The test match in the women’s Ashes has come and gone, providing more sweaty-palmed drama than the men managed in their hopelessly one-sided five-test series. The women aren’t ‘schooled’ in the long form of the game, so when the match came down to a nervy run-chase, nobody seemed to know what to do: send the fielders out to the boundary to save runs, or crowd the batters to take wickets. The lower-order batters could have reached the total easily - 45 runs off 60 balls - by running ones and twos, but they panicked and got themselves out with daft shots. Intriguingly, everyone seemed to be ‘learning on the job’.
As we came to the very last over, all four results - win, lose, draw, tie - were still possible. In the end it was a draw, with England’s last pair blocking out the last six balls. People talk about a “tame” draw… but the match was anything but tame. It was a great advert for women’s cricket (and for women playing test cricket, not just the one-day jamborees). The draw keeps England (just) alive in the quest for the Ashes, needing to win all three one-day games to claim the trophy.
Licenced today: Yew Tree Farm near Coniston, onced owned by Beatrix Potter…
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