One of the most dramatic finishes possible on a day of perfect May weather.
It proved an important staging-post for players picked to face the West Indians. Amy Jones produced some magnificent cover drives till she was eventually caught behind by Kira Chathli off a perfect leg-break from Dani Gregory.
Good scoring by Dani Wyatt-Hodge and Kathryn Bryce helped their total to an impressive 346-9.
In the chase Surrey reached 190-5 in the 30th, but were lagging nearly two runs per over behind the asking rate. For Alice Capsey this was as good a day as any to remind the England selectors how wrong they were to leave her out of their ODI squad. The news sprang during the game.
At 213-6 in the 34th they looked as good as buried. But this was Beckenham, a graveyard for bowlers, not batters. Alexa Stonehouse and Ryana Macdonald-Gay had extracted noticeable movement early on, but after that the pitch was on its best behaviour.
After 36 overs it was 120 needed off 84 balls, and only three wickets left; 10 left and still 97 to be found. At least RMG hit the persevering Cassidy McCarthy for three 4s in her last over.
Capsey went from 91 to 97 in one stroke, as skipper Kirstie Gordon at last lost her accuracy. A sweep took her safely through the 90s in three blows. Next ball a straight six. Was this innings to be a match-saver?
Two desperately hard chances went down off a Grace Ballinger over, but the next ball came an inch closer to the same Georgia Elwiss, and RMG was gone. Stonehouse plonked her first ball over mid-off for four. But with Gregory due in at No 11, it’s fair to say she and Capsey nad to get the job done. Still 51 short.
Once the 300 was up, Capsey lobbed Bryce over the leg-side rope.
Fact or fiction?
The game now moved further into fairyland. Capsey fell for 125 runs off 96 balls, to leave the last pair to make 49 runs off 4.5 overs. Stonehouse put another delivery over the rope, but with three left, Surrey still needed 30, and it was Gregory to face. 20 off 10. Gregory galloped a two to keep her partner on strike and Stonehouse obliged with another six.
9 off the final over. “For those of a nervous disposition, we advise..”
Ballinger to Stonehouse: a lofted straight four. During this 50th over Gordon called three emergency meetings to decide her field. Singles had to be prevented as well as fours and sixes. She debated slicing all her fielders in two but was outvoted. Every captain has known this feeling. One run off the last ball.
Gregory hit it straight back at Ballinger; it bounced awkwardly, enough to allow a scrambled single. A tie.
A word for Grace Ballinger. She had to wait through those lengthy debates over field-placements and still kept her nerve. Surrey’s twelve sixes proved insufficient, but the last pair had done an astonishing job.
Boring game, cricket!
Scores:
The Blaze 346-9 (Elwiss 82, Jones 80, K. Bryce 56)
Surrey 346-9 (Capsey 125, Wyatt-Hodge 43)
Some Background
The match reopened serious questions about the way the ECB has decided to restructure women’s elite cricket for the umpteenth time..
Surrey’s home game was played at Beckenham, which is not in Surrey, but is Kent’s second home ground. Why? Has a county as opulent as Surrey really not got an alternative to the Oval on which to play a match of this importance?
Second: the Surrey XI contained no fewer than five ex-Kent players, Alexa Stonehouse, Alice Davidson-Richards, Kalea Moore, Phoebe Franklin and Ryana Macdonald-Gay. Why? It’s perfectly obvious: Kent has gone on producing oodles of outstanding cricketers while other counties, not least Surrey, have lagged far behind.
It may be pure coincidence that on the same day the two new England selectors, Charlotte Edwards and Lydia Greenway, presented their first national squads. Both played many years for the hop county.
When the ECB worked out its new plans, did it bear in mind all the possible implications?
Did it realise that every ambitious young player would seek to join one of the few counties deemed acceptable by the top brass? That is what happened with a vengeance to that Kent quintet. And Surrey were only too happy to reap the benefits of all the long hours of toil put in by Kent coaching staffs across many years. We may wonder how the Oval saw fit to reward its next-door neighbour.
