Please be warned,
this is not a Proper Match Report – if you want one of those, check
out Cricinfo's.
The following, if
this is not too great a claim, owes something to the work of Alan
Gibson.
Off
I went yesterday to Loughborough from Surrey, a fair distance (though
I nearly missed my train thanks to the woman in front of me appearing
to check for a sell-by date on the ticket machine). It was an
intrepid journey, only to be attempted by a diehard women's cricket
fan (I wouldn't have gone if it was in the The North). England Women
were playing Pakistan Women at Loughborough University in the second
of two ODIs, with two T20Is to follow tomorrow.
Loughborough
is the home of the ECB's National Cricket Performance Centre, and a
lovely pitch, as it turns out. The main problem was the complete lack
of signage when I arrived on campus. International women's cricket
matches are rare breeds and some kind of sign proclaiming the
presence of the match, with directions, would have helped me and many
others a great deal. I ended up having to follow my ear, which
fortunately can detect the sound of leather on willow from 100 miles
away; a necessity that culminated in me peering through the large
hedge at the side of the pitch, rather like a bizarre cricket
stalker. It was all rather exciting.
Eventually
I followed the hedge round the corner and found the entrance. By the
time I arrived, Pakistan had won the toss and chosen to bat, and were
already several overs into their innings. I settled on the grass.
Meanwhile Nahida and Javeria Khan, the openers, took Pakistan to 34.
No wickets lost, but it took them 12 overs to get there. At a run
rate of 2.8 an over, I decided it was safe to eat my sandwich. It
wasn't. The ball after I opened my sandwich (the last of that 12th
over), Javeira Khan was bowled by Brindle, for 17. Sorry if you want
more details than that, I didn't really see it, if I'm honest.
(Sandwiches require concentration.)
Edwards
put Natalie Sciver on to bowl the next over. She was playing in only
her second international match, but she looked an absolute natural,
if you ask me. A reasonable pace, and very accurate. In her second
over, she took 2 wickets: Nain Abidi, caught by Brindle at extra
cover for 1, and Nahida Khan, caught by Edwards at mid-off for 17.
She followed this up a few overs later with a wicket-maiden, bowling
Asmavia Iqbal for 1. Pakistan were 45-4 at the end of the 18th
over.
Sciver
finished with figures of 3-28, in 9 overs. It was a lovely
performance and I was pleased to see it. I was also pleased to see
that, of the group of ten-year-olds sat at the top of the mound
watching the match, the ones watching Sciver's bowling most intently
were the girls. “It might be you one day, kiddo!” I wanted to
shout. (Only, along with my earlier hedge-peering incident, that
might have been a bit too far. As well as making me sound at least 20
years older than I actually am.)
Sana
Mir and Bismah Maroof went on to build a bit of a partnership, and
took Pakistan to 95 before Mir was out, bowled by Brindle. I liked
watching Sana Mir bat. England's bowling was tight, and the run rate
was only about 2 an over at this point, but she wasn't having any of
it. She blamed the bat. To be fair, the over after she changed bats
she did hit three fours in a row. But the over after that she was
bowled, so I think the bowling probably had something to do with the
run rate as well.
Pakistan
finished on 155-6. Positives: they batted out the 50 overs, and
Bismah Maroof finished on 57*. Negatives: not a great total. The
required run rate for England was only just over 3 an over.
Another
positive: I managed to find Starbucks and the toilet during the
innings break. I told you I was intrepid.
I
went to sit on the other side of the pitch to watch England's
innings. I'm glad I did, because the commentary on the second half of
the game, provided by the people around me, was absolutely
unmissable. Brindle and Edwards were opening for England, and began
by taking the score to 51-0 in the first ten overs. It was quite
overcast by this point – I was FREEZING – so I turned to look at
the Duckworth-Lewis score on the scoreboard. It was 16. I figured we
were doing okay.
It
was around about this point that Enid Bakewell walked by and said
hello, and I was actually a little bit starstruck. It's kind of the
equivalent of Botham strolling past during a match and cheerily
waving at you. I almost missed Brindle being stumped off the bowling
of Nida Dar in the 15th over. Lottie got her half-century
before being bowled, also by Dar. Then Greenway got out – England
107-3 – and the trouble started.
The
run rate went right down. Okay, we only needed just above 1 an over,
but was there any need to bat like it? The two ladies next to me
clearly didn't think so. “I've played in better matches than this,”
one of them declared, after Heather Knight had scored 2 in about 20
balls. “GET ON WITH ITTT.” I'd wager she's more of a fan of
Pietersen than Boycott.
England
were 135-4 after 33 overs when another of the spectators stood up.
“It's like watching paint dry,” she declared. “I'm going for a
walk”. She never returned.
The
bloke a little bit along from me, holding a camera, also seemed
somewhat on edge, but I later figured out it wasn't because of the
run rate. “I can't bear to watch Lauren bat,” he told somebody.
It turned out to be Lauren Winfield's dad; his daughter was playing
in only her second ever international. In Monday's match, she had
been out for 1, and he was clearly nervous. He calmed down a bit when
she got into double figures (she finished on 15*, and I was impressed
with what I saw).
England
took the batting powerplay at 35 overs. “We might get up to 2 runs
an over now! Horray!” said someone next to me. I think there was an
element of sarcasm there. Anyhow, we did get up to 2 runs an over.
Winfield even hit two fours. And Knight – who finished with 14 from 46 balls – ended up hitting the winning run, in the last ball of
the 38th over. England had won by 6 wickets with 72 balls
remaining and the grumbling about the run rate seemed a little
unnecessary. Maybe.
Sciver
got Player of the Match. Thoroughly deserved. I stayed as the
spectators dispersed, some of them still grumbling, no doubt, because
if you can't grumble about the match afterwards, then what's the
point in going? The Pakistani players were kicking a football around.
Apparently they'd only just been taught this mysterious new sport; I
was impressed. I was even more impressed by their cricket: their
tight fielding in particular, and their general demeanour as a team,
even in defeat.
As
I tried to say in this cricinfo article, what matters isn't that they
lost, but that they played at all. And the Pakistani family who
turned up to watch the culmination of the match – mother, father,
son, daughter, complete with
giant Pakistan flag, all eagerly supporting their team, and none of them minding a 6-wicket defeat, in
the end – seemed to agree with me.
