Even as a new generation makes its mark, Katherine Brunt sets the bar

NICK FRIEND AT THE INCORA COUNTY GROUND: One day, England will have to find their way in a world without her. The irony is that Brunt’s game seems to typify the Lisa Keightley blueprint

Heather Knight said at the outset of this series that England were due a gift from the weather gods.

She could have been referring either to the farcical circumstances through which she watched her side tumble out of the T20 World Cup or the simple fact that England Women had waited until September for their international summer to begin.

And so, this was a compromise of sorts. Wherever you looked in the run-up to the second match of this five-game series, forecasts for Wednesday evening were bleak. But while Derby was dumped upon with heavy rain through the early afternoon, it was dry long before proceedings would get underway. From behind the on-site hotel, the sun even attempted to burst through.

It was also bitterly cold, so much so that West Indies – called across from the Caribbean for a week of evening cricket in the final throes of September – could have been forgiven for disagreeing with the assertion that these conditions represented any such generosity.

But still, in this summer of all summers, beggars can scarcely be choosers. Even now, with this series beyond its first instalment, it feels necessary to marvel at these games taking place at all. The autumnal weather, in a sense, acted as a perfect reminder of how late in the day English women’s cricket has had to wait for international action.

Understandably, therefore, they are in the mood to make the most of their lot. Two games in, they have three to go, before the wait starts and the next a new round of questions begins: who next, where next, when next? Those are the realities of these times.

It should have been no surprise, then, to see both sides fighting fire with flames of their own. Three fours came from the second over and the first six of the night arrived in the third.

England’s two opening stands in this series – 34 and 43 – are their highest of 2020. And despite a pandemic that has taken from them the crux of their summer, that figure comprises 10 WT20Is. Only, once Tammy Beaumont and Danni Wyatt fell, however, England were as sloppy as West Indies were sharp.

Three wickets fell for just 11 runs in the space of three overs to signal the beginning of a fightback, before Knight and Amy Jones both fell once well set in a manner that will have frustrated the pair.

^{Sarah Glenn took the key wicket of Deandra Dottin}

For the visitors, Stafanie Taylor led from the front; her four overs of miserly away-drifters cost just 12 runs. She picked up the wickets of Nat Sciver and Fran Wilson, while leading a fielding display that defied temperatures that were piercingly wintry.

Given the circumstances surrounding a side lacking in match practice and training opportunities through recent months, they were terrific. Not faultless, but full to the brim with verve and vigour.

With the stands empty and the shouts of West Indian encouragement blaring out as the sole breaker of the Derby silence, England were made fully aware that they were engulfed in a battle.

That fight only left the tourists’ chase once Deandra Dottin fell for 38. For the second match in succession, she struck a mammoth six over deep midwicket. And though she has not yet bowled in this series, this is the best she has looked in international cricket for some considerable time. In her absence, however, the top-heavy nature of West Indies’ batting was exposed. They would surely benefiting from a pinch-hitting option, if only to split up the Matthews-Dottin-Taylor axis, upon which so much rests.

But the relief audible in England’s celebration of Dottin's dismissal was reflective of the threat she poses. Knight and her teammates knew what it meant. Taylor’s side subsided limply thereafter, losing 7 for 33 in meek surrender. Sarah Glenn, as is her tendency, took the key wickets of Dottin and Taylor in a player of the match display, while Mady Villiers also picked up two of her own.

In truth, this had become much the same game as its precursor by the end: same winners, same victory margin, same threat, same deficiencies.

Earlier, England had been indebted to Glenn and Katherine Brunt for a final total of 151 for 8. How many times has that sentence been written, that Brunt should come to her side’s rescue?

Beaumont described her as “an absolute Yorkshire terrier” after Monday’s win.

“She's going to hate me for saying this but I think it's great that at her age she is still leading the attack absolutely brilliantly, continuing to want to get better,” she added.

^{A wet day turned into a cool, dry picturesque evening in Derby}

One day, England will have to find their way in a world without her. The irony is that Brunt’s game seems to typify the Lisa Keightley blueprint.

During the pre-series bubble camp, the 16th anniversary of her international debut came and went, passing through as yet another memory ticks by in the career of an ageless great.

“When I’ve spoken to Lisa about how this might come to an end quite soon, I do get extremely emotional,” she told The Cricketer in a recent interview about her life as a trailblazer. “It’s not just a game for me. In the beginning, it was a hobby and a way to bond with my dad and my brother, which I was desperate to do.

“It has become my whole life and all my memories and sacrifices are shaped around cricket. It’s going to be one of the hardest things to ever let go of, but equally it will be something that no one can ever take away from me.”

She continued: “But there has been a conversation along the lines of: ‘Would you like to play in the Commonwealth Games?’ I mean, you ask anyone that and they’re going to say yes.

“Given the opportunity, I’d love to be a part of it. That’s another two years down the line – can I do that? I’ll be edging closer to 40 as a seamer. But that carrot has been dangled and I am someone who, given a challenge, I’m going to do it. If the challenge is against you, I’ll beat you.”

And while it was Glenn who hammered a quickfire 26 – a knock that followers of the domestic game knew would eventually come, it was Brunt who swung with her typical, bolshy sense of abandon.

^{Brunt and Glenn put on 46 runs in just five overs to propel England to a match-winning score}

On Monday, she was stumped by the first ball she faced, running at Hayley Matthews’ off-spin and attempting to deposit her into the car park. Tonight, she only made 18, but when she came to the crease England were 94 for 5. On her departure, they were 142 for 7 and far more healthily placed – dragged there by brazen aggression and willpower.

It was also Brunt – a veteran of 35 years and 83 days – whose four overs cost just eight runs on Monday evening in her first international for 204 days. And it was Brunt, in her first match of any kind since March, who took five wickets in the first Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy fixture of the season. And then tonight, again it was Brunt who conceded just four runs in two powerplay overs, with the wicket of Hayley Matthews to show for her efforts. Her series figures at this point read nicely: 1 for 16 in seven overs.

All this after spending the first part of lockdown suffering from illness. “The doctor said he was 99 per cent sure it was the virus,” she revealed in her June interview. “I started to feel run down and I had this horrific cough and it was so bad. I couldn’t sleep more than two hours a night, I was properly choking myself having these coughing fits. It was horrible.”

She remains the leader of England’s attack, even as a more youthful core begins to establish itself.

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