England v Sri Lanka – Third and Last ODI
Grace Road, Leicester
NSB’s holiday tip: take a few day’s off and return to find you’ve been appointed the company CEO and awarded a £100k bonus.
In cricketing terms it meant, take over the England captaincy (Heather Knight under the weather) and score one of the memorable hundreds, the fastest ever by an Englishwoman in this format.
Jon Lewis indulged in several changes. At last Bess Heath was allowed to receive her first cap. She shared the celebration with NSB who was reaching her 100th ODI cap. This was her first appearance since her two tons in the Ashes.
The weather insisted on playing its part, so while some of us sheltered from the 22 degree heat elsewhere in the kingdom, the game couldn’t start till 3.40. 31 overs each was the maximum.
England’s irregular Progress
Once more the top-order batting looked shaky. Before Tammy Beaumont was caught at slip in the second over, she was dropped by Harshitha Samarawickrama at mid-wicket, and she and Maia Bouchier had tricky moments agreeing on runs.
By the fifth over Alice Capsey was gone too, beaten by Udeshika Prabodhani’s inswing. She still hasn’t recaptured her best form (18-2).
From there the game took a violent turn. The new captain and Bouchier took the Sri Lankan attack to pieces. In short, they added a mammoth 193 in exactly 20 overs.
Both made batting look ridiculously easy, which some of us well know is not the case. We are now used to seeing slaughter of this kind from NSB, but Bouchier took her chance to show why the selectors were so keen to have her open the innings. Her response to Beaumont’s dismissal was to heave a six in the same over.
Inside two other overs they added 29 runs, hitting the ball where fielders weren’t, or over the top where they couldn’t reach. Hansima Karunaratne unwisely bowled a no-ball; Bouchier’s response was to plop the ball into a bar, and Grace Road has one of the biggest playing-areas in world cricket.
England had proved vulnerable to spin in the T20s. Here it was treated with contempt. The 100 came up in the thirteenth over. And on they went.
They were neck and neck through the nineties. Questions flew around the ground: Would they both make a century? Who would get there first? Could either or both beat Charlotte Edwards’ record of a 70-ball ton?
In the event, it proved only half a climax. NSB sailed past three figures, easily beating CE’s mark, but Bouchier, facing her first chance of outdoing those two great names, fell in the 25th over. She played across the line to Dilhari and was pinned lbw (95/65, 12×4, 2×6), an astonishing innings.
With seven overs left, the remaining batters had no option but to wield the willow. Heath made the most of her short stay: she hit 21 off 14 balls (2×4, 1×6), again confirming the selectors’ judgement (except that she might/should have been included earlier).
So the scorecard had a strangely uneven look: two massive innings, Heath’s encouraging knock and a string of single-figure scores.
The Reply
Kate Cross was given the day off, which allowed England to team up two very different but promising opening bowlers. Lauren Filer is that rare specimen, a fast bowler with a capital F; Mahika Gaur, coming from the other side of the wicket and from a great height, worries batters with swing and lift.
The pair took four wickets between them Filer finishing with 3-30. Both went for five boundaries in their 6-over spells, but that’s perfectly reasonable at this stage of their careers. Filer in particular is bound to be working in the nets on the variations all quick bowlers need in the short-format game.
The Sri Lankan batters had few answers to the problems faced, Hasini Perera top-scoring with 32.
The first change saw Charlie Dean in action. She achieved the big moment, catching Athapaththu in front for only 12. It’s a sign of her team’s frailties that the captain asks for a review every time she has the chance. That’s not selfishness, it’s her knowing the importance of her wicket.
From there Dean went on to complete a splendid 5-fer, her first at his level. Who needs Ecclestone? (Well, England may well do in the near future!). Dean’s figures: 6-0-31-5, and some of those five came close to perfection. Sarah Glenn got in on the act to capture the ninth wicket – yet another lbw for her – and Filer was recalled to blow the last candle out.
The Sri Lankan management will seek to exploit all the plusses it can from the series. The only way the batters can recreate the challenges of England’s quicks is to invite men and boys into the nets to offer similar pace. Their weakness against spin is harder to explain. When spin dominates vast tracts of the sub-continent, why have they found it so insoluble in England?
The hunt must be on for more talented players of every sort to strengthen the elite squad. There must be one or two youngsters around who can bowl faster than Perera.
Scores:
England 273-8 (RR 8.80)
Sri Lanka 112 (24.5 overs)
England win by 161 runs
Teams
England: Tammy Beaumont, Maia Bouchier, Alice Capsey, Nat Sciver-Brunt (captain), Amy Jones (w-k), Alice Davidson-Richards, Bess Heath*, Charlie Dean, Sarah Glenn, Lauren Filer, Mahika Gaur
*debut
Sri Lanka: Chamari Athapaththu (captain), Imesha Dulani, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Hasini Perera, Hansima Karunaratne, Kavisha Dilhari, Anushka Sanjeewani (w-k), Oshadi Ranasinghe, Udeshika Prabodhani, Achini Kulasuriya, Inoka Ranaweera
Umpires: Anna Harris, James Middlebrook
Afterthoughts
Several changes in England’s team – at last! Would it have harmed anyone if Heath had been offered the gloves? Ah well, Amy Jones did claim her nine wickets in far less than the planned 150-over series. She took two beauties off Dean today.
Does a player gain a hidden advantage with a nickname? ‘The Mighty Boosh’.
It wasn’t a big crowd. The weather was unfavourable, but still begs the question of whether England can attract consistent support beyond the Ashes. My view: the more the Ashes are humongified (PR-speak in action) by the ECB and the media, the less will be the following for other series.
In the first over of the Sri Lankan innings Katherine Sciver-Brunt wasn’t impressed by Filer’s target-area; she’s not bringing the stumps into play, was the message. The batters may have been glad she didn’t.
So ends a memorable International summer in England.
