Kiki Logan is a 14-year-old pupil from Sussex. She is a keen, and perceptive, follower of the game – not only does she play cricket at school, but she writes about it too. This is her first match report, in which she covers the opening game of the ICC Women’s World Cup between England and India in Derby.
This was meant to be England’s big day at the World Cup. A sell-out crowd had come to see England win and start their home tournament – instead they had a wake up call in the first match, which India won.
The first problem came two days before the tournament when Lauren Winfield was injured, and we were told that she would miss the first two games as she had her right hand in a cast. England bowled first, but their bowling was awful – and that is putting it nicely. The normal opening bowlers, Anya Shrubsole and Katherine Brunt, just didn’t look themselves and a lot of wides and full balls were bowled in the first 10 overs. In all, England used 7 bowlers, including 3 spinners, as their plans fell apart. The best bowler for England was captain Heather Knight, who took 2 for 41, but the most economical bowler was Danielle Hazell with 1 for 51 from her 10 overs.
India’s batting was amazing from the very first over. The opening partnership of Punam Raut and Smriti Mandhana put on 144 for the first wicket, before Knight managed to get Mandhana out for a very good 90 from 100 balls. Mandhana hit 11 fours and 2 sixes in her innings, which meant that when India’s captain Mithali Raj (who had been enjoying her team’s batting while reading a book on the bench!) came in, she took no time to score an unbeaten 71. The second wicket partnership put on 78 in 26 overs to move the score to 222 for two.
Opener Raut was out for the second wicket with the score on 222, when she was caught in the deep by Danielle Wyatt off the bowling of Hazel. This brought in Harmanpreet Kaur at number four for India and she, like the other Indian batswomen, scored qiuckly and finished 24 not out from 26 balls. India captain Raj finished on a really good 71 from 84 balls with 8 fours, her innings brought to an end when she tried to hit the last ball of the innings out of the ground, but was caught by Katherine Brunt off the bowling of Knight. India finished on a very good total of 281 for 3 from 50 overs.
Sarah Taylor opened the batting for England with Tammy Beaumont and the two made a quiet start to the innings before Beaumont was out for 14. Heather Knight came in at number three and scored 46 before she was run out. Little did we know that this would be the story of the innings, England’s poor running led to four run-outs, some of which proved very silly. Only Fran Wilson, who scored 81 before she was also run out, scored any runs of note, in the process taking England to the cusp of victory.
With 2.3 overs left, England needed another 36 runs to win with Fran Wilson and Alex Hartley left at the crease. However Wilson was eventually run out and England succumbed to a bad loss, falling short by 35 runs in the end.
The best of the Indian bowlers was Deepti Sharma, who is only 19-years-old, and took 3 for 47. India were the better side on the day and maybe England were just nervous, but we will see what happen on Tuesday when they take on Pakistan at Leicester.
Follow Kiki Logan on Twitter @kikinetball.
Isabelle Westbury 