Out strides Aaron Finch, leading the Australian XI onto the field for the final time in 50-over cricket. Both teams take the oval and stand by the boundary for a minute’s silence in honour of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
It’s 30 degrees, bright and sunny in Cairns with a southerly breeze taking the edge off the sun’s intensity.
Continue reading...WHAT A CATCH. Glenn Maxwell pouches a scintillating diving catch at backward point. Think Ben Stokes off Stuart Broad in the 2015 Ashes at Trent Bridge! Guptill slices a length ball on the drive and it flies off his blade to Maxwell’s left hand side. Maxwell launches himself goalkeeper stylee to pluck the ball out of the air as it went past him at high speed. Ooof, get that on the replay.
5th over: New Zealand 10-1 (Conway 1, Williamson 0)
Continue reading...Alyssa Healy soars to the highest score ever in a World Cup final as Australia beat England by 71 runs to lift the trophy
4th over: Australia 11-0 (Alyssa Healy 5, Rachael Haynes 6)
It’s a bit of a cat and mouse game going on so far - the English bowlers are mostly bowling very good line and length and the Australian batters are just waiting on the opportunities for the slightly looser balls to pounce on. It’s a very good over from Shrubsole, just one from it.
Continue reading...*Local time. So half an hour to the coin toss if the rain stays away. It’ll be 43 overs per side. Promising.
The umpires are wandering around the middle in their fetching pink cagoules. It looks blustery so hopefully the rain blows on through. 4.08pm local time is the cut off to get a game in.
Continue reading...Tournament favourites chase down a World Cup-record 278 for victory, their fifth out of five in this year’s event
4th over: India 15-1 (Yastika Bhatia 2, Shafali Verma 1)
Brown looks to make up for her ordinary first over and she does immediately, with the big wicket of Mandhana, bringing Yastika Bhatia to the crease. Bhatia uses the first ball to get her eye in, before a well run two off the next ball to get off the mark quickly. Brown gives away the first extra of the match with a wide, followed by a dot ball and then another wide. This has shades of Australia’s series against India late last year when they just couldn’t stop bowling wides. Hopefully Brown has got that out of her system now.
Continue reading...Hello and welcome to the Basin Reserve in Wellington (by way of a sofa in South London) for this OBO of Australia v West Indies. This is the 14th match of what is proving to be a thrilling 2022 Women’s World Cup. The big question is, can anyone stop the Aussie juggernaut?
Meg Lanning’s side have swept away all comers in this format for the past few years and are three from three so far in the tournament, sitting satisfyingly atop the table whilst those below grapple it out.
Continue reading...5th over: Australia 14-0 (Alyssa Healy 6, Rachael Haynes 8)
Jess Kerr is finding some beautiful length this over and Haynes is doing her best to dig the ball out, but hasn’t been able to get it past the field early in the over. Kerr maintains her line and length and finishes with a valuable maiden.
Continue reading...22nd over: Australia 47-3 (Smith 22, Boland 8)
Smith defuses the first few before he whips Broad in front of square for four. Crisp. They move a man to that exact point on the boundary. He tries to work the next in to the onside and he misses, it strikes the pad, the appeal is turned down. It looks high, Broad wants the review, he doesn’t get it. Replay shows it’s high. The next looks much closer, same look, Broad celebrappeals, and Root doesn’t review. Also going over the top. Regardless, it’s encouraging for Broad.
Continue reading...A host of changes for England. No Anderson, who was born to bowl on pitches like this. Jonny Bairstow didn’t come up. A Test debut for Sam Billings, currently the keeper for the Sydney Thunder, and England’s 700th Test cap.
An absolute no brainer.
Speaking of the sounds of cricket, here’s The Final World Daily podcast for your ears.
“I am envious of Mr. Ineson’s ability to fall gently to sleep to the sound of cricket commentary (earlier),” emails Damian Clarke. Accustomed as I am at failure in the art of slumbering, I often listen to the sound of rain through my earphones as an aid to rest. This evening I can combine my two favourite aural relaxants, and listen to the patter of precipitation on the roof of the SCG. Lovely.” This would make an excellent sleep meditation story, wouldn’t it? Stephen Fry gently reading old match reports with the sound of rain falling on a corrugated iron roof in the background. Aahhh, I feel calmer already.
Continue reading...England are on their way. Start time delayed by 30 minutes.
You can also listen to Geoff (and Adam Collins and Emma John) dissect play on The Final Word Podcast if you like.
Continue reading...Broad thumps the pad and wheels into one of his celebrappeals, not even looking at the umpire – bad move. It’s not given and it’s umpire’s call on impact, so not out.
OMG. Another tough chance, and this time he can’t hold on, low to his right. A big escape for Steve Smith.
Continue reading...Here comes Patrick Cummins in his green blazer, and the crowd breaks out into applause as he walks to the middle for the first time.
I’ll tell you what, I didn’t see Broad warm up with the others, he was hanging out with Bairstow, who isn’t playing.
40th over: New Zealand 130-4 (Nicholls 16, Watling 2) Just a smear by Watling and a single off Leach’s over.
39th over: New Zealand 128-4 (Nicholls 15, Watling 1) Golden arm Curran strikes again with his variations and unexpected fizz. Enthusiastic as a puppy but tenacious and wise as a, um, police dog? Williamson’s wicket totally against the run of play, and just after he’d reached fifty with a four down to the third man boundary. England now on top.
Continue reading...
11th over: England 68-1 (Roy 29, Root 38) Rabada isn’t bothering Root at all here, the England No3 meeting a full ball with a glorious straight blade, his on-drive crashing into the advertising boards in front of the photographers. Shot of the day so far. He backs it up with a couple to midwicket before giving Roy a go. Gosh, he’s nearly chopped on a full toss! The England opener would normally put one of those on the Moon but instead, the inside edge nearly floors him off his pad.
I kid you not, between overs there is a guy under the Bedser Stand playing an electric guitar shaped as a cricket bat. The ICC love having a frolic with this stuff at their global events. If this fella is a feature throughout the touranment across the country, he’ll be a cult hero in six weeks time. I’ll make damn sure of it.
10th over: England 60-1 (Roy 28, Root 31) Pretorious got the nod as the all-rounder in this South African XI today and he’s on for the final over of the power play. The set England pair take five from it, all in 1s and 2s. Roy tries to load up at one stage but can’t make contact. After losing YJB first ball, they’d be happy with an even 60 from 60 out of the first ten. Now to see if they can keep the tempo up through the middle overs with the field back, something they’ve made a habit of late.
So an early end to another day of Indian dominance at the SCG. The lost overs will make it more difficult for them to force a victory but the delay will allow their attack to rest up in preparation for enforcing the follow on should Australia’s batting woes continue.
Day three actually began promisingly for the home side. Marcus Harris showed plenty of intent during the opening session and he was ably supported by Marnus Labuschagne on a pitch perfect for batting. But both fell in a sloppy afternoon session that yielded four wickets for India and reinforced the issues at the heart of this brittle Australian XI.
“As this game hurtles towards a swift conclusion (barring a Cummins century and inclement weather)” begins Abhijato Sensarma, “I am left to wonder about minuscule things which I frankly have no time for - yet, one can’t help overthinking ideas during such sessions of Test cricket.
Ever since the dawn of professional cricket, the scorecard has been said to say ‘only half the story’. The minutes batted column, the last saving grace of first-class matches, are slowly disappearing too. Can it not be that annotations are used for cricketing scorecards?
Continue reading...