Posted by For a while there, it looked like two of the three main cricket disciplines were going to be enough for Pakistan.
Tammy Beaumont got bowled, Amy Jones got bowled and Nat Sciver-Brunt got bowled.
At this point, Heather Knight called on all her years of experience and came up with the idea of sticking her leg in the way.
She was out lbw.
Then Emma Lamb was bowled before Sophia Dunkley and Alice Capsey were both out lbw.
At this point, it rained for a bit and after a delay, England forced Pakistan to do something they really did not want to do. Charlie Dean in particular, forced them to field.
She and Em Arlott turned 78-7 into 125-7, at which point Pakistan brought on a substitute fielder, Syeda Aroob Shah, to run Arlott out.
Positively delirious at having opened up a whole new world of fielder-assisted wicket-taking possibilities, Omaima Sohail then took a catch to dismiss Dean.
After a little bit of Pakistan batting, it rained again.
Classic English use of the rain as extra player. Hopefully people will remember this one for a while and not say things like “of course the rain never works in our favour”.
Meanwhile a shame for Pakistan, although they were perhaps leaving it a bit late to develop a winning streak. A moral victory.
It really carried the side on this occasion. Probably can’t count on it for a match-winning contribution in the final though.
There have been several excellent matches in this Women’s World Cup so far. Unfortunately, those being held in rain-soaked Colombo (who knew that this might happen during the wet season?) have tended to be the damp squib ones.
Joking apart about Charlie Dean, I have been most impressed by her rapid progress of late as an international quality player.
England women have their toughest challenges yet to come, of course, with India and Australia still to face in the group stages (and then probably at least one of them again in the knockout stages). I’m holding fire on thoughts about the team’s progress under Charlotte Edwards until we see them against that opposition. The big win against South Africa was an outlier, as was the rain-saved no result against Pakistan.
Very much, ‘progress, yes – but how much?’ in our book. (Can we still use that term now that we have a literal book (which doesn’t contain these thoughts)?)
Yes, you can still use the term “in our book”.
After all, you might, like me, already have more than one book. The absence of the thought in one book does not make it an inappropriate phrase for another book, past, present or future.
Or, as in your case, you might only have one book for now, but at some point there might be that dreaded, awkward second one, and then, who knows, a whole suite of books ahead of you.
As a final possibility, your book might be cancelled at the last minute – this is the cancel culture after all, which would return you to the hoards of people who use the phrase, “in my book” without having an actual book to their name.
I hope this helps.
We feel at ease again.
After today, you might feel at ease again about the England Women’s team, as well as feeling at ease again about your choice use of idiomatic phrases.