17th over: England 131-6 (Gibson 17, Ecclestone 11) Ecclestone gets four more with a fine shot, deliberately slicing Fatima to the left of long-off. After an awful start, England have scored 93 runs in the last 10 overs.
Key events
17th over: England 131-6 (Gibson 17, Ecclestone 11) Ecclestone gets four more with a fine shot, deliberately slicing Fatima to the left of long-off. After an awful start, England have scored 93 runs in the last 10 overs.
16th over: England 123-6 (Gibson 16, Ecclestone 4) Sophie Ecclestone belts her first ball for four, and why not.
Heather Knight falls just short of her fifty. She tried to clout the legspinner Tuba back over her head but had to reach for the ball and dragged it to mid-on. That’s a good wicket for Pakistan and the end of a superb innings: 49 from 44 balls with six fours.
15th over: England 111-5 (Knight 42, Gibson 15) England are flying now. Fatima’s second over disappears for 13, including a strongarm pull for four by Gibson; she’s raced to 15 off only six balls. That No7 position is going to be really important for England at the World Cup.
14th over: England 98-5 (Knight 36, Gibson 9) The wicket of Jones has rather surprisingly led to a flurry of runs: 20 from eight balls, including another sweep for four by Knight in that Dar over. England are on course for a very competitive total.
13th over: England 86-5 (Knight 25, Gibson 8) The new batter Dani Gibson gets off to a perfect start, squirting and cutting her first two deliveries past backward point for four.
Amy Jones falls to a terrific catch from Natalia Pervaiz. She helped a low full toss from Sadia towards deep backward square, where Pervaiz ran round the boundary to make an awkward catch look easy. Pakistan needed that wicket.
12th over: England 77-4 (Knight 24, Jones 37) This is Jones’ 100th T20I, on her home ground, and she’s playing beautifully. She finishes Dar’s over with successive sweeps for four, the first through backward square and the second through midwicket. That takes her to 37 from only 25 balls.
Knight is not out! She missed a reverse sweep at Nida Dar’s first ball, a loopy offbreak, and was hit on the pad. It didn’t quite look right and, though Knight was given out on the field, replays confirmed she was outside the line.
ENGLAND REVIEW! Knight LBW b Dar 23
I think this will be overturned.
11th over: England 66-4 (Knight 23, Jones 27)
10th over: England 63-4 (Knight 21, Jones 26) England are targeting the offspinner Rameen. Jones clips and sweeps her first two balls for four, which brings up the fifty partnership from 39 balls. Aside from maybe one loose shot by Jones, it’s been a lesson in how to recover from an awful start while still scoring at more than a run a ball.
9th over: England 53-4 (Knight 20, Jones 17) Time for the young legspinner Tuba Hassan. Knight, who is batting with serene authority, skips down the track to drive over long-on for four. That’s her third boundary in the last seven balls.
8th over: England 46-4 (Knight 15, Jones 15) The offspinner Rameen Shahim comes into the attack – at which point Knight, hitherto watchful, goes on the attack. An elegant chip over extra cover for four is followed by an emphatic sweep to the square-leg boundary next ball. This has been a really well-judged partnership, which is now worth 35 from 30 balls.
7th over: England 38-4 (Knight 7, Jones 15) Waheeda bowls her four overs straight through. Jones survives a hopeful LBW appeal – missing leg – before pulling her second boundary in as many overs.
A misfield at extra cover gives her a couple of bonus runs. This pair have calmed things down and can now think about trying toreach a competitive total.
6th over: England 29-4 (Knight 5, Jones 8) Fatima Sana struggles to control the swing in her first over and bowls a couple of wides. The over ends with an inswinger that is clipped carefully for four by Jones; that’s the first boundary in five overs.
5th over: England 21-4 (Knight 4, Jones 4) So much for going soft: Jones has been dropped! She sliced Waheeda towards backward point, where Rameen Shahim put down a tricky chance low to her right.
Knight, pushing cautiously, is beaten on the inside by a wobbling delivery from Waheeda. She is bowling beautifully: 3-0-11-2.
4th over: England 18-4 (Knight 3, Jones 2) England tried to go hard; now it’s time to go soft. Jones and Knight – the player England would want in this situation – clip Sadia carefully into the leg side for one, two, one and one. A wide and a leg-bye make it seven from the over.
3rd over: England 11-4 (Knight 0, Jones 0) A wicket maiden from Waheeda; a double-wicket maiden from Pakistan.
Pakistan are whatever comes after rampant! England have lost another wicket! Freya Kemp, after playing and missing twice, tried to take a single to mid-on, via a ricochet off the stumps at the non-striker’s end, and was sent back by Knight. She was three-quarters of the way down the pitch when she finally turned to go back; it was too late.
England have lose three wickets for no runs in six balls.
Pakistan are rampant! Alice Capsey has fallen to the first ball of the third over, slogging Waheeda high in the air to mid-on. The fact all three wickets have been caught at mid-off or mid-on tells you that England have gone too hard, too soon. Better to do it now than in the World Cup I guess.
2nd over: England 11-2 (Capsey 5, Knight 0) That was the last ball of the over. Hearther Knight is the new batter.
Well this is going well. Danni Wyatt hoicks the left-arm spinner Sadia Iqbal straight to mid-on, where Gull Feroza takes a comfortable catch and sets off on an aeroplane celebration. England are in a bit of bother.
1st over: England 8-1 (Wyatt 0, Capsey 4) Capsey almost falls first ball! She inside-edged Waheeda low to the left of the keeper Muneeba, who barely got a glove on the ball as she swooped to her left. Instead the ball ran away for four.
Maia Bouchier falls to the fourth ball of the innings! After dragging a boundary past short fine leg, she toe-ended a drive towards mid-off, where Dar ran in to take a well-judged catch.
Here come the players. First the Pakistan team, led by their new captain Nida Dar, then the England openers Danni Wyatt and Maia Bouchier.
Coverage of women’s cricket has improved so much in the past decade, and it’s great to see that Wisden now have a dedicated weekly podcast. The first episode is highly recommended.
No surprises in the England team, which in itself is a surprise of sorts. In times gone by, England playing three spinners at home – four if you count Alice Capsey – would have led to questions in parliament.
England Bouchier, Wyatt, Capsey, Knight (c), Kemp, Jones (wk), Gibson, Dean, Ecclestone, Glenn, Bell.
Pakistan S Ameen, Gull Feroza, Sadaf, Muneeba (wk), Dar (c), Pervaiz, Fatima, Tuba, Rameen, Waheeda, Sadia.
Nida Dar says the pitch looks a bit green and should help their bowlers. Heather Knight says she would have had a bat, so that was a waste of everyone’s time.
There’s plenty going on in the men’s game today, including the aforementioned announcement from Sir Jimmy Anderson. Taha Hashim has written about it, while Jim Wallace is at The Oval keeping an eye on all the county scores. Don’t worry, you we don’t expect blogogamy round here.
And this is probably my favourite piece on Anderson’s artistry.
Won’t you look at all this sunshine? It can mean only one thing: that for once, England’s international summer will begin in summery weather. They face Pakistan at Edgbaston in the first of six white-ball games: three T20s then three ODIs.
Now look, strictly between us, this isn’t an Ashes summer, so there won’t be quite the same excitement as there was a year ago. But the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh is less than five months away, and England haven’t won that thing since 2009.
You don’t need help from AI to name nine, perhaps 10, of Jon Lewis’s like XI for their first World Cup game. The most open position is at No7, and two of the contenders are likely to play today. Freya Kemp, who is only able to bat at the moment because of her recovery from a back injury, will fill in for Nat Sciver-Brunt at No5. Dani Gibson is likely to be the actual No7.
England are expected to beat Pakistan, though we said the same when they played Sri Lanka a year ago. Jimmy Anderson isn’t the only legend heading for retirement; this is Pakistan’s first series without Bismah Maroof, their leading runscorer in both white-ball codes, who has called it a day after 17 years of international cricket.
The match starts at 2.30pm.
