Arundel Castle, 28 August, 2023
Scores:
England: 118-9 (RR 5.94) Sri Lanka 121-5
Sri Lanka won by 5 wickets
It’s hard to judge how useful this game was to either nation. Of course the Sri Lankans needed all the practice they could get in unfamiliar English conditions, but it’s hard to argue that this was the very best junior side England could have offered.
The policy was to give promising young players more exposure to high-level competition. Of the side chosen, seven had played in the Under 19 World Cup in January. Three of the others, Hannah Hardwick, Charlotte Lambert and Jemima Spence, were members of the non-travelling reserves. That left Eva Gray, all of 23-years-old, to provide a hint of experience. But the captaincy was once more in the hands of Grace Scrivens, still in her teens.
To be frank, the selectors could have put out another Eleven of equal ability and roughly the same average age. Let’s assume the selectors started their trawl with the U19s. Why not all who were in Potchefstroom? Why those three reserves and none of the others? Why the one slightly older figure of Gray rather than any number of promising players in the same age-range? Here’s not to wonder why.
But Sri Lankan batting proved too strong, even though it once more depended heavily on the captain for getting them off to a positive start.
The Game
To prove how predictable short-form games can be, Athapaththu won the toss and chose to field.
England’s orders were clearly to put bat to ball at every opportunity. But that meant only one of them stayed long enough to mount a decent score: Liberty Heap carried on from her promising but limited showing in the Hundred (30) to get her side off to a decent start. After her only Niamh Holland (14) and Eva Gray (16) reached double figures. A total of 118-9 can be seen as perfectly respectable against a full-member nation of the ICC, but individuals will be wondering whether they did themselves proper justice in the space of 120 balls.
The Sri Lankan management will have their own ideas about the gap in skill between the youth of today’s opposition and any likely choice Jon Lewis may make from his squads of 15.
The English innings on brief
Spence was caught playing a reverse sweep to short third. Heap played a series of confident shots.
Holland was run out going for an optimistic second.
The 50 came up in the eighth over.
A straight lofted drive by Heap almost accounted for the bowler’s umpire, Rose Dovey. She took cover on the floor. Heap finally fell to a swipe that finished in the hands of short third.
Batters three, four and five (Holland, Scrivens and Perrin, all fell to run-outs. From there the innings couldn’t recover. (72-5)
Scrivens still hasn’t learned to adjust her grip to avoid turning blind for a second run. In that respect she resembles another Kent batter, Graham Cowdrey, who kept his bat firmly in his right hand at all times.
Scrivens fell victim to that bitter enemy of the quick single, the direct hit to the stumps. Her drive to mid-off was too straight for her own good.
Charis Pavely swung at an off-break, only to be well caught behind off an edge. Ryana Macdonald-Gay played across another off-spinner, only to be adjudged lbw. The 100 came up in the 17th over.
Alexa Stonehouse, all bristling intent, fell to another nice catch behind.
The Sri Lankan reply
The central question was: how quickly could England get rid of the left-handed Athapaththu. The answer was not soon enough!
In the reply Gray initially proved why the selectors had included her; she started with a maiden (Memo: we’re back to 6-ball overs! Can they survive?) After that she proved expensive, as Athapaththu showed her great qualities, taking three 4s in one over off her.
It needed a catch by Ryana Macdonald-Gay off Grace Scrivens to get rid off the Sri Lankan captain. She mistimed a slog-sweep. (44)
Lizzie Scott was one of the few on the World Cup tour who couldn’t make a major mark on events. Here she bowled around the wicket to the left-handed opener and paid the price for deliveries pitched short and wide of the off-stump – three fours. She wasn’t recalled to action. But then, nor was Stonehouse (1-0-5-0), a more familiar name after the recent Hundred.
Sri Lanka put the hundred up in 15 overs.
Charis Pavely had the pleasure of taking the fourth wicket, getting a disbelieving Gunaratne lbw as she attempted a reverse sweep.
SL’s 100-4 became 116-5 before they completed a 5-wicket win in the eighteenth over.
In the true spirit of a warm-up match, it continued beyond the winning run, to complete the 20 overs and allow everyone more time to get up to speed. (139-7)
Teams:
England
Liberty Heap, Jemima Spence†, Niamh Holland, Grace Scrivens*, Davina Perrin, Charis Pavely, Ryana Macdonald-Gay, Eva Gray, Alexa Stonehouse, Hannah Hardwick, Charlotte Lambert
Sri Lanka
RMVD Gunaratne, NND de Silva, WK Dilhari, MAA Sanjeewani†, OU Ranasinghe, I Ranaweera, HIH Karunaratne, BMSM Kumari, SIP Fernando, GWHM Perera, I Dulani, K Kavindi, KDU Prabodhani, WGAKK Kulasuriya, AMC Jayangani*, HM Madavi
Note: the captain, Jayangani aka Athapaththu and Atapattu.
