SECOND

IT’S BETTER GOING SECOND

What’s this-live cricket on free to air television? Nice for crisp and unhealthy snack manufacturers with huge ads plastered across the players’ chests on the Beeb. You’ll realise this grumpy old git is still sneering at the Hundred, whose main selling points appear to be that it’s shorter, played in fewer places, played by citizens of nowhere, who’ll play for some other outfit in some other franchise league next week. Who cares who won a match between the Phoenix and the Fire? Probably not many of the spectators and certainly not me. It’s still a step too far for Quiz HQ to take any notice of The Men’s Hundred but we are prepared to admit it’s done good things for the women’s game.

The Women’s final was at Lords, played as last year between the Oval Invincibles and the Southern Braves. Statisticians will tell that the team batting second wins two of three Hundred games so it was a puzzle when Anya Shrubsole, the Braves captain, won the toss and decided to bat first. The Braves failed to live up to their name and crept cautiously past a hundred at the last gasp, no sort of target in modern white ball. The Invincibles, batting SECOND and living up to their name, won with six balls to spare. Sounds close but I doubt any of the astounding twenty thousand crowd had a moment’s doubt. Now let me get back to practising my forward defensive prod.