t so soppy. After three overs England have reached a modest 15-0.
Devine rings the changes: four overs, four bowlers.
Fran Jonas makes the breakthrough, getting LW-H lbw as she misses a reverse sweep to a straight ball. Will 7 runs off 12 be enough to satisfy the people who matter?
Capsey at once hits three fours and a six. The fifth bowler, Hannah Rowe, is put away for 19 runs in her first over. Wisely Devine brings her wicket-taker Jonas back on with her left-arm slows.
In the 6-over powerplay England reach 53-1. They are more than halfway there inside the seventh over. (62-1)
Amelia Kerr puts a brake on proceedings, getting Capsey out lbw (28/13; 4×4, 1×6; her SR 215). It’s another missed reverse sweep. Are there other productive ways of scoring off straight balls? (England 62-2)
Jones survives a fourth dropped catch by the Kiwis, but succumbs the very next ball, lifting an outside edge in the air to Jonas at mid-off; Jensen goes for 9 off the tenth over, leaving England 94-3 with just 21 to win.
That’s the problem with the short format game – tension can so easily dissipate earlier than the publicists would wish you to believe.
Dunkley responds by smiting her first six of the innings. She moves to a second splendid 50 of this brief series off 35 balls with a cut for four.
Maia Bouchier goes for a single, edging a drive to short third; today she couldn’t put in a performance to convince the selectors. KS-B does no better, falling to yet another imperfect sweep. But Dunkley continues to shine; a final lofted four sees England home by five wickets; her figures 60* (7×4, 1×6).
A convincing win, though there are a few moving parts that still need oiling. Can the batters deal more effectively with the straight ball? They must expect one or two. And can the bowlers all produce the goods on the same day?
The management will have plenty to chew over this evening.
Scores:
New Zealand 114-9
England 118-5
England win by 5 wickets (13.5 overs)
Teams:
England
Sophia Dunkley, Lauren Winfield-Hill, Alice Capsey, Amy Jones (captain), Maia Bouchier, Katherine Sciver-Brunt, Sophie Ecclestone, Charlotte Dean, Sarah Glenn, Kate Cross, Freya Davies (Danni Wyatt, Heather Knight, Nat Sciver-Brunt and Lauren Bell mere onlookers)
New Zealand
Sophie Devine (captain), Suzie Bates, Bernadine Bezuidenhout, Georgia Plimmer, Amelia Kerr, Maddy Green, Hannah Rowe, Lauren Down, Brooke Halliday, Lea Tahuhu, Jess Kerr, Hayley Jensen, Molly Penfold, Eden Carson, Fran Jonas
Three more warm-ups today; the World Cup proper starts on Friday 10th.
