This semi-final was a game to remember
For those fo us whose lives revolve around the Ashes, the second semi-final of the Under 19 World Cup took on a whole new meaning.
First, let me go down memory lane.
At an age when grasshoppers still looked down at me, I saw a television set for the first time. It just happened to be showing the Oval test of 1948. Australia just happened to bowl England out for 52 in one session. I’m sure I can remember Len Hutton, later a knight of the realm, being the last man out, having nearly carried his bat for 30. Ray Lindwall 6-20, if you please.
Born pessimists claim that not much has changed in the decades since.
Now back to the present, to that second semi-final on 27 January 2023. It didn’t form part of an Ashes series, though you could be forgiven for thinking it did. Twenty-two players did battle, all of them, I’m pretty certain, new to the experience of an Australia-England encounter.
It hardly needed the prize at the end of the rainbow, a place in the first ever Under 19 World Cup final against India; simply coming up against one another was enough to raise blood-pressure.
And what a game it was! Another of those low-scoring jobs that turn out to be the most nerve- wracking, the most memorable.
England had carried all before them to that point. They had scored more runs than all the other fifteen competing nations; their bowling was hardly less effective; their fielding could be razor- sharp.
But these were the gold shirts they were up against. All that was missing was the baggy green cap. For the first time in the tournament English batting looked edgy, fallible. By 45-7 the game looked to be over. Aussie bowling and out-cricket had done the job.
Then the current changed course a little. So often it happens that way, a cascade of early wickets, and the fielding side looks forward to a straightforward victory. How many tail-enders have tales to tell, not of their bowling prowess, but their batting triumphs?
Here it was Alexa Stonehouse and Josie Groves who provided the vital ballast. Neither had played more than a passing role in the batting dramas of the preceding rounds; now everything depended on their success.
They added a gallant 46 runs, but that still left the team with a total in double figures, way below their previous lowest of 156-7.
Time for stirring words from grizzled head coaches and teenage captains. On the Aussie side the tenor of the argument must have been: ‘it’s not a done deal; take nothing for granted.’
On the England side: ‘we can still do it; we’ve really got to pull out all the stops.’
The two early wickets England took were essential in balancing out the chances. Over the remaining sixteen overs an Aussie victory still looked more likely; the target was so near.
Captaincy
It’s curious to inspect the roles of the two captains here. After all, they bore the heat of the day, having to make the right bowling choices at the right time, deciding tactics with the bowler and setting fields accordingly.
Rhys McKenna and Grace Scrivens could hardly have shown more dissimilar records during the tournament. McKenna had hardly bowled an over; her batting had proved largely unprofitable.
Scrivens was jousting with Shweta Sehrawat for the honour of scoring the most runs; in addition she had bowled tidily and taken crucial wickets.
As `England were in the field at the end, all the weight fell on Scrivens’ shoulders. She knew her bowlers well. They could be trusted to bowl with discipline, but inevitably they might offer the odd loose ball and be whacked for four. Keep them on, or whip them off?
Here I think Scrivens showed the maturity of her approach. She made tiny adjustments to the field, avoiding the big flourish.
As the game grew tenser, she went into conclave with her vice-captain, Ryana Macdonald Gay, and her bowler. Fortunately the two leaders had been playing together for many years; they could trust each other’s opinion. Equally, when nerves needed to be at their steadiest, the experiences of bowlers like Hannah Baker in the full glare of public and media exposure stood them in good stead.
The last two overs were the nerve-shredders. Australia needed a handful of runs; a couple of big shots (‘larrups’ Jim Maxwell would call them) would carry them home.
Baker bowled a loose one; it was whacked for four. I must admit, if I’d been in her boots, I might have decided cricket had got the better of me and retired to play shove-ha’penny.
But no, she proceeded to bowl a masterly over, taking a ninth wicket (3-10), enough to win the Player of the Match award.
Four runs to win; one wicket to fall; plenty of balls left, it was only the 18th over.
Scrivens had all her bowlers available bar one: Baker had completed her four. Who should be given the hideous responsibility of taking the ball? One heave, and the game would be lost. So of course the skipper took the burden on her shoulders. And it worked.
Spare a thought for those Aussie tail-enders (Ella Wilson 8*, Milly Illingworth 8 and Maggie Clark 0).
They, rather like that earlier England pairing, can hardly have expected to face such a do-or-die scenario. It was sad for them the way things turned out, but, as the female commentators kept reminding us, a great learning experience.
We can confidently expect to see many of those 22 players repeating their exploits in a real Ashes test match before long.
Lead photo shows Alexa Stonehouse
