Aussies beat Sri Lanka to make World Cup

Here is the ICC's wrap up of the series.....

Australia has qualified for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017 after a 3-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka in the ICC Women’s Championship. Australia captain Meg Lanning has lauded her side for the way it adjusted to the conditions to become the first side to book a place at next summer’s event to be held in England.

“We were hoping to win all games that we played. I thought Sri Lanka tested us at certain stages but we stuck to our guns pretty well, certainly in the last two games we set pretty high standards. The conditions have been difficult, I guess, from the batting perspective, very different from back home, but the last couple of games we have adjusted very well, we came with our plans and stuck to them,” Lanning said.

Australia had arrived in Sri Lanka needing just one win to qualify for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017. And Lanning’s side achieved it in style when it wrapped up the first match in Dambulla last Tuesday by 78 runs. It then won the two Colombo ODIs by nine wickets and 137 runs.

Australia now sits pretty on 30 points from 18 games, 10 points more than its nearest rival the West Indies, which, like the remaining six sides in the competition, has played three less matches. England is third with 19 points, followed by New Zealand (16), South Africa (15), India (13), Pakistan (eight) and Sri Lanka (five). The top four sides from the ICC Women’s Championship will automatically qualify for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2017 while the bottom four sides will get a final chance of qualification through the ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifier in February 2017.

Lanning said the team was preparing for the different challenges in England next year.
“We are going to every game trying to improve and be better and we want to win every game. We have got a World Cup in July that we need to be ready for and play really good cricket, so it’s important we play every game the way we want to and also try on work on things to get better.
The conditions will be different in England. The key is in being aggressive and to take the game on as much as we can. Wickets are very important in ODI cricket. I think we are in a really good spot but have areas to improve,” Lanning said.

Sri Lanka captain Chamari Atapattu said they had been hoping to do better but hoped to learn from the series.

“We are not satisfied with our performances in this series. We couldn’t complete our tasks individually and were unable to follow our plans. This is a big experience - playing a series against Australia - and we hope to learn from it.

“The Australia players applied themselves very well and came up with good individual performances. As for our team, we had some satisfaction in taking several wickets in the first match but we seemed to lose focus in the remaining matches,” Atapattu said.

Australia’s dominance in the series saw some gains for both its batsmen and bowlers.
Left-hander batter Nicole Bolton, who was the pick of the batters with 212 runs and finished as the only centurion of the IWC series with scores of 64, 35 and 113,  moved up three slots to 18^th position in the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Women’s Player rankings.

Bolton’s opening partner Elyse Villani’s 115 runs in the three matches enabled her to re-enter the rankings at 52^nd position while top-ranked Lanning, fourth-ranked Ellyse Perry and sixth-ranked Alex Blackwell retained their positions with reasonably good showings.

Leg-spinner Kristen Beams, who was the most successful bowler in the series with 10 wickets and conceded just 61 runs in three matches, moved up 16 places to 28^th rank in the rankings for bowlers. Beams had hauls of 4-15 in the first match and 4-26 in the third.

Left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen’s four wickets took her up two places to seventh position while pace bowler Holly Ferling’s seven wickets helped her move up 10 places to 52^nd rank.

For Sri Lanka, opener Prasadani Weerakkody moved up four slots to 26^th position while captain Chamara Atapattu made up for her lack of big contributions with the bat by taking five wickets with her medium-pace bowling that helped her move up 17 ranks to 76^th position.

Upcoming ICC Women’s Championship matches:

8-13 October – South Africa v New Zealand in South Africa

14-19 October – West Indies v England in West Indies

  ICC Women’s Championship 2014-16

Teams	P	W	L	Tie	N/R	Points	NRR
Australia	18	15	3	0	0	30	+0.994
West Indies	15	10	5	0	0	20	+0.497
England	15	9	5	0	1	19	+0.754
New Zealand	15	8	7	0	0	16	+0.232
South Africa	15	7	7	0	1	15	-0.069
India	15	6	8	0	1	13	+0.008
Pakistan	15	4	11	0	0	8	-1.030
Sri Lanka	18	2	15	0	1	5	-1.339

Note – two points for a win, no point for a loss and one point for a no-result

MRF Tyres ICC Women’s Player Rankings (as of 26 September 2016, after the Sri Lanka-Australia ODI series)

Batters (top 10)

Rank     (+/-)       Player                  Team     Pts        Avge      Highest Rating

   1         ( - )        Meg Lanning       Aus        820       49.57     834 v NZ at Bay Oval 2016

   2         ( - )        Suzie Bates          NZ         775!      40.50     775 v Aus at Bay Oval 2016

   3         ( - )        Mithali Raj          Ind         722       49.54     839 v Aus at Baroda Vadodar 2004

   4         ( - )        Ellyse Perry         Aus        693       42.83     725 v NZ at Bay Oval 2016

   5         ( - )        Stafanie Taylor    WI         690       45.63     765 v Ind at St Kitts (WP) 2012

   6         ( - )        Alex Blackwell    Aus        650       35.00     683 v Ind at Canberra 2008

   7         ( - )        Sarah Taylor        Eng        640       39.76     803 v Aus at Chelmsford 2009

   8         ( - )        H. Kaur                Ind         630       35.57     679 v SA at Bangalore 2014

   9         ( - )        Deandra Dottin    WI         583       28.28     650 v NZ at Kingston 2013

  10        ( - )        A. Satterthwaite  NZ         577       29.07     653 v Aus at Sydney 2012

Other selected rankings

Rank     (+/-)       Player                  Team     Pts        Avge     Highest Rating

 18         (+3)       Nicole Bolton      Aus        495*!    44.09    495 v SL at Colombo (RPS) 2016

26         (+4)       P.Weerakkody     SL          408*!    18.53    408 v Aus at Colombo (RPS) 2016

Bowlers (top 10)

Rank     (+/-)       Player                  Team     Pts        Avge     Eco       Highest Rating

   1         ( - )        Jhulan Goswami  Ind         730       21.78    3.18      796 v Eng at Chennai 2007

   2         ( - )        Katherine Brunt   Eng        658       22.59    3.36      796 v Ind at Mumbai 2013

   3         ( - )        A. Mohammed    WI         638       17.99    3.26      704 v Aus at Sydney 2014

   4         (+1)       Stafanie Taylor    WI         606       18.72    3.10      768 v NZ at Kingston 2013

   5         (-1)        Ellyse Perry         Aus        588       24.24    4.28      698 v Ind at Mumbai 2012

   6         ( - )        Shibnam Ismail   SA         567       19.27    3.53      641 v Eng at Johannesburg 2016

   7         (+2)       Jess Jonassen       Aus        546*!    20.80    4.10      546 v SL at Colombo (RPS) 2016

   8         (-1)        Jenny Gunn          Eng        543        27.80    3.78      693 v Ind at Scarborough 2014

   9         (-1)        Anya Shrubsole   Eng        539*!    25.64    4.14      539 v Pak at Taunton 2016

  10        ( - )        Morna Nielsen     NZ         532*     26.88    3.68      546 v Ind at Bangalore 2015

Other selected rankings

Rank     (+/-)       Player                 Team     Pts        Avge      Eco        Highest Rating

28          (+16)     Kristen Beams     Aus        413*!    19.60    3.45      413 v SL at Colombo (RPS) 2016

40          (+10)     I. Ranaweera        SL          341*     27.62    4.35      349 v Aus at Colombo (RPS) 2016

46          (+3)       E. Kaushalya       SL          323*     28.20    4.19      377 v WI at Dambulla 2013

52          (+10)     Holly Ferling       Aus        311*!    20.87    4.36      311 v SL at Colombo (RPS) 2016

All-rounders (top five)

Rank     (+/-)       Player                  Team     Pts        Highest Rating

   1         (+1)       Stafanie Taylor    WI         418       559 v NZ at Kingston 2013

   2         (-1)        Ellyse Perry         Aus        407       446 v NZ at Bay Oval 2016

   3         ( - )        Suzie Bates          NZ         336!      336 v Aus at Bay Oval 2016

   4         ( - )        Jhulan Goswami  Ind         288       308 v Aus at Canberra 2016

   5         ( - )        Sophie Devine     NZ         245!      245 v Aus at Bay Oval 2016

MD
26/IX/16

Intense period of ODIs starts soon

With the Women's World Cup looming on the horizon (June/July 2017 in England) all of the eight teams in the ICC Women's Championship are involved in their last two series of ODI games before the end of 2017, with the aim of making the top four and automatic qualification for the tournament.

The current table looks like this

And here are the series to be played :-

Sri Lanka v Australia starts 18th September
West Indies v England starts 8th October
South Africa v New Zealand starts 8th October
Pakistan v India - dates to be announced

Australia v South Africa starts 18th November
Sri Lanka v England starts 12th November
New Zealand v Pakistan starts 8th November
India v West Indies - dates to be announced

Most of the teams are playing as many ODIs as they can cram in to the series, although only the designated three games will count towards the ICCWC table.

And here are the current WCB ODI Team Rankings to the beginning of September. Australia are still top, but England have closed the gap to second. West Indies are closing in in third, and India have jumped over New Zealand into fourth, but in the next few months there could be many changes as teams battle it out.

ODI Team Rankings as at 1st September 2016



MD
12/9/16

Lamb in line for England call up?

Lancashire's 18 year old Emma Lamb could be in line for a call up to the England squad for the tour to the West Indies at the beginning of October, which is due to be announced next week.

With one eye firmly on the World Cup in England next June and July, England are playing five ODIs in the Windies and no T20s. With the retirement of Charlotte Edwards and Lydia Greenway, England Head Coach Mark Robinson needs to strengthen the squad's batting line-up and Lamb looks to be best placed to make the step up into the squad, if not into the starting 11.

After returning from a successful tour to Sri Lanka with the England Academy in April, Lamb has not had a stellar season with Lancashire in Division Two of the County Championship, scoring just 187 runs at an average of 37.2. But she had a decent KSL series with the Lancashire Thunder, opening the batting in each of their five games and making scores of 25, 26, 34, 27 and 10 and looking at home at the crease, ahead of more exalted company - Matthews, Dottin and Wyatt.

In addition it seems likely that 17 year old Sophie Ecclestone will also be part of the squad - assuming she can get time off school. The left-arm spinner looked comfortable making her debut for England in the summer against Pakistan, and England need her left-arm variation in their attack.

If these two non-contracted players are included in the squad, then current contracted players will have to make way. It could be that Becky Grundy, Jenny Gunn and Danni Wyatt miss the trip as England look to build towards the World Cup and beyond.

Possible squad - Knight (capt), Shrubsole (vice capt), Beaumont, Brunt, Cross, Ecclestone, Elwiss, Farrant, Hazell, Jones, Lamb, Marsh, Sciver, Wilson, Winfield

MD
06/IX/16

Final County Champs Round Up

So another, perhaps the last proper, county season has come to an end (well Sussex have still to play Surrey, but it makes no odds as far as the championship or relegation are concerned).

In Division One neither of the bottom two sides playing could pull off the win that might have saved their Div 1 bacon. Staffs lost by seven wickets to Middlesex; and Somerset lost by 87 runs to Warwickshire. That win took Warwickshire up to second in the table, as Sussex, for the second year in succession, made the 600 mile round trip to Harrogate in north Yorkshire, for the game to be called off without a ball being bowled. At the top Kent, already champions, completed a nervy victory over Berkshire, having been bowled out for 165, they then bowled Berkshire out for 139 to win by 26 runs.

Division One

In Division Two it will be Lancashire and Notts that come straight back into Div 1 for the 2017 season, having both been relegated last year. Notts made it with ease beating Worcestershire by 61 runs, having put 239/9 on the board. Lancs however had more of a struggle. First they had to wait for the rain to clear and the pitch to dry, and then, having bowled Wales out for just 79, in a match reduced to 35 overs, they plunged to 23/6 in reply. But Sophie Ecclestone rose to the occasion with 42* batting at 7, to take Lancs over the line seven down, and keep Hants in Div 2 for a second year. Hants had done what they could by beating relegated Essex by 50 runs, and Essex will be joined in Div 3 by Leicestershire, promoted last year from Div 3, but returning straight back as they lost their last game to Devon by 137 runs. 

Division Two 

Quite what 2017 holds for county cricket is unclear. The ECB have announced that the KSL will be extended to the 50 over format in games to be played before the World Cup in England in June. It is difficult to see many KSL players playing county cricket as well as 50 over KSL, and none of the potential England squad are likely to be available until after the World Cup finishes. The KSL T20 competition will then again be run in August. County cricket looks like it will be squeezed out of the equation. We shall see!

MD
05/IX/16

Do or die in the County Champs this weekend for many

It is the final weekend of County Championship games this Sunday (although Sussex are also due to play Surrey on 17th September). As it happens that game will have little effect on the County Championship table, as Kent have already won the title and Surrey have been relegated to Division Two for next season.

The up-to-date table is below

The games this weekend are :-

Yorkshire v Sussex at Harrogate CC

Kent v Berkshire at KCCC Beckenham 

Staffs v Middlesex at Milford Hall CC

Warks v Somerset at the Edgbaston Foundation Ground

With three teams being relegated into Division Two next year, it is a matter of who will join Surrey in dropping down.

If Middlesex beat Staffs, then Staffs will be the first to join Surrey. But should Staffs beat Middlesex with full bonus points they could move their average to a maximum of 9. Middlesex would then need to get at least 5 bonus points from the same game, to also finish on an average of 9. Basically Staffs must win and get at least 5 bonus points to give themselves a chance. The more bonus points they get, and the fewer they allow Middlesex to get, the better chance they have. First of all they have to win!

As for Somerset, they must beat Warwickshire to try and save themselves. A full bonus point win would also put them on a maximum average of 9 points too. Should two teams finish on the same average points then you go back to the number of points scored between the two sides when playing each other. Somerset lost to Middlesex, but their game v Staffs was abandoned, so you would then revert to net run rate, if they were tied.

As for Div 2 there are two places up for grabs in Div 1 next year, and there are four teams in with a shout of grabbing them. They are the current top four teams - Lancs, Notts, Wales and Hampshire.

Lancs and Wales take on each other at Newport and the winner should be one of the teams promoted. Notts are away at Worcester and Hampshire take on bottom of the league (and relegated) Essex. A win for Notts should see them grab one of the top two places, while Hampshire must look to clock up 18 points and hope other results go their way. 

WCB (@womenscricblog) on twitter will follow all the action, and try and keep everyone in the picture. We should have contacts at most of the important games. Let's hope the weather doesn't intervene!!

MD
02/IX/16

Kent take title as contenders falter

Kent are the 2016 Women's County Championship champions - they're seventh title in the last 11 years.

As Kent beat previously unbeaten Warwickshire (who then lost the next day to Middlesex), Sussex had their game against Staffordshire washed out and then crashed to a dismal defeat against Berkshire. It means that no-one can catch Kent at the top of the league, so their last game of the season against Berkshire next week will be a victory parade.

On Sunday Kent cruised to victory over Warwickshire thanks in the main to Kiwi Suzie Bates. She hit 75 out of Kent's moderate total of 214/9 and then took 4/12 as Warwickshire subsided to 112 all out.

Meanwhile Kent's only other challengers Sussex were being frustrated by the rain, the Staffs' batsmen and their inability to catch at East Grinstead. Staffs had made it to 168/7 with Charlotte Whyle top-scoring with 47 and Freya Davies taking 3/25 for Sussex, before the persistent rain closed in and ended the game. Sussex fared little better the next day as Berkshire racked up 277/6 with former Sussex keeper Carla Rudd (79) scoring her maiden County Championship 50, and Freya Davies (2/29) again the pick of the Sussex bowlers, bizarrely left with two overs unbowled by skipper Georgia Elwiss. Sussex looked well-placed to chase down the mammoth total at 141/1 in the 22nd over, before Izzy Collis (34) was mistakenly given out stumped. Two overs later Georgia Adams, who had batted well for her 75, skied Linsey Smith (3/38) to midwicket and in Smith's next over Dani Wyatt (12) unnecessarily drove her to cover. Sussex had needed just 4.5 an over for the last 25 overs at this stage. But the Sussex innings stalled and the run-rate climbed. The next six overs produced just 11 runs. With 10 overs left Sussex found themselves needing over seven an over with only three wickets in hand. It proved far too much. Abbey Freeborn finished on 43* off 61 balls, and Sussex 34 runs short.

So attention turns to the relegation zone, with three teams due to drop out of Division One this year, to be replaced by two from Division Two - somewhat of an anomaly given the huge difference in standards of the two leagues. With Staffs winless it seemed to be a question of who would join them in Div 2? Berkshire eased their worries with their win over Sussex, particularly bearing in mind that their game to play next week is against Kent.

It ended up being Surrey that were the weekend's biggest losers as they went down to fellow relegation strugglers Somerset on Sunday by 64 runs and then lost to Staffs by seven wickets on Monday. Having been 86/6 Somerset were indebted to Nicole Richards (52) and the lower order as they scrambled their way to 188 all out. Once Somerset had removed Bryony Smith (28) and Nat Sciver (22), it was just a matter of time. Surrey capitulated in 34 overs for 124. The next day Surrey themselves recovered from being 85/8 thanks to 53* from Libby Walters and 43 runs from 10 and 11, Beth Kerins and Laura Sandy. On another day it might have been enough, but Eve Jones (110), out for a golden duck the day before, hit her first Div 1 century to lead Staffs to their first win of 2016. It will almost certainly not save them from returning to Div 2 next year, but it meant that they consigned Surrey to last place in the division, with one round of games to go. Surrey are due to take on Sussex in a re-arranged game on 17th September, by which time it may already be too late for Surrey to save themselves.

Yorkshire made sure that they will be in Div 1 next year with two wins. On Sunday they dispatched Middlesex by eight wickets (scorecard not yet on Play Cricket or Cricket Archive), chasing down 60 it seems off 20 overs in a rain affected match. Middlesex had limped to 94/8 off 33 overs, dashing in and out of the rain and with their overs gradually reduced. On Monday Yorkshire bowled out Somerset for just 60, before nervously losing five wickets chasing down the required runs. Katie Thompson took a career best 6/10 for Yorkshire, with no Somerset bat scoring more than eight. The loss and severe lack of bonus points means that Somerset are precariously poised in the drop zone with their final game against Warwickshire to come next week.

Having lost on the Sunday Middlesex were also in a spot of bother with just two wins to their name, but they beat a deflated Warwickshire on Monday by five wickets, having bowled them out for 97 (Alex Hartley 3/17), with the experienced Beth Morgan (36*) and youngster Sophia Dunkley (30) steadying the nerves after Middlesex had slipped to 34/4. They remain just outside the relegation zone and play the rejuvenated Staffs in their final game of the season next week. They could still go down if they fail to win and other results go against them.

All of which means that we think the current league placings are as below (still await official Middlesex v Yorkshire scorecard)

MD
30/08/16

Is extending the KSL to 50 overs the way forward?

Before the inaugural KSL T20 competition had even finished the ECB had issued a Press Release declaring the competition to have been a great success. Not many would argue with that, although there are a few wrinkles that could do with being ironed out - the main one being making the competition longer. The Press Release also linked to a page on the ECB website where Clare Connor answered some questions about the competition (click here to read). At the end of that piece Connor explains what is going to happen next year...

"Next summer the Kia Super League will expand to include a 50-over league competition with the six teams playing each other once either at home or away, and the teams finishing in second and third playing-off to take on the top team in a final.  The 50-over KSL will be played prior to the ICC Women’s World Cup, followed by the KSL T20 competition, which will be the same format as this year and played in a block alongside the men’s NatWest T20 Blast in August."
(since removed from the piece)

It has always been Connor's ambition to extend the competition to the 50 over format, ostensibly, it seems, so that the England players have some good quality warm-up games before the World Cup, which is being staged here in England between 26th June - 23rd July. A laudable ambition, but will it work?

There are a lot of hurdles that it will need to overcome :-

a) Will the overseas players want to come and play in England in May/June? Will Cricket Australia for example want Ellyse Perry and Meg Lanning in England while the rest of their squad are together in a pre-World Cup training camp? For that matter will any other country want this?

b) Without some, or all, of the overseas players will the standard even be as high as county cricket? Twenty four of the 72 English players in the KSL squads currently play their county cricket (if any) outside of Division One of the County Championship.

c) The games will have to be played in May and early June. This is exam time for any young English players at university or school.

d) It has been mooted that the games might be played on Wednesdays to avoid clashing with the Women's County Championship, but this would mean negligible crowds, and clashes with university and school cricket matches.

There are already plans to reduce the number of teams in Division One of the County Championship in 2017 from nine to eight, why not only promote one team from Division Two and make this seven teams? If funded properly (so that it becomes semi-professional), and if the current six Division Two players could be accommodated in those teams, the standard would be just as high if not higher. Why not make this the focus for 50 over cricket in England?

It was interesting to hear Charlotte Edwards confirm that the KSL overseas players had been impressed by the standard of the county girls that have taken part in the KSL. The standard of county cricket is not as poor as many people would have you believe. In the recent Girls of Summer book by David Tossell, Edwards said of county cricket - "When the girls score runs in county cricket, what value is that?...If they score a hundred, well you should score a hundred. If not, why not?" Edward's scores in county cricket this year have been 79, 1, 30*, 18, 34, and 2. Tammy Beaumont, who is the leading run-scorer, has scores of 72, 49, 20, 20*, 53 and 47. She scored far more runs against Pakistan. Indeed no player has scored a century in Division One this year so far. Surely this says something about the standard of bowling in the County Championship?

The KSL T20 competition works, as it is a concentrated hit of the shortest form of the game, which attracts foreign players, spectators, and, no doubt, ultimately, television coverage and therefore money. This will not be the case for franchised 50 over cricket. This will be a massive drain on the stretched resources of the current KSL franchisees.

The integrity and standard of county cricket needs to be maintained. Counties need to be encouraged to develop their local players through age-group cricket and have the pinnacle of that to play county cricket in Division One of the slimmed down County Championship. Counties who are not in Division One will need to be rewarded for players they produce who go on to play at this semi-professional level (Division One), and then KSL and then for England. If senior county cricket withers and dies, as no KSL players have the inclination/energy to play in county matches, then far from bridging the gap between county cricket and international cricket, that gap will just have become even greater.

I may be wrong? I frequently am. But is extending the KSL to 50 over cricket really the best way forward, in the long term, for English women's cricket?

MD
24/VIII/16