Steve Smith was born in England?
No. Steven Peter Devereaux Smith was born in Kogarah.
And the Poms weren’t being particularly hospitable, with Archer lidding him in the 2nd Test and causing Smith to miss the 3rd under concussion protocols.
But they couldn’t get him out either.
The Women’s World Cup has mainly been happening while I sleep, so I’m not getting much more than updates but with 1 round-robin still to play for most teams:
Australia inevitably in the semis with six wins from six; the big question seems to be who will lose to them in the final, but let’s not get too carried away/defeatist.
SA also through after an abandoned match vs WI leaves them in firm second place in the table
England scored a big win against Pakistan, meaning that after a poor start they are very likely to make the semis
India need a point from their last game vs SA if they’re going to qualify - an arguably below par position for last WWC’s finalists
WI, Bangladesh and NZ are all in the “mathematically we can still qualify bracket”, but need a lot of things to implausibly go their way.
I saw the India/England final at Lords last WWC - best match for atmosphere I’ve ever been at, and a thrilling (and mildly implausible) last gasp victory to boot.
Well that’s quite different than the Khawaja situation in Pakistan. He was welcomed as a wandering son at least by some people. Then he proceeds to flog the skin of our backs.
I see that Steve Smith actually has an English mother, has dual citizenship and attended and played for one of England’s posher schools, Sevenoaks.
It’s very depressing how little attention the WWC has been getting. Any discussion that I try to start in the WhatsApp groups I am in gets shut down by a tirade of ridicule. I guess women’s sports that actually involves Pakistani women is not a fit topic of discussion for Pakistani’s yet.
These people have no problem discussing women’s tennis for example. Though some of the discussion tends to focus on the bonkability of the players rather than their on-court performance.
What’s the record for lowest 1st innings score after scoring over 500 in the previous match?
Yeah, being taken seriously is still a big challenge for the women’s game (and generally in male dominated sports remember Sepp Blatter’s comment about women getting a bigger audience if they wore shorter shorts?). England have made pretty good strides lately, and whatever I might think of the format if the Hundred, the decision to put women’s and men’s games back to back on free to air TV did a lot for awareness and appreciation. Still not hearing much about this world cup though. If I hadn’t set up updates to my phone I wouldn’t know it was on.
We might be about to find out.
Two matches on flat tracks and we begin to think we’ve solved some problems. 2.5 hours on a slow pitch where it moves a bit and we realise we haven’t at all.
No disrespect to West Indies, who have bowled excellently and made the most of the conditions, but we should be able to cope better.
Is it just my imagination or are the tests these days scheduled in very tight windows?
Three Eng vs WI tests in 21 days. Three Pak vs Aus tests in 22 days.
I think the current bout of tight scheduling is about getting more games in to allow the next World Test Championship to actually mean something after a couple of years of very little play.
England dragged over 200 by the lower order again - the first time 10 and Jack have top scored since 1885! Gutted for Mahmood getting out in the final over on 49, his highest first class score, but Leach again showing he can bat a bit.
Anderson and Broad would love a new ball on this pitch, just saying.
Pakistan surrender meekly in the end. We have a very long tail with Sajid Khan at #7 barely qualifying as a “bowler who can bat a bit” rather than “bowling all rounder” as he is billed on CricInfo.
Two disastrously wrong umpiring decisions didn’t help.
Fair play to the Aussies. Deserved winners
I almost wish they had done a Kiwi style runner though.
For the last two years it’s been conventional wisdom that teams have forgotten about playing in Pakistani conditions. This series proved that this includes Pakistan.
What the f*** was wrong with our selection the whole series.
Play pacers. Back them. These are the guys who won you matches since the era of Fazal Mehmood in the 1950’s. Then Sarfraz Nawaz, Imran, Wasim, Waqar, Shoaib and Umer Gul. When have spinners ever won you major series except in the last decade of playing in the UAE.
Which ones?
Azhar Ali and Rizwan.
Can you elaborate or link to some reports? CricInfo and BBC reports have nothing about controversial decisions.
Excellent by West Indies today. Can England wriggle out of this?
Basically, no. Poor by England. I find it hard to see how Root can stay captain after this display, but I thought he’d lose it after the Ashes so what do I know?
WWC finals have been settled (AUS, SA, ENG, WI) with the last pool game (IND v SA)
A win to IND would put them into finals at the expense of WI who had a worse NNR but an extra point based on a no-result.
IND posted 7/275 giving SA the 2nd highest chase in womens ODI history.
SA got behind the asking rate and with 10 overs to go IND looked better placed.
A cameo by Tryon (17 off 9) swung the odds and SA needed 8 off the last over.
With 2 balls to go SA still need 3 but have Du Preez on strike on 51.
Indian bowler is Deepti Sharma, an off-spinner who has already run in for 3 dead balls this over trying to lift the pressure on the batters.
She bowls a well-flighted delivery on leg-stump which Du Preez has a minor brain fade and lofts it to long-on where a good catch is taken.
Then the 3rd umpire gets involved. Sharma as (only just) overstepped. No ball. Extra delivery. Free Hit. SA win off last ball.
The key question is, despite it being a very tight call, why is an off-spinner putting their foot anywhere near the line at that juncture of the game?
The only answer is no answer: nerves. Thinking too much about doing that little bit extra to win, and losing sight of the basics in the process. It’s a mental game, as they say.
It was poor by England, but also, what were we expecting? Winning Test series away is tough. We’re not very good, and have acknowledged that there are some deep seated problems we need to fix in our national game before we can get consistently better. We haven’t been producing Test quality batters for years now, we weren’t going to magic some into existence in the three months between Hobart and now. There’s an obvious question about bowler selection but again, if we didn’t have plausible replacements in the wings for Broad and Anderson 3 months ago, why would we have them now?
Jonathon Liew also makes a good point in the Guardian today - there was another team involved, and they’re allowed to take some credit for the win too!
So Kyle Mayers doesn’t take seven wickets in Grenada. Instead, England throw their wickets away , in the same way that Joshua Da Silva doesn’t hit a match-winning century but simply watches his total increase as a result of England’s bowlers losing the plot . And despite what Jayden Seales, Jason Holder or Alzarri Joseph might tell you, no bowler in the history of cricket has ever dismissed Zak Crawley. Crawley, like James Vince and Jos Buttler before him, only ever gets himself out .
In that spirit, Da Silva’s century was a genuine great. He came in at 6-95, batted for just shy of 6 hours, faced 257 balls and was 100 not out at 297ao, having dragged his team from collapse to triumph (with some very solid support from the tail). That innings breaks down:
13 runs from the first 86 balls
53 from the next 86
34 from 85.
The slowdown in the last 85 reflects some real savviness as he manages to protect the tail while still keeping the scoreboard moving. And it was only the third time he’d got past 50. You love to see it.