Cricket

First weekend of U11 Girls cricket was awesome. 3 teams playing each other, 8 over innings and batting in pairs so they all got 2 overs of batting and an over of bowling.

The girls were brilliant, gently encouraged/coached by one of the parents who was happy to umpire all 3 games. Rules (sensibly) weren't followed to the letter[1], but any leniency was applied consistently to all teams and any mistakes were accidental. The general rule was that it was meant to be encouraging not demoralising for the girls. Luckily all three teams had a similar mixture of abilities.

I wasn't needed to score (as a former coach and professional scorer came down to help out) but I scored on paper anyway and was within a few runs of the correct score each time (and spot on once). My mistakes were generally allowing myself to be distracted.

Likely to be scoring properly next games but I'll be a lot more prepared for it and will avoid distraction.

A win and a loss, and MiniGB took her first wicket and scored 3 and 2 in her innings (without being dismissed).

1. They didn't bother with no balls for > 2 bounces, and the first front foot no-ball offence was just a warning. Generally each team had one bowler that bowled 6 no-balls (well, the ones that didn't go for wides) so it all evened out. It's hard on them as most teams would have only had 2 or 3 evening training sessions before launching the girls into their first games.
   

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Amazing. Very jealous!

Well, Sandpapergate rearing it's head again. I was always a bit surprised that the investigations found out that none of Starc/Hazlewood/Lyon weren't in on it...

They might not have been in on it in a decision making sense (unlikely though), but seeing how important the condition of the ball is I find it impossible to believe the bowlers didn't know something was going on.

Or Pat Cummins... (named with Lyon as one of the leadership group, IIRC?)

Same here. Surely your senior bowlers would have to know, otherwise they couldn't use it to their advantage. It was always a pretty transparent rug they tried to sweep it under.

(before I get accused of "typical pom" - Atherton's sand in pockets, the jelly babies/jelly beans, etc. shows it happened on and off with England too)

Reason I'm not including Cummins in all of it is that he'd played not much cricket at the time compared the rest of them, not sure if he'd be anywhere near the 'senior leadership' group. The others, far more likely.

Test squad vs NZ:
Joe Root (Yorkshire), James Anderson (Lancashire), James Bracey (Gloucestershire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Rory Burns (Surrey), Zak Crawley (Kent), Ben Foakes (Surrey), Dan Lawrence (Essex), Jack Leach (Somerset), Craig Overton (Somerset), Ollie Pope (Surrey), Ollie Robinson (Sussex), Dom Sibley (Warwickshire), Olly Stone (Warwickshire), Mark Wood (Durham)

Not seen much of Robinson. Bracey looks a good little player though. It'll be nice to see him tested. The rest are as expected, I suppose.

Good to see Overton back in, has been great for Somerset over the last couple of seasons, and is a more than handy lower order batter.

No reason not to pick Robinson really

What's happed to woakes? Injured rested or dropped?

Not picked as he is only just out of isolation after returning from IPL.

Would anyone be so kind as to lend me their cricket whites for this weekend? I've been roped into a game but I don't play so can't justify buying a set. Naturally, I'll return them smelling fresher than fresh and dazzling white. Ready to throw beers etc at it to get the deal over the line! Please and thank you.

MiniGB got 6-8 from her two overs in the first game today (3-28 in the two overs in her second game).

(It's SMASH IT cricket, so she did get a few people out twice.)

Glad I'm just scoring, that's tricky enough, the umpiring is another level of minefield.

Consider a ball bowled (and hit) that the fielder misfields at first, and the batters have run a single, there were then overthrows during which the batters ran another single, and then during the third run (possibly before they'd completed the third run, no-one can be sure as we don't have replays) the ball goes over the boundary due to another overthrow (the offside boundaries were much smaller as most runs at this level are on the leg side and there were two games sharing a square). Is that:-

• 4 - for just the boundary
  
• 8 - for the two completed runs (every run counts double in SMASH IT cricket) and then the boundary
  
• 10 - for the three runs (again doubled, but we can't be sure if all were completed), and then the boundary
  
  

In one game it was scored as a 4 (when we were batting) and in the other game it was scored as a 10 (when we were bowling). Consistency within each game is key but between games it's at the whim of the scorers.

I'll add the above to my list of scenarios to discuss with the other team's scorer before each game starts.

There were numerous other comedy combinations such as being stumped off a wide, and one delivery that was scored as a wide, 4 byes and then 4 overthrows for a total of 10.

The best thing is that they're all having fun and learning each time. Less ball watching this time but they need to work on their backing up!

Edgbaston being used as a pilot event with 17k fans. Won't know until next bloody Tuesday if I can go or not, cutting it fine somewhat...

I feel nothing but pain and sadness https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/may/26/ben-foakes-slip-in-dressing-room-lets-sam-billings-and-haseeb-hameed-into-england-cricket-test-squad

That is such a shame.

On the plus side, good opportunity for Bracey. Didn't see how he would fit in the side before this happened.

Shocking luck. Didn’t someone slip on a marble floor in a hotel in India during the last tour?

Edit: Zak Crawley did. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/feb/04/england-ollie-pope-india-zak-crawley-test-cricket

I think there should be done proper flooring put in with the correct slip resistance for the wet environment. Clearly losing to many cricketers to sleepy floors.

Or maybe mandatory crocs at all times in dressing rooms.

Off to Old Trafford tomorrow for the Roses match. Hugely excited to see sport IRL again.

Lord's offering single tickets for the NZ test as I'd bought some originally but had them reclaimed when they worked out they'd oversold their reduced capacity.

Unfortunately I only really want to go if I can take my wife and/or daughter, but it's just single tickets.

Saw that and thought about it, but want to go as a pair.

Still waiting to hear about Edgbaston, suspense is killing me

We've had a message from the AGEAS that they're in a holding pattern and will let us know on 10 June.

(rubs hands...)

What a day to watch a Test Match. Jealous of those who are there. Mate of mine is on duty with the covers too!

Oh well, a cuppa and TMS will have to do.

6 overs, no maidens!
Vaughan will soon be telling us this opening bowling partnership is under prepared and over the hill.

Vaughan

He's already off the pace. "Completely anal conditions..." instead of "alien" earlier...

Such a poor broadcaster.