The Women’s Ashes (#WAshes) started yesterday in Adelaide with a 9-wicket thumping by the hosts in the first of three T20Is. Tahlia McGrath, the latest in a long line of McGraths to menace England cricket, partnered primarily with captain Meg Lanning to help the Aussies gallop over the line of 169 that Danni Wyatt and Tammi Beaumont, among others, had established. The next two T20Is will also be in Adelaide before they move to Canberra for a Test and two ODIs and finish in Melbourne for a third ODI. Ellyse Perry was dropped from the T20 squad, which frankly should be terrifying for anybody who plays the Australia women in a T20.
South Africa followed up their Test series win over India with a 2-0 ODI series win. New India ODI captain KL Rahul has yet to dent the win column, but he has one more chance in the dead rubber in Cape Town. Quinton de Kock returned to the SA lineup in the ODIs and was Player of the Match in the second win today. Rassie van der Dussen took those honors in the first win.
The MAshes finished on a 4-0 Australia win, with Stuart Broad famously shouting at a robot camera and yet another epic batting collapse by England. The final six wickets fell for 32 runs, and I’m pretty sure Rory Burns and Zac Crawley were already through security and waiting in the airport lounge when Ollie Robinson got out for a golden duck to mercifully end this debacle of a tour. England are on to the Caribbean, where the hospitality should be much better.
The U19 Men’s World Cup is already going in the Caribbean. England, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka all lead their divisions with undefeated records. Canada is 0-3 and maybe wishing they hadn’t pulled out of the scheduled qualifying series and took their medicine against the USA and let us be the ones who were embarrassed on this stage. I’m still mad about that.
We’re into the playoffs in the BBL, and once again I forgot there are five playoff teams. Adelaide got in, and then eliminated Hobart in the first playoff fixture. Matt Short got 89 with the bat and took a wicket. I was sure he was injured, according to the dodgy websites I usually check, and I dropped him from my fantasy team. Nothing new there. Strikers move on to play Sydney Thunder while Perth Scorchers play Sydney Sixers. The winner of Strikers/Thunder plays the loser of Scorchers/Sixers, and the winner of Scorchers/Sixers is in the finals and will play the winner of the other game. We think.
The sun rises in the east. Wellington Blaze wins another cricket match by a large margin, this time by 5 wickets over Auckland who were bowled out for 89. Rinse and repeat. Also in the Super Smash, Northern Districts has increased their lead over Canterbury for the automatic qualifier spot.
