England go down 3-2 against New Zealand

7 September 2007

England's Jenny Gunn is writing a diary for ecb.co.uk during the 2007 summer. Follow her exclusively here on ecb.co.uk

We had a long bus trip from Derby to Blackpool but it turned out to be a better trip then expected as I managed to play Calamity Jane on the DVD player, which I think most of the girls actually liked even though a few kept laughing at it.

Our back-to-back games at Blackpool were must-win games to stop the Kiwis from taking the series. In the 4th ODI, New Zealand won the toss and chose to bat. They took a while to get going and during this time we managed to get the wickets of Suzie Bates and Haidee Tiffen with Boggy (Laura Marsh) taking the wicket of Sara McGlashan with the first ball of her spell.

Aimee Mason held their innings together and played a near perfect innings. Even though she took a while to get in, she brought up her 50 in 51 balls. She and Sara Tsukigawa put on 94 runs before Tsukigawa was run out for 39. They managed to score 239-9 with Mason scoring 111 before she was one of Lottie’s (Charlotte Edwards) three run out victims. Boggy was the pick of the bowlers claiming 3-49.

Laura Marsh

Once again, we struggled against their opening bowlers and were reduced to 3-33. Tails (Claire Taylor) and Lyd (Lydia Greenway) didn’t panic and played some great shots and got us back into the game with a partnership of 105 with Tails bringing up another 50.

We lost both of them on 138, which wasn’t ideal because it left us with two new batters at the crease.

We had some small partnerships and Beth (Beth Morgan) hit 32 runs but New Zealand kept taking wickets and in the end we fell 43 runs short leaving New Zealand as winners of the series.

It’s not always easy to come back straight away when you have just lost the series but we were determined not to let them win every game.

The next day, we were seeking revenge but New Zealand won the toss again and chose to bat.

I was asked to open the bowling and as usual, the fast bowlers get to choose their end so I found myself bowling into the strong wind.

From 24-0, we reduced them to 29-4. I removed Tiffen, McGlashan and Ros Kember and Nic (Nicki Shaw) removing the dangerous Bates. Batting was clearly difficult and we cashed in with a bowling change, which saw Isa (Isa Guha) come on and take two wickets in her first over.

Isa Guha © Getty Images

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Isa and I both had four wickets each and Shaggy (Caroline Atkins) started joking about run-out opportunities.

Well, in the same over Shaggy pulls off a full length dive to stop the ball and throws down the stumps to run out Rowan Milburn to have them all out for 72 (good work Shaggy).

We bowled them out in 30 overs so had to bat for around an hour before lunch. Batting remained difficult and we lost Beth, Tails, Lottie and Lyd all for single figures.

But Squirt (Sarah Taylor) batted brilliantly on a tough wicket and hit the winning runs in the 28th over to finish 49 not out and steer us to our first win of the series. The New Zealand bowlers bowled well with Helen Watson only going for eight runs off her 10 overs and Nicola Browne taking 2-25.

The following day we were on the road again with a massive journey from Blackpool to Shenley though Shenley was a perfect place to finish since it is such a lovely ground.

We had a training day before our final encounter with the Kiwis who were looking to finish with another win.

We won the toss, chose to field and again got an early breakthrough with Nic getting Bates out.

Kember was promoted to open the batting and played some very attacking shots. Luck was clearly on her side as edges never went to hand and I managed to nip a ball back through her defences and hit leg stump. Although the bail jumped up, it didn’t fall off and the ball went for four byes.

Isa carried on with her form from Blackpool taking 3-27. She bowled really well and created the pressure for us to bring the run-rate down, keeping them to 206-8 after 50 overs.

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Holly (Holly Colvin) also bowled well picking up 3-31 including the wicket of Kember for 64. Browne upped the run rate just towards the end hitting 38 off 35 with two sixes. I thought one of them had gone straight up in the air but it sailed over my head and the boundary for six.

We looked good at the start of our innings before Browne got the breakthrough they were looking for by getting both Taylors out.

Lottie and Beth picked up the pieces and got us going again before Lottie smashed a sweep shot only for Helen Watson to catch it at square leg.

At 76-4, the match could have gone either way but Beth managed to step it up and found the boundaries and I also managed to keep the scoreboard ticking over. Together we put on 91 for the fifth wicket before Beth was caught behind for 77. I fell three runs later for 27.

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The game was still in the balance but some powerful hitting from Nic (24 off 23 balls) got us home by three wickets with just one ball to spare, which meant we lost the series 3-2.

After the game, the Kiwis had organised a race since it was Rachel Candy’s first tour so we had to pick someone to race her over 100m. The deal was that the person had to dress up in skins uniform and run. We were informed that Candy used to be a 400m hurdler so she’s not a bad runner. Laura Marsh was nominated to represent England so it was White Lightning versus Bolting Boggy for the title.

It was a fun end to the tour even though we lost the series. We now have a few club games left before a few of us head off to Australia to spend another winter down under.