We can sense the strengths and weaknesses of the current women’s game in England by comparing two consecutive days of cricket.
On Wednesday 8 May four Rachael Heyhoe-Flint trophy matches saw all sorts of admirable records set. A mountain of runs were scored (2,164); four players made centuries (Eve Jones 136*, Sophia Dunkley 130, Emma Lamb 107, Nadine de Klerk 106*); 223,000 people watched livestream coverage; and despite the abundance of runs there were dramatically close finishes: 3 runs at Beckenham, 3 wickets at Old Trafford, 3 wickets at Radlett and 4 wickets at Trent Bridge.
This run-harvest can have various causes: the quality of the batting; the ineffectiveness of the bowlers; missed chances, the hard work of ground staffs to provide fine pitches; even a glimpse of true summer. Across the four matches only one bowler, Kirstie Gordon, managed to take four wickets (4-40 for The Blaze).
As a whole, this RHFT round showed English cricket close to its very best.
Thursday 9 May
The very next day players picked for the England Development XI had to find their way to Grace Road, Leicester, to take on a Pakistani team, and adjust their style from 50-over to T20. No wonder the PCA is up in arms about the pressures of the calendar applied to its members.
Sophia Dunkley arrived off the back of a glut of runs (most recently that hundred for SE Stars yesterday), desperate to regain favour with the England selectors. She lasted two balls.
England were grateful to Danni Wyatt for her 57 off 34 balls, the only substantial contribution to a total of 140-9. How well does the description ‘Development’ fit that mercurial player?
Authorities do have strange ways of titling their reserve sides.
This Leicester game was termed a friendly (Pakistan listed 17 players, England 14), but performances mattered intensely to individuals. Here’s what happened to England’s middle order:
Hollie Armitage 66 yesterday, 6 today
Bess Heath 63 yesterday, 9 today
Georgia Adams 42 yesterday, 3 today
Together they managed to hit one four.
Then the bowling:
Two of England’s most promising quicks, Lauren Filer and Grace Potts, opened the attack. Both took a wicket in their first over, but together they went for 13 runs. By the end of the innings they had done well: Filer 4-0-24-2, and especially Potts 4-1-13-4. Just what the doctor ordered for a healthy T20 patient?
The third quickie, Issy Wong, still couldn’t do herself full justice. She did capture the wicket of the captain, Nida Dar, but went for 34 from her four overs.
Bryony Smith, who is normally too modest to use herself as an off-spinner for SE Stars, came on before Mady Villiers and promptly took the fifth wicket. She finished with the very tidy analysis 4-0-12-2.
How much information can the selectors glean from two days of such disparate results and conditions? To take a wild example: does Smith become the second or third off-spinner behind Charlie Dean on the selectors’ preference list?
All the emphasis is on the T20 format; there’s a World Cup in Bangladesh, starting 3 October. But in England currently players are restricted to the ODI format. I’ll let you explain that one.
Scores from Leicester:
England 140-9
Pakistan 103-9
England won by 37 runs
The next fixture shown on the ECB website is a full T20 international between the same two nations at Edgbaston on 11 May.
