da 888： Twelve games in 28 days in two countries for one win and eleven losses
Rick Eyre23-Feb-2000Twelve games in 28 days in two countries for one win and eleven losses. Oneof the most unsuccessful overseas tours by an England cricket team came to amerciful end in suitably gloomy conditions last night as New Zealanddefeated their English counterparts in the fifth womens one-dayinternational at McLean Park, Napier. England finished on the receiving endof a 5-0 whitewash by the Kiwis, to follow Australia’s 4-0 clean-sweep ofthe series at the start of the month.It was always going to be an awkward tour, coming as it did in the middle ofthe northern winter with indoor facilities the only hope for practice sincethe England season ended last September. But no one could have predictedjust how poorly this team performed at times against the world’s number oneand two women’s international sides.They finished their tour yesterday with a sub-hundred total, just as theyended their Australian leg with a sub-hundred total. At least this time itwas nothing approaching a 220-run loss, with runs hard to come by for bothsides in conditions affected by intermittent rain.It was a tour which saw long-standing captain Karen Smithies, who ledEngland to World Cup victory in 1993, step down at the end of the Australianleg in favour of her deputy Clare Connor. This, however, was a move ratherakin to taking a chair off the deck of the Titanic and shifting it to adownstairs cabin. The boat still sank.The fifth and final one-day international against New Zealand was stagedyesterday after a bizarre episode. Scheduled to be the first day-nightwomen’s international in New Zealand, it was bumped into second place lastweek when game two in Wellington was pushed back three hours because ofmorning rain.Then, its status as a day-night game was thrown into doubt when one of thefive banks of lighting at the ground mysteriously vanished overnight lastweek. The decision was eventually made to proceed with the game inday/night hours, the reduced lighting considered acceptable for play.When it came to the day itself, rain prevented the match from starting until5.30pm, each innings reduced to 40 overs a side. Emily Drumm won the tossfor new Zealand and put England into bat. Connor, whose highest ODI scoreon this Antipodean tour has been 26, was out in the first over having scoredjust a single. Though she has found it tough, being handed the poisonchalice of England captaincy mid-tour, it is hard to imagine that she won’tretain the job going into the World Cup.Only while Charlotte Edwards (25) was at the crease did England look likegetting so much as three-figure total, although it did take her 38 balls tomake it into double figures. Then again, batting partner Jane Cassar (6)took 22 balls to get off the mark. England lasted for 37.2 overs beforebeing dismissed for 86 – incredibly, the only time in either Australia orNew Zealand that they have failed to bat for at least 40 overs in an ODI onthis tour.Rachel Pullar claimed 4/11 from her four overs, with Haidee Tiffen 2/10 fromseven. Munokoa Tunupopo, the youngest player in the history of women’s oneday international cricket, took 0/24 from her eight overs. Turning sixteentoday Wednesday, remember that name come World Cup time, and hopefully wellbeyond.The only woman to appear in more than 100 ODI’s, Debbie Hockley returned toher customary opening role as New Zealand set off to chase 87. She fell toa questionable lbw decision when on 10, stretching well forward to a ballfrom Lucy Pearson that appeared to be drifting down leg side. Her openingpartner Paula Flannery outdid Jane Cassar in the England innings by taking23 deliveries to get off the mark.With the score at 29 for 1, players were forced from the field after 11.4overs. On resumption, the target was revised to 63 from 29 overs, a simplerun-rate calculation being used for revised targets in women’s cricket inAustralia and New Zealand instead of the Duckworth-Lewis system nowuniversally applied in the men’s game.Things didn’t go all the New Zealanders way as they completed their chase,with the loss of Emily Drumm (20), Haidee Tiffen (4), and a stoic PaulaFlannery (10 from 46 balls), before Nicola Payne and Kathryn Ramel broughtthe game to its conclusion with 20 balls to spare. The fact that it too solong was due in no small part to Melissa Reynard (6-4-4-2) producing herbest spell of the tour.Before this tour, England would have been considered certainties for a semifinal berth in the World Cup at the end of this year, but now even that mustcome into question. June’s home series against South Africa will probablydecide the number four and number five rankings in world women’s cricket -presuming that India are number three. Australia would occupy number onespot following their 3-0 victory in the Rose Bowl series over New Zealand afortnight ago.