How can the Bears be so good yet Warwickshire be so bad?

Essex (235/8 from 32 overs) beat Warwickshire (204/8 from 32 overs) by 27 runs (DLS)

Warwickshire are a very strange cricket team. Don’t get me wrong – I really like them. This is a county who clearly value the women’s side, who put in resources, who make the main ground available to them on a very regular basis (Surrey and Nottinghamshire – take note).

They have a wonderful mix of players: the experience of Abbie Freeborn, Em Arlott, Bethan Ellis and Katie George alongside a mix of players almost all of whom are under 23. Led by 26-year-old Georgia Davis, they are hard-working, unpretentious and have some of the most promising young players in England, most notably the magnificent Davina Perrin, whose performance in the Hundred has elevated her to the status of global superstar.

As “The Bears”, they got to the semi-final of the T20 County Cup and to the final of the T20 Blast, playing fearless, energetic and entertaining cricket. Issy Wong was very much at the forefront as they dismantled The Blaze at the Oval in the Blast Eliminator game, hitting a swash-buckling 50 and spectacularly removing The Blaze’s openers in the first over of their reply.

And yet they have only managed to win two out of their 12 games in the Metro Bank One Day Cup this season. One of the reasons for this is that their young, brilliant players are inexperienced and inconsistent. Even Issy Wong, who is capable of bowling magnificent spells of four overs in a T20 match, doesn’t seem able to find the rhythm and consistency needed to bowl 10 consistently good overs in a 50 over match.

The best illustration of this inconsistency is the fact that nine Warwickshire batters have scored half-centuries in this year’s Metro Bank One Day Cup. This is more than any other county – and yet no Warwickshire batter averages more than 33.2, which is the lowest “highest” batting average of all the counties – in fact many counties have four or five batters averaging more than this. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.

With both sides propping up the Metro Bank One Day Cup table after 11 games, and nothing but pride to play for, Warwickshire opted to experiment in today’s game, giving a first 50 over match of the season to Hannah Hardwick, a second start to Phoebe Brett, and a third start to Amu Surenkumar.

On a grey morning, when rain seemed inevitable, Warwickshire invited Essex to bat first. It seemed to be a plan that had backfires as Scrivens and Dowse piled on the runs – reaching 67/0 after 10 overs, thanks in no small part to some wayward bowling from Hannah Hardwick and Issy Wong, conceding 33 runs from the first three overs, including eight wides. Hardwick was withdrawn from the attack and the introduction of Phoebe Brett in the fifth over restored some control for Warwickshire. Wong continued through the powerplay, delivering two more wides in the 10^th over, alongside a couple of decent, more accurate overs. Phoebe Brett and Georgia Davis removed openers Scrivens and Dowse with the first balls of the 11^th and 12^th overs, pegging back Essex, with new batters Grewcock and Smale cautiously defending as grey clouds hung heavy over Portland Road. The advent of rain in the 14^th over brought a delay of just over three hours and a subsequent reduction in overs to 32 per side.

Knowing that only 18 overs remained to amass a defendable total, Smale began well, hitting three boundaries down the ground in consecutive overs, but her miscued attempt to loft her former England under-19 team mate Hannah Baker over mid-off resulted in a catch for Hannah Hardwick in the ring, much to Smale’s disappointment and frustration. This has been overall a difficult season for the former Western Storm player, who has clearly struggled with her bowling, having remodelled her action, and whose batting has not developed as much as she and Essex would have hoped.

Having made it to 115/4 from 20 overs, Essex impressively managed to add another 120 from the final 12 overs, thanks to the combined efforts of Jo Gardner, Sophie Munro and Amara Carr. It would be fair to say they did receive some assistance from some fairly wayward bowling by Warwickshire. Georgia Davis had to decide which two of her bowlers to give an allocation of 7 overs rather than 6. She chose herself – it is the captain’s prerogative after all, but then, instead of choosing Phoebe Brett – her most economical bowler – she chose Issy Wong to bowl her 7^th over as the penultimate over of the innings. It went for 19 runs and included two more wides. With Essex ending on 235/7, Warwickshire were set 232 to win using the DLS method (no – I don’t understand it either – I just accept it as true).

Meg Austin and Bethan Ellis opened for Warwickshire and both looked very good in the opening overs as Austin motored her way to 19 runs, including three consecutive boundaries (one of them a huge six) from Esmae McGregor. The arrival of Abtaha Maqsood in the 7^th over changed the game. She removed both openers, making the most of some uneven and erratic bounce on the damp surface to bowl Austin and trap Ellis lbw.

Only Amu Surenkumar was able to put an innings of substance together, as she became Warwickshire’s 9^th player of the season to score a One Day 50 – her first List A half century. The rest of Warwickshire’s innings was a procession of cameos as batters tried to keep up with the run rate only to be caught in the ring or on the boundary, the most spectacular catch belonging to Sophia Smale as she dived and clung on to the ball on the square leg boundary to dismiss Issy Wong.

In the end, the game petered out into an easy victory for the Essex team, Warwickshire 27 runs short of their target. For Essex, McGregor and Maqsood were the pick of the bowlers, both collecting three wickets at about a run a ball. Having dismissed their coach last week, it will be a winter of rebuilding and introspection for a team who lifted the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy this time last year.

For Warwickshire, they have had a great T20 season, but it seems that they need a really good 50 over batter to provide a bit of backbone to their side in the longer format of the game. At Durham, Suzie Bates and Hollie Armitage have provided that sort of solidity in support of a young team, resulting in a possible semi-final slot if results go well for them this week. Maybe a high calibre overseas batter for next season would be the element that enables Warwickshire to be just as good as the Bears.