In a World Cup group that includes Rashid Khan and Josh Hazlewood, the world’s two highest-ranked Twenty20 bowlers, as well as such luminaries as Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins, one man now reigns supreme. It is the perhaps unlikely figure of Sam Curran, who has become a source of energy and inspiration for England, and who, as of Tuesday night, had taken more wickets at the Super 12 stage than any other player, and as many as Australia’s famous three seamers combined .
And he’s not just sweeping through the lower order: in Tuesday’s crucial match against New Zealand in Brisbane, he stood in for Finn Allen and Glenn Phillips, two of the Black Caps’ most explosive and dangerous batsmen. In England’s opener, he dismissed Afghanistan’s top two scorers, Ibrahim Zadran and Usman Ghani (before sweeping through the lower order).
But the moment at the Gabba that really symbolized his value to the team did not come when he was bowling. The sheer enthusiasm with which he celebrated catching Jimmy Neesham proved contagious – despite taking the wicket of Kane Williamson in the last over England it had started to seem a little short of ideas, but that catch was quickly followed by a couple of more wickets, and with them the match.
“It’s just excitement,” he said of that celebration. “When you’re out there and it’s a big crowd and you know there’s a game on the line, those moments really get you going.”
Curran is one of those players who thrives in the heat of the big moment, and has now become vital – in both senses of the word, essential and lively – in a team that, after the shock of losing to Ireland and being washed out by Australia, suddenly stands three wins and some complicated net orbital velocities from the title.
After Tuesday night, he has played as many T20 internationals in 2022 as in the rest of his career combined. Injuries have held him back at times, most notably the stress fracture that ruled him out of last year’s World Cup, but he has also improved significantly, particularly as a death bowler.
Kemp became the youngest England cricketer to score a T20I half-century when she hit 51 against India this summer, while Capsey won her second consecutive hundred title with the Oval Invincibles and became a regular in the national team.
Five others have dropped out of the 18-strong panel as a result, with Anya Shrubsole retiring and Georgia Elwiss, Katie George, Mady Villiers and Lauren Winfield-Hill overlooked.
Jonathan Finch, Director of England Women’s Cricket, said: “We have a really exciting 12 months of cricket ahead of us and we feel that this group of players will form the foundation of our side that will take us through various bilateral series, the Women’s Ashes and the ICC T20 -Women’s WC.\” PA Media
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Alice Capsey and Freya Kemp get central contracts in England.
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Teenagers Alice Capsey and Freya Kemp are among six new faces to receive their first central England contracts. Capsey, 18, and Kemp, 17, have both enjoyed rapid rises to the international stage and have now been formally added to the England payroll, joining fellow all-rounders Charlie Dean and Emma Lamb and pace pair Lauren Bell and Issy Wong.
Kemp became the youngest England cricketer to score a T20I half-century when she hit 51 against India this summer, while Capsey won her second consecutive hundred title with the Oval Invincibles and became a regular in the national team.
Five others have dropped out of the 18-strong panel as a result, with Anya Shrubsole retiring and Georgia Elwiss, Katie George, Mady Villiers and Lauren Winfield-Hill overlooked.
Jonathan Finch, Director of England Women’s Cricket, said: “We have a really exciting 12 months of cricket ahead of us and we feel that this group of players will form the foundation of our side that will take us through various bilateral series, the Women’s Ashes and the ICC T20 -Women’s World Cup.” PA Media
“You have to try to enjoy it,” he said. “It’s just a great tournament and a high standard of cricket. It really tests you, and you just have to back yourself in those moments. I’ve done it many times, but I guess I do it more often now. Jos [Buttler] and I’ll have a conversation about what I’m most comfortable with and what the surface does, and Mo [Ali] will be involved as well but at the end of the day it is out of your hand so you are the one who has to perform. They put a lot of trust in me and it’s up to me to deliver.”
It was Curran who bowled when Phillips hooked Chris Jordan at long-on, a moment that felt like it decided the match. And it was Curran who bowled when the match was effectively decided, the run rate slipping out of reach for New Zealand in the final over, both arms thrown into the air in another celebration. Now level with the Kiwis and Australia at the top of the Group One table, England will know exactly what they need to do to reach the semi-finals when they play Sri Lanka on Saturday.
“With the position we’re in, we hope Australia lose on Friday night, but all we’re focused on is putting in a good performance,” Curran said. “The last week has been quite strange. It felt like we were just training and not much was happening, with all the rain in Melbourne. But now we go to Sydney and it’s really game time I think. It’s almost like that the quarter-final feeling, which I have never experienced.”
All available evidence suggests that he will take to it quite well.
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