A great English victory beckons

Something I thought I would never see, well not in this decade anyway, appears to be unfolding at New Road, Worcester, today.

It’s lunch on Day Three of the Second Women’s Test between England and Australia. The visitors made 131 in their first innings. England, after being 227 for 9 at the close of the second day, advanced to 289 all out. Australia faced sixteen overs before lunch. They are currently 13 for 3. Continue reading “A great English victory beckons”

Worcester Test Day One

Nothing will stop me from cursing the England and Wales Cricket Board for their counterproductive policy of scheduling women’s tours simultaneously with the men. There’s an important, indeed, sudden-death women’s Test match going on at New Road, Worcester which is being totally eclipsed for media attention by the most riveting men’s Ashes series in almost a quarter of a century. Continue reading “Worcester Test Day One”

Old enough to bowl, too young to talk

Cathryn Fitzpatrick had already held her 21st birthday party when Holly Colvin was born. Not turning sixteen till September 7, Colvin became the youngest Test cricketer for the English women on Tuesday. She paid dividends for England by taking three wickets on the opening day of the Hove Test against Australia – Kate Blackwell, Julia Price and Fitzpatrick – but at day’s end was not allowed to talk to the media. Continue reading “Old enough to bowl, too young to talk”

Leicestershire v Australia

Leicestershire are batting first against Australia, and finally it’s starting to feel like an Ashes tour. It seems utterly mad that we are this far into the English summer, and not only has the England-Australia series not yet begun, but we’re only getting the first three-day tour match today.

Interesting to see that the Cricket Australia live scorecard is ahead of that of the Press Association outlets – at least at the time of writing (Leicestershire 27/1 on the first morning).

It will also be interesting to see how New South Wales all-rounder Jason Krejza goes for Leicestershire.

The Leicestershire v Australia tradition began in 1893 with a two-day match at Grace Road dominated by Harry Trott, who scored 100 and took eleven wickets.

The first first-class match between the two came in 1896, with Leicestershire narrowing avoiding a big innings defeat after Australian captain George Giffen took 14 wickets for the match.

It’s worth keeping an eye on the Leicestershire CCC website over the next three days. They’re putting a lot of effort into promotion for this game. Saturday is Fancy Dress day. Wow!

Why a tie?

For those who cared enough to follow the NatWest Series, the tournament ended in anticlimax when England and Australia played out a tie. But why was it called a tie? Both sides scored 196, that is true – but Australia was bowled all out while England only lost nine wickets. There’s an easy way to break the deadlock and it’s none other than the bleeding obvious.
Continue reading “Why a tie?”

Eleven a side: The grand final

England and Australia are meeting today in what could well be the last one-day international played between teams of eleven players each. Lawrence Booth is doing the blog you have when you’re not having a blog at The Guardian. Follow the live scorecard at The Cricket Site (who, hopefully, will fix their home page which currently states that Bangladesh are playing in today’s final). Live audio from BBC Five Live Extra.

Progress score: Australia 3, France 0. Ten minutes into the first half. Channel Seven’s coverage of the cricket commences after the rugby.