Cricket tragic

True, but you know more about where women’s cricket has come from than most! 😁

Would fans & media accept not reaching the semifinal with a young team that has potential but underperformed? I very much doubt it. At least 7 teams don’t win at every WC so it’s not a binary win/lose difference unless we are arrogant enough to believe we should reach every final

Although that “day’s rest” involved a 3+ hour flight plus transfers from Guwahati.
Both semifinals were won by outstanding individual performances. But I think the final will be won by the team that makes less mistakes under pressure, which I agree is probably SA

Of course, the T20s are a different beast with the home WC next summer. England will be expected to reach the final at least. So throwing your developing players into the mix without much time to get them any experience would be a bit foolish

The big camps in Oman & SA over this coming winter will involve all those players. The ones that do well might get their ODI chances in the NZ/India series & most definitely in the Ireland series.

for which Lottie would have (rightly) been hounded to the hills. 4 years is a very long time in sport and this WC performance (only just ok) gives Lottie the perfect mandate to use that cycle to build a new team in her own image with the the likes of Kemp, Perrin & Lamb

It’s great that the expectations on the England Women have risen in line with their salaries. But it’s hilarious to think that chucking Scrivens, Smale & TCC into the frying pan (presumably replacing Beaumont, Knight & Smith) would have been anything other than an unmitigated disaster…

Hopefully we will see a few more arrive after work…

England making sure they get finished in plenty of time to get back to the hotel to watch the women’s semifinal! 😁

Still got it!
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Interesting… This is Apple weather for Wednesday in Guwahati:

Which app/website do you use for Indian weather forecasts?
“The chances of rain during the scheduled hours of play in Guwahati being from 40-52%. The good news? There is a reserve day! The bad news? The chances of rain on the reserve day are 19-64%!”

Sometimes teams react better than expected to a crisis, e.g. being bowled out for 69…

Great to see Jones coming into form just in time for the important stuff… 🏏

#CWC25
#ENGvsNZ

Were you also expected to bat in the top order? Admittedly scoring a ton is much less about liability to injury & much more about fitness & concentration

If you’d personally ever bowled an over of maximum pace deliveries in 40 degree heat you’d be surprised that anyone is capable of actually bowling 10 of them!! Fast bowling is such an unnatural action & so many players get injured

They are going to need her in the SF if they have any chance of beating SA

Ridiculous by England, intentionally injuring Ecclestone just so they can try the surprise experiment of 2 part-time bowlers through the middle overs

Then when the lights came on & the dew came down it went as flat as a pancake. Not a good toss to lose…

Because she doesn’t turn it?! 🫢

I’m sure they would prefer to play India in Mumbai on Thursday rather than play SA in Guwahati and then have to spend Thursday travelling thousands of miles. They would also get experience of the Mumbai pitch for the final

OMG, red-top frothing incoming! 🫣

And play a decent level of football!! 🦸‍♀️

I believe… 🛐
“Batters win you matches, bowlers win you tournaments.” Just a shame all the Aussie bowlers are also batters!!

With this talented group of players, the grit is perhaps all that was missing. Seems to suit them better than Jonball

😈😂

Perhaps I’m not arrogant enough to believe that I know the game better than Lottie! 😂

If you’re being selective about what constitutes a decent opposition then getting rid of the 92* against NZ drops her 7th position average to 32. Or 28 if you ignore that whole NZ series 💁‍♂️
You can make stats prove anything you like!

Similar opening average to Tammy & better strike rate

Not much in it really but a very slightly better opener