Women’s Ashes Test Report Card, Day Four,

Featuring sloppy wordplay and dorky wizards

Sloppy Wordplay
Grade: D

The fourth day of the Test began with England employing a stunning new tactic of giving every Australian batter a life via a dropped catch. A bold ploy from the home side, even if it was one that didn’t seem to have an immediately obvious link to cricketing success.

And yet, somehow it did? Phoebe Litchfield was the first to benefit from a dropped chance, raising prospects for some wordplay in the vein of Phoebe Misfield. On reflection, however, the wordplay didn’t quite work. It implied she was the one who misfielded, instead of being the one who benefited from it. Also, a dropped catch is much worse than a typical misfield. 

And also once more, by the time we’d really thought through the ramifications of the sloppy punwork, Litchfield was already out, leaving yet another delivery that struck her on the pad. Fortunately for her, this time around the ball continued on after hitting the pad, removing the bails as well. No need for anguish about whether or not to review.

Everything’s coming up Litchfield.