Geoff Lemon's Blog, page 42
February 1, 2022
Ashes Test’s final flurry states clear case to open up cricket’s pinnacle to women | Geoff Lemon
There is no justifiable argument for why women should be confined to a narrow version of the game when men are not
The final two hours of the Canberra Test will be replayed again and again. The dying hours of the fourth day, players on both teams losing their nerve and then finding it again. The way the match swung back and forth, from England can’t win it, to England can’t fail to win it, to the last passage where the upper hand changed by the over, by the delivery. Exhaustion, confusion, moments of supreme skill, experienced players having their poise desert them, inexperienced players forging on with the boldness of the young. In the breathless moment after it was done, no winner, two winners, and a point at which winning didn’t matter at all.
Had Australia taken the 10th wicket with the final margin of 11 remaining, only two women’s Test wins would have been closer. Had England scored the 12 they needed, it would have been the first Test decided by one wicket. There has never been a match drawn in the fourth innings with so few runs between the teams. New Zealand in Auckland in 1957 and England in Hyderabad in 1995 are the only other teams to draw a match nine wickets down. None of those other close finishes reached millions of people on TV and online. For all of those reasons and others besides, the ending at Manuka Oval is special.
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January 30, 2022
Women’s Ashes Test match: Australia and England draw after thrilling finish – as it happened
10th over: Australia 31-2 (Perry 11, Mooney 14) Again Perry flings a drive at Shrubsole and very nearly edges behind again. The batting machine is not purring. Gets another thick outside edge past gully for a couple of runs.
9th over: Australia 29-2 (Perry 9, Mooney 14) A bit streaky and a bit controlled from Perry, driving with the outswing of Brunt to divert the ball along the ground past gully for four runs. Then it should be a dot ball as Perry clips to midwicket but Kate Cross lets it through her hands for three. We noticed she left a half-eaten banana on the boundary at fine leg, so perhaps there was some fruit-related slipperiness involved.
Australia close on Women’s Ashes after England hold on for draw in Test thriller
Australia and England engineered a grandstand finish to the Ashes Test in Canberra, as England nearly ran down the biggest fourth-innings chase in women’s Test history before a collapse left them scrambling to survive at nine wickets down. The gap between the teams in the end was 11 runs, with the last-gasp draw leaving Australia leading the multi-format series on points 6-4.
Those dramatic final hours came after losing most of the third day to rain, encouraging Australian captain Meg Lanning on the fourth and final day to declare at 216 for seven late in the second session. Lanning set England 257 to win from 48 overs, an equation that should have been relatively straightforward for Australia to protect against tired players on a wearing pitch with no fielding restrictions.
Continue reading...January 28, 2022
Quick wickets put Australia on edge before rain intervenes in Women’s Ashes Test
As in the three previous women’s Test matches going back to 2019, rain intervened to derail an emerging contest and to stifle the chances of a result. The second and third sessions of the third day at Manuka Oval were washed away, reprieving Australia from the precarity of two early wickets for 12 runs in the third innings. That was an overall lead of 52, after England captain Heather Knight turned her overnight 127 into an unbeaten masterpiece of 168 to close the first-innings deficit to 40 runs, with her team all out for 297.
Resuming at 235 for eight to start the day, Knight’s innings continued to get help from Sophie Ecclestone, and Ecclestone kept getting help from luck. Her first ball of the day was dropped at second slip from Ellyse Perry, and another nick from Tahlia McGrath 10 overs later followed suit. Australian captain Meg Lanning was the one who couldn’t hold on. Ecclestone didn’t score many herself but stayed in while Knight did, their partnership reaching an even 100 runs before McGrath got the No 10 batter leg before wicket. It was England’s highest ninth-wicket stand, and the third best in all women’s Tests.
Continue reading...Women’s Ashes Test match, day three: Australia v England – as it happened
Rain washed out most of the third day at Canberra, after Heather Knight’s unbeaten 168 and two quick wickets gave England surprise hope
93rd over: England 253-8 (Knight 139, Ecclestone 31) We’ve seen several well timed cut shots this morning, but they’ve all gone behind point and been nicely stopped in the cordon. Sutherland finishes the over by cutting the ball into Ecclestone, banged on the front pad and the Australians send it upstairs. Looks a chance for sliding down to me, and the review says umpire’s call on leg stump.
92nd over: England 253-8 (Knight 139, Ecclestone 31) Ellyse Perry taking it back to the traditions of Test cricket, bowling an eight-ball over. A wide and a no-ball in there, as well as Ecclestone dropping a ball into the big gap on the leg side to scamper through.
January 27, 2022
Knight rides to England’s rescue with day two century in Women’s Ashes Test
When Australia resumed batting at 327 for seven on the second morning of the Canberra Test match, Plan A was to push on towards 400. With Jess Jonassen and Annabel Sutherland batting in positions far below their ability, this was realistic. But as England swung the ball and took wickets under heavy cloud, things changed with a hasty declaration. Plan B was to make the most of those same bowling conditions. With England 38 for two at lunch and 120 for six at tea, only Heather Knight’s outstanding innings of 127 not out stopped it working like a charm.
Australia only added 10 runs in 7.1 overs to the overnight score, declaring at 337 for nine rather than sending 18-year-old fast bowler Darcie Brown out to join debutant leg-spinner Alana King with the bat. Sutherland was bowled for eight by a Katherine Brunt special that swung past a defensive shot to hit the top of off-stump, before Jonassen edged behind on two. That gave Brunt figures of five for 60 and Amy Jones a sixth catch, equalling the record in a women’s Test innings set by England keeper Lisa Nye in 1992.
Continue reading...Women’s Ashes Test match, day two: Australia v England – as it happened
Heather Knight hit a century as England fought back on day two of the standalone Test match at Manuka Oval
101st over: Australia 331-8 (Jonassen 2, King 1) Alana King on Test debut comes to the middle, and immediately gets an immaculate outswinger that she nearly nicks. But she hangs in there, and chops a ball off her pads for her first run. Jonassen then gets her score going with a clip off the hip for two.
Gorgeous delivery from Katherine Brunt! Looks like it’s on the line of middle and off stumps, but swings away just enough to beat the defensive prod and hit the top of off. Bails off from a perfect piece of bowling. Brunt has a chance at a Test five-for.
January 26, 2022
Women’s Ashes Test match, day one: Australia v England – as it happened
That score is the same, whichever country you write it in. First wicket for England! Lovely piece of bowling by Brunt, the ball angling in and then swinging away sharply. Brunt had already beaten a little swish from Healy outside the off stump the previous ball. That doesn’t stop Healy chasing it again. Poor shot but good bowling, and safely taken by the keeper.
2nd over: Australia 1-0 (Haynes 1, Healy 0) Three slips and a gully for the left-handed Haynes as Shubsole commences from the Manuka Pool end. Angling across the lefty, lots of swing away, but taking the ball too wide to encourage Haynes to play. No run.
Honours even after England let early advantage slip at Women’s Ashes Test
For a while on the first morning of the women’s Ashes Test in Canberra, England had the match firmly in their hands. Then those same hands let it slip, dropping catches in the cordon from Meg Lanning and Rachael Haynes before they both went close to making centuries. By stumps, the score was a hefty 327 for seven.
England captain Heather Knight was sure from years of Big Bash experience that the surface at Manuka Oval would be good for batting throughout the full four days. Confident that any assistance for bowlers would come at the start of the match, she chose to field on winning the toss.
Continue reading...January 24, 2022
Australian Open 2022: Tsitsipas beats Fritz in epic, Cornet outlasts Halep– as it happened
The Greek player reached the quarter-finals by holding off the American on a day Daniil Medvedev also went through in straight sets
Meanwhile, both of the men’s fourth-rounders have gone into tie-breaks for the second set. Cressy nearly broke Medvedev to take it 7-5, but the Russian held on.
Maybe the switch has flicked again? Cornet plays a barnstorming game to hold her serve to deuce, and level up the set again at 2-2. Impressive. She’s still nowhere near it when Halep serves though, just can’t get into the points, Halep dictating placement until Cornet makes errors.
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