The squad, which is due to be announced next Tuesday, has just come through a three day, day/night, pink
ball trial match, in which 21 England players combined with five teenage lads from the Essex performance squad. Sixteen of the eighteen contracted players were on show - Kate Cross and Amy Jones have already headed off to Australia where they are due to play for the Perth-based Western Fury in the WNCL. The other five players invited to play were Sophie Ecclestone (yet to be contracted although she has already played for England), fast bowler Freya Davies, keepers Ellie Threlkeld and Rhianna Southby, and left arm seamer Katie George.
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| Sophie Ecclestone © Don Miles |
The chief tormentor of the Sapphires was Sophie Ecclestone. She continued her county and KSL form in this fixture, and could be the key to England regaining the Ashes. She took 5/34 off 16.1 accurate overs. She spun the occasional ball, but it was her changes of pace and her darting arm-ball which brought her the wickets - four bowled and one lbw. The other wicket takers were Sciver 2/23, Hazell 2/38 and Shrubsole 1/27.
Having bowled the Sapphires out at the end of the second session of play, it meant that the Emeralds started to bat at just after 7pm as dusk fell. They made an unmitigated hash of it, losing their top five batsmen for just 25 runs, which included three of the Essex lads, plus Nat Sciver (8) and Georgia Elwiss (0). Two more of the Essex lads staged a brief recovery, but at 46/7 things were looking ominous for the Emeralds. But Anya Shrubsole (42) and Dani Hazell (19), dug in and saw the Emeralds to 67/7 at the close of the first day.
In the sunshine of Wednesday afternoon, and with the pink ball now already 26 overs old, batting seemed much more fun, and Hazell will have been disappointed to have ended her knock dangling her bat outside the off stump to Katherine Brunt and edging through to the keeper. The pair had added 47 for the eighth wicket. Shrubsole and Tash Farrant (16*) then added another 29 before Shrubsole was bowled by Gunn and the innings ended shortly after with the Emeralds 56 behind. Jenny Gunn took 5/15 from 10.5 overs, Beth Langston 3/24 and Brunt 2/34.
The Sapphires' second dig started badly with Tammy Beaumont nicking off to Shrubsole for a duck, Farrant bowling Winfield for 4, and Heather Knight lbw to Shrubsole for 16, leaving them on 25/3. It was down to Fran Wilson (64) and Danni Wyatt (35) to rebuild the innings and this they did, although Wilson, dropped on 2, looked like a batsman striving for form for the first hour of her two and a half hours at the crease. But she battled on through and the pair took the Sapphires' score to 96 before Elwiss bowled Wyatt and had Brunt lbw in the same over, as the dark set in again. But as the sky went black, Wilson seemed to light up. Suddenly her timing was back as she dispatched Elwiss over the square leg boundary for a slog/swept 6 and crashed Hazell to cow corner for 4. She lost Gunn for 11 bowled by Elwiss, and then fell herself bowled by Nat Sciver. 153/7 was taken on to 189 with the last pair of Hartley and George at the crease. Having blocked out five balls of the last over from Davies, George inexplicably decided to chance a suicidal run to square leg off the last ball of the day and only succeeded in running out her partner. The Emeralds would come back on Day Three needing 246 to win. The wicket takers were Elwiss 3/28, Shrubsole 2/18, Farrant 2/30, Hazell 1/20 and Sciver 1/36.
The first session of Day Three was attritional, some might even have said dull. The new pink ball did nothing for any of the Sapphires' seamers, but the Essex openers were content to block everything. Fortunately number three, Robin Das, injected some pace into proceedings just before the first break, and the Emeralds were nicely placed on 84/1 from the first 35 overs of the day. After the break Das fell, but this brought Sciver (28*) to the crease, and she looked very much at home. She and Joe MacGregor took the score to 128/3, by which time the rain clouds were beginning to gather in the distance. Georgia Elwiss (5*) had just hit her first boundary off her 20th ball faced, when the umpires decided that the light rain had turned into something heavier. It turned out to be the last ball of the match, with the game abandoned shortly after 6.30pm, with the Emeralds finishing on 143/3 and the match drawn. The wicket takers were Brunt 1/26, Gunn 1/13 and Hartley 1/22.
Positives from the game were the batting of Beaumont, Wilson, Sciver, Knight (although it would have been nice to see her go on to a bigger score), and Wyatt. On the bowling front Ecclestone stood out of the spinners, and there were consistent spells from the main seamers. Disappointments were the the lack of runs for Winfield and Taylor (who did not bat in the second innings).
So who will make the squad for the Ashes? in my view there are 10 certainties :-
Heather Knight
Anya Shrubsole
Tammy Beaumont
Katherine Brunt
Sophie Ecclestone
Jenny Gunn
Beth Langston
Nat Sciver
Fran Wilson
Lauren Winfield
If Sarah Taylor is fit you can add her to this list. If not then you can add Amy Jones.
I think the other four places are up for grabs, but I think they will probably go to
Alex Hartley
Dani Hazell
Laura Marsh
Danni Wyatt
We should find out for sure on Tuesday morning.
MD
22/IX/17
Do you actually have a scorecard for this? I only heard about it when it was mentioned in a TMS discussion and couldn't find anything about it anywhere.
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