England ground out a win in the foreshortened 3rd ODI at Bristol, despite an improved performance from New Zealand, who put 211 on the board in 42 overs, after having been bowled out for 150-odd in both the previous games in this series.
I choose my words carefully – it was an “improved” performance from the White Ferns, but not a “good” one. Accounting for the lost overs, a typical 1st innings score in an ODI between the ICC Championship sides in this “cycle” would be around 210, so 211 was average, both in the literal and figurative senses.
The mainstay of New Zealand’s innings was 57 from Melie Kerr. It was a solid knock yet again from Kerr, who is averaging nearly 50 with the bat in ODIs in the past couple of years; but I do feel that having her bat at 3 is a sign of the weakness of rather than strength in the New Zealand lineup – a Strike Rate today of just 70 meant that New Zealand were always going to struggle to get close to the kind of run-a-ball total that wins the big matches these days. It might seem harsh, but contrast it with the 3 big innings in England’s innings today, with Strike Rates of 90 (Nat Sciver-Brunt), 100 (Amy Jones) and 117 (Alice Capsey) – at the end of the day, those are the rates you need to be scoring at to win series and trophies in the professional era.
New Zealand’s key antagonist today was a rejuvenated Lauren Bell. Warming up on the outfield before the game, Bell looked fired-up; and as soon as she got the ball in her hand out in the middle, she looked like a different player to the one who has struggled of late. Instead of searching for new deliveries, she fell back to her old faithfuls – the in-swingers and in-duckers, and… what do you know… the results speak for themselves!
Bell’s opening spell was aggressive and conceded just 11 runs in 4 overs, without reward; but you knew a wicket was coming, and it came with a “Classic Bell” delivery in the 22nd over – an unplayable ball, which Sophie Devine in full flow could only parry onto her stumps. Another jewel of a ball did for Melie Kerr, who was beaten for pace; then at the death, Bell’s slower balls came out to flumox Izzy Gaze and Lauren Down, who holed-out in virtually identical fashion to Nat Sciver-Brunt at mid off. The bottom line: a first 5fer in professional cricket, at a decent Economy Rate of 4.11.
The only caveat on England’s bowling was that Charlie Dean and Sarah Glenn were clearly less effective without Ecclestone bowling at the other end – not that either were terrible; but having Ecclestone building the pressure in tandem really makes a difference, particularly to the wickets column today – Dean and Glenn bowling 13 overs, 79 runs for 0 wickets, between them.
England’s chase got off to an odd start. Tammy Beaumont basically walked after being given out LBW to a ball that looked in real-time to be sneaking down leg, and proved on replay to be not so much “sneaking” as “galavanting” past the leg stump. She should have reviewed. She should at least have considered reviewing. Then Heather Knight joined her back in the pavilion, having lumbered her way to 9 off 21 balls. I don’t want to labour the point on the captaincy, but I will just say this – if Grace Scrivens had come in for this game, and scored 9 off 21 balls, everyone would be pointing loudly at it as evidence that she wasn’t ready or up to it. Just sayin’!
Sophia Dunkley then played the exactly the kind of innings that got her dropped in the first place this summer, before Amy Jones, clearly still wearing her new reliable pants, put things back on track in partnership with The Marvellous Mrs Sciver-Brunt™ who just keeps finding ways of finding ways – England wouldn’t be half the team they are without her. The only question today was whether she could get to a record 10th ODI century before running out of time – it looked on at one point, but the clock was ticking and Alice Capsey did absolutely the right thing in not trying to do what Sciver-Brunt had done for Maia Bouchier in Worcester.
Sciver-Brunt herself is not really one to get fussed about centuries or records – she is the ultimate team player – but nonetheless, they are coming to her, and it can only be a matter of “when” not “if” she finally pulls clear of Charlotte Edwards and Tammy Beaumont, and closes in on Suzie Bates’s 13 ODI tons, and perhaps even Meg Lanning’s 15.
Ben Stokes reckons he was quoted slightly out of context by Fox Cricket on Twitter today.
But who needs context? We can say one thing tonight:
“Nat Sciver-Brunt will live forever in the memory of people who were lucky enough to witness her play cricket.”
