Open and score - Amy Jones in familiar territory

It was Amy Jones’ day out in sun again. It was Amy Jones, who knocked the stuffing out of Pakistan bowlers again. It was Jones who made sure Pakistan batters were chasing a daunting target again. 

Jones didn’t get off to a rollicking start in the second T20I against Pakistan on Thursday (December 19). She was on 12 off 11 balls when the third over was completed. Then she opened up. After hitting a four off Diana Baig, she targeted Anam Amin, the left-arm spinner, by making room and hitting a six over extra covers. Then a couple of balls later, she collected a four to fine leg. Without much ado, she had managed to take 12 from that over – the last of the power play.

From then, there was no respite for Pakistan’s spinners, Nida Dar, Bismah Maroof. Often criticized for starting slowly against spinners, Jones played the field brilliantly, using her feet and exploiting gaps to find the boundary regularly. Eventually, she finished with 89 that came in 52 balls.

In the ODIs, she batted at number five, clearly not a position she enjoys batting at. The first ODI warranted her to attack from the word go after walking in in the 47^th over with the score reading 265 for three. She faced eight deliveries and scored seven runs and was out to Rameen Shamim, the off-spinner. In the second ODI she had a bit more time with 20 overs remaining. But she could make only 17 off 22 balls, falling to Dar. That only made the case for her to open the batting stronger. England, then, had opted to open with Danielle Wyatt and Tammy Beaumont, both of whom scored tons in the opening ODI.

Jones made her international debut in limited overs cricket in 2013 as someone who batted in the middle and the lower order. However, when she was sent to open for the first time in 2016, her strike rate – both in ODIs and T20Is shot up. Another sign that she loves batting at the top of the order. In the three-T20I series against Sri Lanka in March 2019, she opened in two games and registered scores of 36 and 57, striking at 150 in each of them, clearly showing that opening is what suits her.

In the T20Is against Pakistan, when finally, Jones got an opportunity to open, she seized it with both hands, scoring successive half centuries in the process. She has taken her opening batting credentials to new level. An attacking opener is someone every team loves to have. Jones’ run provides just that for England.  A problem of plenty isn’t really a problem, is it?