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2014 Diary

A Ramble on Women's Cricket
 - with diversions -

This diary will be updated erratically throughout the year.

Last Page of 2013
<January 1>
England commence their defence of the Ashes shortly with a warm-up game on 6th and 7th of January.  Unfortunately coverage will be very limited but we do know that Channel 9 in Australia and Sky Sports in the UK will show the three T20 games on 29th, 31st January and 2nd February. The rather more relevant ODIs and Test will have to be followed via the 'Net.
<January 2>
Well the new year has barely started and along comes this... some notes 'from the pavilion'. It would seem that things down under are much as ever. I do hope this link doesn't get broken as it shows the worst possible aspect of the media coverage of the sport. Fortunately when 'Sky' broadcast matches in the UK, these kind of comments rarely if ever appear.
<January 29>
Some notes from Marion Collin (ICC Statistician)
Did you know that Charlotte Edwards has captained more ODIs than any other England Captain man or woman?
Charlotte Edwards 104  :   Andrew Strauss with 62 is the highest in the men's list.
In T20 cricket she has captained more matches than any other player man or woman world-wide -  68 matches

Most matches as Captain

Women Captains Matches Won % Result
CM Edwards (2006-2014) 68 51 77
MR Aguilleira (2009-2014) 51 32 65
Sana Mir (2009-2014) 38 15 42
Aimee Watkins (2009-2011) 29 19 66
Jodie Fields (2009-2013) 26 16 62
HASD Siriwardene (2010-2014) 25 8 35
M du Preez (2011-2014) 23 12 55
More complete men's data here
Men Captains Matches Won % Result
MS Dhoni (2007-2013 42 21 52
WTS Porterfield (2008-2013) 32 17 61
P Collingwood (2007-2011) 30 17 61
And from another correspondent...
Highest partnership between Edwards/Taylor in T20s beating by 1 run their 113 against India in 2009 T20 World Cup.
England's 5th T20 100 partnership and our 2nd highest (eclipsed by the Claire Taylor/Beth Morgan's 122 in 2009 T20 World Cup semi-final)
Taylor (11) and Edwards (7) have 18 of England's 25 fifties. There have been 104 attempts by batsmen other than Edwards and Taylor batting at 1, 2 or 3 and only on 4 occasions has a 50 been scored.
Of the 25 fifties scored by an England player, Edward's 92 is the 2nd fastest scoring rate of any of them. At a rate of 155.93 it just beats Sarah Taylor's 151.52 when scoring exactly 50 against South Africa on 27th October 2011. However it’s still well short of the 177.78 Edwards achieved when scoring 64 off 36 balls against South Africa on 10th August 2007.
England's 2nd highest successful run chase and 2nd highest batting-2nd score (behind the 163 we had to chase against Australia in the semi-final of the 2009 T20 World Cup)
Edwards highest T20 score and England's highest individual score beating Greenway's 80 from last summer.
The first time England have posted a score of 150+ when losing as few as only 1 wicket.
It's only the 2nd time 2 England players have scored a fifty in the same T20 match. Not surprisingly it was Edwards & Taylor that did it the first time. Taylor (50) and Edwards (61) against India in the 2009 T20 World Cup on 11th June 2009.
Edwards 13x4s in her innings is the highest number of 4s in a T20 innings by an England player (beating 11 jointly held by Claire Taylor (75*), Edwards (60), Greenway (80*) and Marsh (48) ).
This is England lowest T20 score batting first which they have done on 35 occasions. Their previous lowest  was 99 against West Indies on 10th November 2009.
Interesting list of 4 hitters in T20s:-
Edwards CM 244
Taylor SJ 163
Marsh LA 91
Greenway LS 79
Taylor SC 66
Gunn JL 40
Wyatt DN 37
Brindle A 25
Edwards is now on her own at the top of the 6 hitters with 10. Was equal top with Jenny Gunn on 9.
Sarah Taylor, Lydia Greenway and Laura Marsh and  Suzie Rowe are next on 5 each.
From ECB Press Release :
England cricketers Natasha Farrant, Jenny Gunn, Heather Knight and Anya Shrubsole were all unavailable for the second Twenty20 International of the Commonwealth Bank Women’s Ashes Series at the Melbourne Cricket Ground today due to back (Farrant and Gunn), hamstring (Knight) and hip (Shrubsole) injuries.
<Feb 6>
And now I must apologise for the period of silence during the Ashes. Family matters forced me away from home and, with intermittent access to the 'Net, only the most basic updating of the site was possible. It seems irrelevant now to discuss any of the individual games but the aftermath is proving very interesting.
You may feel this is the first time at which the points system for deciding this competition can be evaluated and Meg Lanning has been suggesting that changes need to be made. Maybe the first thing to think about is whether two tries is sufficient to give you enough food for thought. Like Meg I think it probably is. How about the order in which matches are played for example? Several commentators have suggested the sole Test should come later. I suppose, if one side had dominated up to that point, it would allow the other to make a spirited attempt at winning rather than settling for a draw which has been the fate of quite a few of these games in the past. It might have the contrary effect though of persuading the leaders in the competition the best course of action is to put the shutters up from day one and certainly allow no sporting declarations (but then would we get them anyway?). It seems to be mostly the case in the men's game (although that is no reason in itself to follow suit) that the Test are played before the shorter games.
The other thing that might be changed is the points weighting of each type of match. Meg has been suggesting I think that the Test carries too many or possibly the ODIs too few. One thing I have suggested previously is that odd numbers are used somewhere in this set-up, making (weather effects being ignored) a tied series impossible. I would not wish to see either the Tests 'demoted' i.e. being awarded less points or the T20s promoted i.e. given more. Indeed I would suggest one point for a T20 is quite adequate but with the powers that be and the TV favouring this format that's never going to happen. Therefore the simplest change I could see, and these numbers if not from Lanning I have seen linked to her comments, would be Test 6, ODIs 3, T20s 2. The total points comes therefore (assuming the same number of matches are played) to 21. Bad weather could still interfere and mean only an even number of points was up for grabs and in the event of a tie I would be perfectly happy to see the trophy shared. I don't see why a previous series, possibly played with quite different teams, and in different countries, should influence the outcome of a later series. Yes - I know it's not traditional but neither is playing the Ashes on a points based system.
Anyway the picture all England supporters will have wanted to see, taken in all likelihood by an Australian photographer is this one...

[England Team] © Don Miles
The England Team with the Ashes © Getty Images for the ECB
ECB Press Release

While on the subject of points, rules and regulations etc. for a series I've yet to look at the World Cup T20 set-up. I have to hope the same anomalies do not occur as happened in the last 50-over Cup which showed just how ridiculous NRR is as a guide to anything.
**** Greg Matthews has called on ABC for the formation of an Australian Indigenous women's team. I did see an interview not long ago with Jason Gillespie who claimed he was the first person with indigenous blood to represent Australia. He is, as you might expect with such a broad claim, quite wrong. Faith Coulthard represented her native country Australia in 1958. I was fortunate enough to meet her and have a chat in a shopping mall in Sydney in 2009 and get her to sign my World Cup cap. I have teased a few Australians since with the line "the only Australian woman to have represented Australia"; not accurate I know, but how much sledging is? She was the first chronologically, man or woman, and as far as I am aware the only indigenous woman to date.
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