1 hour ago
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Key events
3rd over: England 23-0 (Jones 10, Wyatt Hodge 11) England are looking sprightly, Wyatt-Hodge uses her feet to dance down and lift over cover for three runs. The outfield is slightly slow due to yesterday’s rain. Both batters are quick between the wickets and looking for runs, eight off the over.
2nd over: England 15-0 (Jones 6, Wyatt Hodge 7) Medium pace from both ends as Mithali Ayodhya shares the new ball with her trademark slingy action. Glorious sunshine in Birmingham and Danni Wyatt-Hodge opens the shoulders to flay a length ball over cover point to get the first boundary of the tournament. Not middled but she got enough of it. A decent over for England as they get nine off it, Sri Lanka call for a spinner early doors, Kumari Dasanayaka is summoned for the next.
1st over: England 6-0 (Jones 4, Wyatt Hodge 1) A loud cheer greets England’s first run off the second ball of the over, Amy Jones clipping a single down the ground to open England’s account. Jones clips uppishly through a vacant midwicket, that would have been a dolly had there been a fielder there. Madara has the ball swinging back in to the right handed openers who each clip a single to make it six in total off the first over.
Erm. Actually there’s a long delay whilst something shiny behind the bowler’s arm is covered up.
That gives me just enough time to post the two groups and Raf’s preview of the tournament.
Group A
Australia
India
South Africa
Pakistan
Bangladesh
Netherlands
Group B
England
New Zealand
West Indies
Sri Lanka
Ireland
Scotland
Right then, here we go! Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Amy Jones stride out to bat in bright sunlight. There’s a blast of Paranoid from local heroes Black Sabbath. The clock counts down and the crowd cheers. Right arm medium pacer Malki Madara has the ball in hand for Sri Lanka. Let’s play!
A coven/seam quartet of green faced witches belt out a couple of musical numbers at Edgbaston. Nasser Hussain sounds about as confused as I am on Sky’s coverage but it’s all good fun. Time for the anthems and then we’ll be into the action.
England have Alice Capsey carded to bat at number 4 and have gone for a triple spin threat through Sophie Ecclestone, Charlie Dean and Linsey Smith.
Teams:
England: Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Amy Jones (wk), Nat Sciver-Brunt (c), Alice Capsey, Heather Knight, Freya Kemp, Dani Gibson, Charlie Dean, Sophie Ecclestone, Linsey Smith, Lauren Bell
Sri Lanka: Chamari Athapaththu (c), Harshitha Samarawickrama, Nilakshika Silva, Kavisha Dilhari, Vishmi Gunaratne, Imesha Dulani, Hansima Karunaratne, Kaushini Nuthyangana (wk), Sugandika Kumari, Malki Madara, Mithali Ayodhya
Sri Lanka win the toss and choose to bowl first
There’s a performance from the cast of Wicked taking place at Edgbaston right now, I’ll tell you something that couldn’t defy gravity (I’m so sorry) and that is the one pound coin just flipped into the air by the England captain.
The Sri Lanka skipper Chamari Athapaththu calls correctly and inserts the home side. Sciver-Brunt confirms she would have done the same but doesn’t look too mithered.
Sri Lanka have won their last T20I matches coming into the tournament and will prove stiff opposition for England this evening.
Preamble
James Wallace
Hello and welcome. The *Real* World Cup starts today!
With 33 matches across seven venues the next few weeks promises to be a feast of T20 cricket on English soil. It’s sixteen years since the tournament was hosted on these shores, that inaugural tournament was won by an England side captained by Charlotte Edwards, the Head Coach of the current outfit.
Nat Sciver-Brunt’s side are not favourites for this tournament, the white ball juggernauts of Australia and India are the teams to beat but in T20 cricket one player having a day out can make all the difference. England do have plenty of big game players in their squad and they will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of both the Lionesses and Red Roses by lifting the trophy in front of their own fans at Lord’s on July 5th.
The tournament will see twelve teams split into two groups of six. During the group stage each side will play each other in a round-robin with the top two teams from each group progressing to the semi-finals.
England and Sri Lanka get things started at a bright and blustery Edgbaston this evening. The captains are headed out for the toss as I type so let’s get this thing rolling, as ever please do get in touch if you are tuning in. Play begins at 6.30 BST.
