If you’d told me two weeks ago that England would scrape over the line in the 1st ODI, with their captain bailing them out after an otherwise pretty hapless batting performance, I’d have believed you: Nat Sciver-Brunt has done it so many times it’s become routine!
England inched their way to victory by 1 wicket, with 10 balls remaining; but the captain in question was of course not Nat Sciver-Brunt, but Charlie Dean, who waved farewell to Maia Bouchier with 51 still required, and somehow shepherded England’s three No. 11s up hill and down dale to the win.
In some ways it was a situation tailor-made for Dean. England needed runs, but they had plenty of balls in the bag, so perhaps the key requirement was simply to follow the advice of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Don’t Panic! And whilst there were certainly moments when it could have gone the other way, with Nensi Patel dropping a pretty straightforward catching opportunity at backward point which would have won New Zealand the game, Dean kept her wits about her. She didn’t rush things, or try to win it in a couple of hits; instead almost letting the runs come to her, and trusting her partners just enough to eke out the result.
England were fortunate to be chasing a target of only 211, largely because New Zealand succumbed to the most horrible of collapses in the final phase of their innings, having been well-placed at 183-4 with 8 overs left and 230 very much on the cards. As Charlie Dean mentioned at the toss, there have been a couple of high-scoring county games at The Riverside this season, with Lancashire and Durham both notching up 300+ scores there in the One Day Cup; but with heavy rain having fallen in recent days this was clearly not a 300 pitch. 230 would have won this match.
But the good work done by Melie Kerr and Maddy Green, who put on 105 through the middle overs, was undone with the bottom 5 making just 12 runs between them; and 210 wasn’t… quite… enough.
England will feel happy with the bowling performance, having struggled to finish sides off of late. Bell was excellent – the slower balls at the back end may be predictable, but if they remain on-the-mark, they’ll do the job; Corteen-Coleman doesn’t have Ecclestone’s range quite yet, but she feels like the type who will work hard to attain it; and Lauren Filer handled a difficult situation well enough, having been drafted-in to the XI only at the last minute after Issy Wong pulled up short in the warmups.
Jodi Grewcock was the one under the most pressure with her leg-spin, and while she wasn’t perfect, she probably did enough to make it difficult watching for Sarah Glenn, whose chances of ever playing for England again get slimmer by the day, given Grewcock’s potential to be the batting allrounder England are so desperate to discover. Her innings with the bat was sawn off today by her lack of confidence to review an LBW that would have been overturned; but hopefully there are further opportunities for her in the remaining ODIs to show the grit she has displayed for Essex this season and which England could sorely have done with as they trod firmly on rake after rake.
The Duke of Wellington is said to have admitted his victory at Waterloo was “the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life”; but all anyone remembers now is that he won. Wellington went on to become Prime Minister, and now lies buried in St Paul’s Cathedral; because a win is a win, however you get there.