After all the hype about England’s biggest summer, it got off to an underwhelming start at Chester-le-Street on Sunday, as they limped to a one-wicket win in the first one-day international against New Zealand, chasing just 211. Only a calm rearguard effort from the stand-in captain, Charlie Dean, who finished unbeaten on 31 and valiantly marshalled England’s long tail, enabled them to crawl across the line.
England played exactly the way you might expect from a team who have gone 194 days without playing an international match (their last outing was the World Cup semi-final in October). First, they made a spate of fielding errors, costing them precious runs in a low-scoring thriller. Then they subsided to 149 for six, after Emma Lamb, Amy Jones and Dani Gibson all holed out to gleeful fielders.
Freya Kemp managed 30 and was unlucky to be run out backing up, while Maia Bouchier struck a half century – despite being in the squad only as batting cover for Nat Sciver-Brunt.
Bouchier miscued a catch to midwicket in the 35th over and it looked like England’s decision to field a lineup with three effective no 11s – Lauren Bell, Lauren Filer and debutant Tilly Corteen-Coleman – might come back to haunt them.
But despite Bell and Filer both being yorked by the New Zealand quicks with 10 runs still needed, the 18-year-old Corteen-Coleman ran hard and struck three golden singles. Dean, who survived a drop by Nensi Patel at backward point which would have handed New Zealand the win, was left to smoke the winning run through the covers with 10 balls to spare.
Dean is attempting to prove her case as Sciver-Brunt’s long-term replacement, while the latter sits out this series with a calf injury. Sunday’s performance will have done her claim a lot of good, after she had earlier also picked up two wickets, coming round the wicket to good effect and correctly using DRS to see off Brooke Halliday with a ball which straightened enough to be hitting leg stump.
England had chosen to field first and bowled New Zealand out for an under-par 210, with their three debutants – Corteen-Coleman, Jodi Grewcock and Dani Gibson – all picking up wickets, as the visitors lost their last six wickets for 28 runs.
Maddy Green struck a sedate 88 – her fifth score of 50+ in her last seven ODI innings – but could not provide the late-innings acceleration needed to elevate the total. She was caught at long-on, amid a collapse which saw the visitors lose their last six wickets for 27 runs.
The head coach, Charlotte Edwards, had kept her promise to focus on the future, naming three ODI debutants. Gibson has already played 22 T20s for England, but the inclusion of both Corteen-Coleman and the 21-year-old Grewcock suggested the first rumblings of the generational shift which we will no doubt see more of later in the year – especially if (perish the thought) England crash and burn out of their home World Cup.
Left-arm spinner Corteen-Coleman celebrated her maiden international wicket with pure joy, after forcing an error from Georgia Plimmer, caught at mid-off trying to go over the top. Leggie Grewcock’s own maiden scalp was a bigger wicket – she broke the century partnership between Green and Melie Kerr by having Kerr caught on the ring. But it came from a worse ball, a rank full toss, and her own celebrations were tinged with sheepish embarrassment.
Oddly, Grewcock had been asked to open the batting – something of a surprise, given that she bats at No 3 or 4 for Essex in 50-over cricket. She departed for just three, opting selflessly not to review the leg-before dismissal from Bree Illing, which replays showed would have drifted down leg.
It could have proved costly had it not been for the calm head of Dean. Even so, with five weeks still to go until the World Cup, it feels early in the summer for England to have already played their get-out-of-jail free card.