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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
It’s Peden-Archdale time again!
The women’s Ashes Test series began at Hove on Tuesday. I don’t know why the ECB insists on scheduling women’s tours in parallel with their male compatriots. Australia had to do it in 2001 and England toured Australia as the men’s tour was winding up in early 2003.
New Zealand sport fans to boycott Australia
The future of the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy is in grave doubt following the publication of an opinion poll in New Zealand on Monday. The poll found that 53% of those people questioned support the banning of New Zealand sporting teams from touring countries “that violate human rights”.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Symonds saves Australia
The question has to be asked: If Andrew Symonds stayed off the turps last Friday night, would Australia be undefeated in the NatWest Series today?
Random thoughts during NWS 5
In my BBC interview on Tuesday, Rhod Sharp described me as “following the NatWest Series avidly”. I have no idea how he arrived at that conclusion.