England v Australia – T20
The Oval
Teams:
England
Heather Knight (captain), Lauren Bell, Alice Capsey, Charlie Dean, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Danielle Gibson, Sarah Glenn, Amy Jones, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Danielle Wyatt
Australia
Beth Mooney, Alyssa Healy (captain), Tahlia McGrath, Ashleigh Gardner, Ellyse Perry, Grace Harris, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham, Jess Jonassen, Megan Schutt, Darcie Brown
This was a ridiculously exciting game.
Australia don’t lose cricket matches, least of all T20s. One more win for them, and England say goodbye once again to the Ashes.
20,328 souls were present to watch on a sunlit evening, another amazing attendance. The visitors decided to field first.
The England openers, Sophia Dunkley and Danni Wyatt, started as they meant to go on. By the end of the Powerplay they had 54 on the board for no loss.
Tahlia McGrath juggled a chance from Dunkley four times, then held it. Danni Wyatt rode her luck, going on to hit a vital 76 off 46.
Nat Sciver-Brunt, celebrating a decade of service to the cause, hit some powerful strokes, but couldn’t stay long enough (23) to ensure a big total.
Now England returned to type. From 100-1 they high-dived to 119-6, as main-line batters, from a young starlet like Alice Capsey to the experienced Amy Jones, all fell. Annabel Sutherland took an outstanding diving catch to dismiss her. The captain, in her 100th T20 international, lasted one ball. Wyatt reached her 50 with another four, and Danni Gibson, on her second appearance helped the total past 140. She was undone by Ellyse Perry, turning her arm for the first time in the 15th over. Gibson essayed a forehand smash, but it reached no further than mid-off.
Now England took hold of the game again, Sophie Ecclestone and Sarah Glenn lifting them from 150-7 in the 17th to 186-9 at the end.
Against normal mortals that total would prove decisive, but…
Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney had 59 on the board inside seven overs before the captain swung across a Glenn delivery and was bowled. Mooney was settling in for a long holiday as usual, but disaster struck when Charlie Dean nearly caught her drive. Tahlia McGrath wasn’t thinking about running, so when Dean threw in on her knees, the decision was run-out. A real bonus! Dean disappeared under about eight bodies leaping on her prostrate form.
Gibson took her first-ever wicket at this level, as Mooney heaved her to Wyatt at deep mid-wicket. (71-3) Slowly, England were chipping away at that endless batting order.
In the tenth over Ecclestone took her 100th T20 wicket, the youngest and quickest to do so. At that half-way mark Australia’s run-rate was only 7.74, a distance below requirements and expectations. Could England possibly pull off a victory at last?
Ellyse Perry stayed right to the end (51*/27, including 2 sixes), but the bowlers managed to keep the required run-rate under control. It rose inexorably towards 13 rpo. In the eighteenth over the ground shifted. Georgia Wareham lofted Dean for 2 sixes and a four to add 19 runs; the asking rate had tumbled.
Knight takes the courageous step of inviting Bell to bowl the 19th over, always seen as the most important of the 20. The plan works: Bell bowls Wareham, defeated by pace off the ball.
Of course Ecclestone bowls the last over. She sorts out Jonassen, Perry hits two defiant sixes, but it’s too few, too late.
England scrape through by three runs. The series, that was close to becoming a dead rubber, remains alive.
Will Lord’s prove so supportive of the English cause as the Oval? We must keep the faith.
Scores:
England 186-9 (Wyatt 76)
Australia 183-8 (Perry 51*)
England win by 3 runs
Tail-piece
It’s so difficult revealing a selection change to the public. To explain the exclusion of Freya Davies, Heather Knight said; ‘Charlie Dean is a world-class player as well’.
That is where the use of language must be so careful. If she were ‘world-class’, then she would be playing in every game England ever played.
The women’s game again proved its attractiveness. The 19,000 crowd at Edgbaston was topped in Kennington to exceed 20k. A good time was had by all (though Alyssa Healy might not agree).
