Former England captain Clare Connor said the creation of the Women’s Ashes trophy was “like a fairytale” as Lord’s prepares to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the event.
The Ashes were created by burning bats signed by both England and Australia teams along with a copy of the Women’s Cricket Association rulebook in the Harris Garden at Lord’s in 1998.
It marked a special moment for the current ECB deputy chief executive officer and managing director England Women, who was 21 at the time and remembers the ceremony taking place with the help of a wok grabbed from the MCC kitchen.
“The ceremony was amazing, it was like a little fairytale,” Connor told the PA news agency.
“They built like a makeshift set of bricks in a square raised like a foot off the ground and we were in the Harris Garden with the teams on both sides.
“They got a wok from the MCC kitchen and the Ashes were created from the burning of the old Women’s Cricket Association rule book and miniature bats signed on both sides by Australia and England, so I was one of those signatures.
“There was some other bits of flammable stuff put in there to get it going and there was a little fire.
“The end result was a handful of ashes that then got housed in a really simple, humble, smallish size of a cricket ball trophy.”
The trophy remained intact up until the introduction of the multi-format Ashes series in 2013, but the ball can still be seen inside the new award.
Lord’s will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its creation on Saturday ahead of England’s final T20 clash against Australia.
A range of guests, including some of those involved in the original ceremony, will be in attendance for the unveiling of a plaque by MCC president Stephen Fry at the Harris Garden.
“It was still unbelievably special and wonderful for us back then to be part of Ashes cricket,” said Connor, who believes women’s cricket has come a long way in 25 years.
“To be writing our names in a little piece of women’s cricket history through the creation of that trophy and our own sort of burning, creating our own physical ashes because we didn’t have any.
“There’s something really poignant about that looking back.
“Compare that day in summer of 1998 with Saturday in the summer of 2023 and they’re almost unrecognisable sports really.”
Saturday’s match is being held in partnership with the MCC Foundation in tribute to its ongoing work to promote women and girls’ cricket, reaching thousands each year as part of its cricket projects.
England kept the Women’s Ashes alive with a thrilling three-run victory at the Oval on Wednesday night to tie the T20 contests.
However, they still trail 6-2 in the series and, with three ODI matches to come, the hosts need to win their remaining games to stand a chance of reclaiming the trophy.
Connor, who won the 2005 Ashes, added: “If the crowd on Saturday get to experience what anybody has experienced so far this week at Edgbaston and the Oval then we’re all in for such a treat and another inspiring occasion.”
Tickets for the England v Australia Metro Bank Women’s T20 international at Lord’s are available from lords.org
IPL: Fraser-McGurk leads the way as Capitals hold off Mumbai
Delhi Capitals withstood Mumbai Indian’s late surge and held on for a 10-run victory at Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Jake Fraser-McGurk top-scored with 84 – hitting 50 off just 15 balls – while Tristan Stubbs (48) and Shai Hope (41) also chipped in with important contributions as the Capitals set a target of 258.
Mukesh Kumar (3/59) and Rasikh Salam (3/34) did their best to halt Mumbai’s revival, but they turned up the pressure to require 25 runs from the final over.
However, despite Luke Wood and Piyush Chawla’s best efforts, Delhi held out for a second successive win.
Data debrief
Wood almost made amends after conceding 68 runs during the opening innings – the joint-most in the IPL this season, matching Reece Topley’s tally against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Tilak Varma led Mumbai’s attempted revival with 63 for his sixth half-century in the IPL, though they have all come in defeats
Chase outdone by opposite number Paudel as West Indies A suffer four-wicket loss to Nepal
West Indies A’s tour of Nepal got off to an unfortunate start, after they suffered a four-wicket loss to their host in a high scoring opening fixture of their five-match Twenty20 series at the Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur, on Saturday.
Set a formidable 204 by West Indies A, Nepal’s thrilling victory, which was set up by a captain’s knock from Rohit Paudel, etched their names in the history books, as they successfully got to their target at 206-6 with two balls to spare.
Paudel smashed a 54-ball 112, including 10 fours and two sixes to see his team to a 1-0 lead in the series, which West Indies Head coach Darren Sammy said offers his team a chance to define roles and personnel more clearly for their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup squad.
However, the Caribbean side’s all-round effort was found wanting, as only captain Roston Chase (74), Alick Athanaze (47) and Keacy Carty (38) offered any resistance with the bat, while only Obed McCoy (2-34) and Matthew Forde (2-49) had some semblance of success with the ball.
Scores: West Indies A 204-5 (20 overs); Nepal 206-6 (19.4 overs)
Asked to take first strike, after losing the toss, West Indies A suffered an early blow, as they lost Johnson Charles (zero) off the last ball of the opening over, with 16 runs on the board. Andre Fletcher (13) stuck two sixes off five balls, before he too departed via the run-out route, leaving West Indies A at 43-2 in the fourth over.
However, Athanaze went about business, striking three sixes and five fours in a 25-ball knock, as he put on 43 for the third wicket with Chase, prior to his demise. From there, Chase and Carty added another 60 runs in a fourth-wicket stand that defined the innings.
Carty’s 38 off 26 balls, included two fours and three sixes, while Chase, who anchored the innings with a captain’s knock, struck nine fours and two sixes in his 46-ball 74. Kadeem Alleyne, on 14, and Keemo Paul, one, were left not out.
No Nepal bowler took more than one wicket.
With runs on the board, West Indies A would have felt confident of wrapping up a win, even more so, after Forde and McCoy combined to remove openers Anil Sah (five) and Kushal Bhurtel (16) to have Nepal at 38-2 in the fifth over.
West Indies remained in the ascendancy when Fletcher and Charles combined to run out Kushal Malla (16), leaving their host on the ropes at 82-3 at the halfway mark.
However, Paudel showed class, in not only reviving his team’s innings, but pushed them all the way with some aggressive stroke play, assisted by wayward bowling from West Indies A attack at times. Dipendra Singh Airee (24) offered support to his captain in getting Nepal across the line for a famous victory.
Bairstow hails 'ballistic' Kings after record IPL run chase
Jonny Bairstow saluted "ballistic" Punjab Kings following their historic Indian Premier League victory over Kolkata Knight Riders.
The England batter scored an unbeaten century as the Kings successfully chased down 262 - the highest in T20 history - with eight balls to spare at Eden Gardens.
Bairstow hit a wonderful 108 not out from 48 balls - with nine sixes along the way - while Shashank Singh chipped in with 68 from 28 deliveries as the Kings ended their four-game losing streak.
"We knew that we had to go ballistic after how they batted," said the 34-year-old, who made his second IPL century five years after his first. "We had to take risks, and thankfully they came off.
"I've never been faced with a target like that before. So, we knew the powerplay would be important, and if anything is close to being in your area, you've got to make the most of it."
The performances of Bairstow and Singh contributed towards further history, with the overall tally of 42 sixes the highest recorded in a single T20 match.
"Cricket has turned to baseball, hasn't it?!" Punjab skipper Sam Curran added. "Guys can hit balls for long periods of time, the coaches, training, the dew, dot balls become wide after reviews and you get the extra ball. Stats are going of the window."
KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer was left disappointed to see his side's impressive haul overturned, but urged his team-mates to learn from the experience.
"Both teams played tremendously. You have to go back to the drawing board and see where you went wrong," he said. "Not defending hurts, but it's a great lesson for the players."
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