A miscellany of nine features in the Charlotte Edwards Cup T20 game at Lord’s
1. Paige Scholfield scored a 50 at the Oval four days ago. In her next match at Lord’s she was at the wicket as Stars rocketed closer to their target of 117. At the start of the fourteenth over the total was 106-4.
Sophie Munro bowled three dot-balls to Chloe Hill, who then took a single. A wide cost three runs. Scholfield hit the next ball to the long-off boundary as two fielders sprawled in vain to stop it. Only three needed to win and one ball left in the over.
Could she possibly find a four with that one remaining ball? Yes! Her next shot was far less elegant – forgivably so – but it reached the rope in the same direction. She had scored two consecutive half-centuries on London’s two most celebrated grounds. That made three in the Cup so far.
2. Sunrisers’ one ongoing handicap is the wide spread of the franchise, comprising nine different counties. That means they are constantly playing at a different venue, this time the home of cricket. So the special features of the ground, especially the slope, come as new to them as to their opponents.
3. The match opened with Grace Scrivens facing first Alexa Stonehouse, then Ryana McDonald-Gray. The commentators were unaware of the coincidence, but all three knew each other very well, having started their careers with Kent, then playing together in the England Under-19 squad in the World Cup in South Africa.
Stonehouse had the pleasure of taking Scrivens’ wicket in the third over. Indeed, she bowled so well that Bryony Smith was happy to offer her a spell of three overs straight off, a rarity these days.
4. How do you spot a winning team in a T20 competition? The quickest answer lies in the fielding. Stars’ isn’t perfect, but their liveliness and accuracy mark them out as a keen, well-drilled side.
Statisticians have better things to do, but they could do worse than check the number of times a keeper gets her pads dirty, having to dive for the ball. Really tricky with Chloe Hill, as hers are black, but she must have to do far less acrobatics than nearly every other keeper in the competition.
5. Alice Davidson-Richards was a last-minute withdrawal; she was hurt during the warm-up. But another feature is the bowling armoury at the skipper’s disposal. ADR’s place was taken by Kalea Moore to provide another option. Smith used eight in all. Of them five took wickets: Stonehouse (2), McDonald-Gray, Emma Jones (2), Danni Gregory and Tilly Corteen-Coleman – speaking of whom…
6. Has Sophie Ecclestone played her last game for England? I ask because any sensible selector would promote TC-C straight into the side. She bowls her left-arm slows with great accuracy, and has already picked up an astonishing 5-fer (5-19 on the last day of May). To add to her bowling skills today, she completed an astonishing run-out.
As Jodi Grewcock angled the ball towards short third, she had to decide whether to attempt an unlikely dive and catch. Common sense prevailed. instead, she took aim for the bowler’s stumps and hit them with Grewcock so far short of the crease that she continued her advance off the field.
7. Cricket is a very unfair game. At present Stars sit top of the table with five wins out of six; that odd game was left incomplete. In second place come Blaze, undefeated with five straight wins. Stars wouldn’t be the first team to be denied a trophy by the weather; it’s all too possible.
8. It’s the bad ball that takes the wicket! This curious fact is well known to all bowlers. The juicy full-toss that deserves to land outside the ground all too often finishes in the hands of a grateful fielder. We’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve seen the bowler bury her face in her hands after receiving such an unearned gift.
Today’s example was Abtaha Maqsood, who was making a welcome return to Sunrisers’ ranks after stirring deeds with the Scotland team. She dropped a delivery in short to Phoebe Franklin. As it spun away, she knew it had to be hit at all costs, but succeeded only in hooping it back to the bowler. If Maqsood was embarrassed, the rest of her team were delighted; wickets were falling all too slowly.
9. In these days of short rations we were offered two rarities: Mady Villiers ran a quick single, but the throw-in was wide of the mark and sped through to the boundary – a five! Then Emma Jones survived a dropped catch as two fielders collided trying to claim the ball.
Scores
Sunrisers 116-8
SE Stars 118-4 (15 overs)
Stars won by 6 wickets
