It was one of those moments where the needle scratches on the record; when the usual rhythms of red-ball cricket are suddenly altered by a disturbance, prompting backsides on to the edges of seats and eyes to laser in on the action.
Things had seemed so sedate too. On a sunny morning at Trent Bridge, as Australia’s mighty women’s team began their multi-format Ashes defence in this one-off Test match, it did not take long for a sense of normal service having resumed.
Kate Cross was granted an lbw decision Phoebe Litchfield should have reviewed and a couple of catches went to grass off Beth Mooney. But 90 minutes in, with the score 66 for one from 17 overs, it was becoming apparent that on a dry surface with a light tinge of emerald wickets may not come easily for England.
Enter Lauren Filer, Heather Knight unveiling her shiny new fast bowler 30 minutes before lunch, and with a healthy 6,000-strong crowd offering welcoming applause.
Filer, took a moment, adjusted her ponytail, shared a laugh and a smile with her captain and then set off from the Radcliffe Road End.
From the moment the ball left her fingertips it was clear this was something different, something sharper and skiddier. Ellyse Perry was pushed back, forced on to the back foot, her front pad thudded and, amid imploring appeals, the right finger of the umpire, Sue Redfern, went up.
Surrey's Will Jacks (pictured) hit five sixes in an over on his way to 96 from 45 balls, but Middlesex replied with a record-breaking chase to win their Vitality Blast clash by seven wickets at the Oval.
The hosts posted a mammoth 252 for seven, but Stephen Eskinazi and Max Holden both hit rapid half-centuries as Middlesex pulled off the highest chase in Blast history and the second highest in T20 matches around the world.
Eskinazi got the innings of to a flyer, hitting 73 from 39 balls, including 90 in just 6.3 overs with opening partner Joe Cracknell, who made 36 off 16.
Holden then took Middlesex over the line with an unbeaten 68 off 35 balls, while Ryan Higgins smacked 48 off 24. Incredibly, it was Middlesex's first win in 15 T20 games, stretching back to last summer.
Jacks had earlier shared an extraordinary opening stand of 177 in a mere 12.4 overs with Laurie Evans, whose own contribution was an explosive 37-ball 85.
Harrison Ward's quick-fire half-century helped Sussex Sharks to a comfortable seven-wicket win over Gloucestershire in Bristol.
The 23-year-old slogged 51 from 27 balls, including five sixes and two fours, with his opening partnership of 83 with Tom Clark proving vital as they reached their target of 141 with 6.4 overs to spare. PA Media
Perry reflex-reviewed and the crowd sighed as the inside edge was proven. But this was some opening gambit from the 22-year-old, pace injected into the game. Hawkeye clocked this loosener at 75mph – the start of an over that CricViz soon had as the fastest on record for England in a Test match, 72.3mph on average and a high of 76mph.
This is a new science, it has to be stressed, the data going back just five Tests out of the 101 England have played since 1934. But then it wasn’t about the numbers anyway, it was the feel out there.
Filer was suddenly asking different questions to the swing of Cross and Lauren Bell, going back of length, hitting the splice and, with the odd delivery straying, an element of surprise with it.
Boooom! First of many for Lauren 💥 https://t.co/qioHQy0MoZ
— Jack Brooks (@BrooksyFerret) June 22, 2023
And then 18 deliveries in, the moment arrived and Mooney’s earlier luck evaporated.
Shaping up to a ball on off stump with a smidgeon of seam away, a player with 145 international caps, five centuries and a bulging trophy cabinet pushed away from her body on 33 with a punched drive, sent a thick edge to gully and saw Cross cling on.
Knight’s players erupted, Filer began a cascade of high fives and after that initial deflation an England career finally had lift-off.
And Filer is all energy out there, haring in from roughly 12 paces and offering a flicker of the ball behind her back in the wind-up; a bit like Bob Willis (or, more recently on this ground, Alastair Cook doing an impression of Bob Willis).
Her spell after lunch there was a battle with Tahlia McGrath, with bouncers ducked and an edge through vacant slip before the skill of Sophie Ecclestone rattled her off stump in the following over.
Then at 5.40pm, in her third spell, Australia to 238 for five from 60 overs after the rain, she topped the lot. The great Perry’s latest display of technical precision and singular focus having taken her one short of a third Test century, only to cut hard at a Filer’s latest arrow and send it scorching into the hands of Nat Sciver-Brunt at backward point.
An excellent catch, no question, but also the effect of a bowler offering her captain a point of difference. Come stumps, as Australia closed on 328 for seven, Knight was grateful for it.
Filer’s call-up to the squad came after impressing Knight and the head coach, Jon Lewis, with her early-season performances for Western Storm. She nudged out Issy Wong in the final selection which, given the justified excitement around Wong and her rise to prominence in white-ball cricket, was a pretty decent endorsement. When Filer received her cap in the morning session, Knight told her to “still be that young girl who wants to run in, bowl quickly and take poles”. Didn’t she just.
It also followed a remodelling of her action over the winter, working with England’s specialist bowling coach, Matt Mason, and Somerset’s Jack Brooks during his four-month secondment to the Western Storm staff – a healthy return on the investment of increased professionalism in the women’s game.
But professional women’s cricket is past the point of needing justification in pieces like this one. This was all about the contest on the day; the pegging back of the Australian juggernaut in this Ashes opener, the skill of Ecclestone and a youngster with eye-catching pace getting the needle to scratch on the record.
