Key events
WICKET! England 11-3 (c S Ameen b Waheeda 5)
Pakistan are rampant! Alice Capsey has fallen to the first ball of the third over, slogging Waheeda high in the air to mid-on.
2nd over: England 11-2 (Capsey 5, Knight 0) That was the last ball of the over. Hearther Knight is the new batter.
WICKET! England 11-2 (Wyatt c Gull Feroza b Sadia 1)
Well this is going well. Danni Wyatt hoicks the left-arm spinner Sadia Iqbal straight to mid-on, where Gull Feroza takes a comfortable catch and sets off on an aeroplane celebration. England are in a bit of bother.
1st over: England 8-1 (Wyatt 0, Capsey 4) Capsey almost falls first ball! She inside-edged Waheeda low to the left of the keeper Muneeba, who barely got a glove on the ball as she swooped to her left. Instead the ball ran away for four.
WICKET! England 4-1 (Bouchier c Dar b Waheeda 4)
Maia Bouchier falls to the fourth ball of the innings! After dragging a boundary past short fine leg, she toe-ended a drive towards mid-off, where Dar ran in to take a well-judged catch.
Here come the players. First the Pakistan team, led by their new captain Nida Dar, then the England openers Danni Wyatt and Maia Bouchier.
Coverage of women’s cricket has improved so much in the past decade, and it’s great to see that Wisden now have a dedicated weekly podcast. The first episode is highly recommended.
Team news
No surprises in the England team, which in itself is a surprise of sorts. In times gone by, England playing three spinners at home – four if you count Alice Capsey – would have led to questions in parliament.
England Bouchier, Wyatt, Capsey, Knight (c), Kemp, Jones (wk), Gibson, Dean, Ecclestone, Glenn, Bell.
Pakistan S Ameen, Gull Feroza, Sadaf, Muneeba (wk), Dar (c), Pervaiz, Fatima, Tuba, Rameen, Waheeda, Sadia.
Pakistan win the toss and bowl
Nida Dar says the pitch looks a bit green and should help their bowlers. Heather Knight says she would have had a bat, so that was a waste of everyone’s time.
There’s plenty going on in the men’s game today, including the aforementioned announcement from Sir Jimmy Anderson. Taha Hashim has written about it, while Jim Wallace is at The Oval keeping an eye on all the county scores. Don’t worry, you we don’t expect blogogamy round here.
And this is probably my favourite piece on Anderson’s artistry.
Preamble
Won’t you look at all this sunshine? It can mean only one thing: that for once, England’s international summer will begin in summery weather. They face Pakistan at Edgbaston in the first of six white-ball games: three T20s then three ODIs.
Now look, strictly between us, this isn’t an Ashes summer, so there won’t be quite the same excitement as there was a year ago. But the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh is less than five months away, and England haven’t won that thing since 2009.
You don’t need help from AI to name nine, perhaps 10, of Jon Lewis’s like XI for their first World Cup game. The most open position is at No7, and two of the contenders are likely to play today. Freya Kemp, who is only able to bat at the moment because of her recovery from a back injury, will fill in for Nat Sciver-Brunt at No5. Dani Gibson is likely to be the actual No7.
England are expected to beat Pakistan, though we said the same when they played Sri Lanka a year ago. Jimmy Anderson isn’t the only legend heading for retirement; this is Pakistan’s first series without Bismah Maroof, their leading runscorer in both white-ball codes, who has called it a day after 17 years of international cricket.
The match starts at 2.30pm.