Amy Jones ton keeps Eng B in touch

England's reserve wicket keeper, Amy Jones, threw down her keeper's gauntlet to the rest of the England middle order batting line-up for a place as a batsman in the Ashes starting 11, with a sensational hundred in England B's first innings against Charlotte Edwards' England A.

She dominated the England B innings of 247 all out, sharing a third wicket partnership of 105 with Evelyn Jones (57) and was the eighth wicket to fall having taken Eng B to 240. Within four more overs the Eng B innings was over in the last over of day two. Jones timed the ball exsquisitely from ball one and was ruthless on anything overpitched or short, hitting to both sides of the wicket.

Chief wicket-takers for Eng A were Dani Hazell 3/45 and Georgia Elwiss 3/46, but in reality many of the Eng B batsmen contributed to their own downfall. Evelyn Jones hit a full-toss to mid-off; Lydia Greenway was lbw missing her favourite sweep shot; Nat Sciver was bowled off her gloves; Katherine Brunt chipped an innocuous ball to mid-on; Amy Jones smashed a long hop to deep square and Laura Marsh failed trying to go over the top of mid-off.

Eng A had taken their overnight score from 245/6 to 306 all out mainly thanks to a solid 50 from Sophie Luff (51). She gradually ran out of partners at the other end, and having completed her half century was the last man out about 45 minutes before the lunchbreak.

So Eng A take a lead of 59 into day three and they will hope to build on that steadily, before declaring and trying to bowl Eng B out again. As for Eng B they will hope to bowl Eng A out for 150 or less and then have plenty of time to chase down the runs, but they will be without slow left-armer Ecclestone, who was so miserly in the first innings (she has exams). The weather too may still have a big part to play in this game too, so the next couple of days should be a good test for both sides and their captains.

England A
1st innings
Knight         ct Jones          b Marsh            58
Winfield      lbw                 b Shrubsole     56
Taylor          ct Beaumont b Grundy         45
Edwards      ct Jones          b Grundy         53
Elwiss                                  b Ecclestone      0
Luff                                      b Marsh            51
Hazell          lbw                 b Brunt               9
Macdonald lbw                 b Shrubsole       3
Odedra                                b Davies             7
Cross                                    b Ecclestone      2
Farrant        not out                                       4

TOTAL                                                          306 all out

Brunt              11-4-31-1
Shrubsole      16-1-52-2
Davies            10-3-14-1
Langston       14-4-43-0
Grundy          21-6-49-2
Sciver               8-0-40-0
Marsh              10.2-0-31-2
Ecclestone      22-1-28-2


England B
1st Innings
Beaumont   lbw                 b Farrant     13
Jones E        ct Dibble        b Farrant     57
Wilson         lbw                 b Odedra       4
Jones A        ct Elwiss        b Hazell      118
Greenway   lbw                 b Dibble       22
Sciver                                  b Elwiss          0
Brunt           ct Dibble       b Elwiss         12
Shrubsole   ct Taylor       b Elwiss           2
Marsh          ct Farrant     b Hazell        10
Langston     ct Knight       b Hazell          0
Grundy         not out                                  1

TOTAL                                                     247 all out

Cross         11-2-36-0
Farrant     11-7-19-2
Hazell        11.5-1-45-3
Odedra       3-0-19-1
Hartley      11-3-33-0
Elwiss        13-0-46-3
Knight        10-0-23-0
Dibble          6-0-21-1

MD
31/V/15