Wigan return to top as York and Leeds also win
Wigan Warriors thrashed Leigh Leopards 60-6 to extend their unbeaten start and return to the top of Women's Super League.Amidst heavy rain, Denis Betts' side easily overcame the Leopards, who started the day fourth in the table, to make it five wins out of five in the league. Wigan scored 11 tries, including a hat-trick from Grace Banks, whilst the visitors could only muster one at the Robin Park Arena.In the other 14:00 BST kick-off, reigning champions York Valkyrie withstood a second-half Huddersfield Giants comeback to snatch a late 24-20 win and keep their hopes of defending their title intact. And in the lunchtime kick-off, Leeds Rhinos romped to a 66-4 win over Barrow, scoring 12 unanswered tries after the Raiders had opened the scoring in the first minute.
Wigan dominate Leigh
St Helens' win over Warrington on Saturday had seen Wigan drop to second in the table, but they took early command against Leigh with Eva Hunter's try and a 60m solo run from Banks.Struggling with Wigan's physicality, things got bad from worse for Leigh as tries from Tiana Power, Anna Davies and Mia Atherton, plus second scores from Hunter and Banks, made it 38-0 at the break.The Leopards got their first points on the board soon after the restart through Katie Howard.But it proved mere consolation as Georgia Wilson responded for Wigan, crossing over in the corner for the hosts' eighth try.Davies and Atherton then scored their second tries, while Banks completed her hat-trick with seconds left.
Valkyrie withstand fightback as Leeds romp to win
York needed a late try from Sinead Peach to win at Huddersfield after an impressive comeback from the Giants.It looked like it was going to be a straightforward afternoon for the champions when they led 18-4 at the break through tries from Tamzin Renouf, Zoe Hornby and Jas Bell, with Amelia Brown responding for the Giants.However, Huddersfield cut York's lead with further tries from Bethan Oates and Fran Copley, before Brown got her second to give the hosts the lead.But with three minutes left, Peach went over to put Valkyrie back in front, with Rhiannion Marshall adding the extras. It was more straightforward for Leeds, despite them falling behind to Barrow when Vanessa Temple scored in the first minute.After that it was one-way traffic for the third-placed Rhinos as Ebony Stead ran in four tries and Sophie Nuttall scored a hat-trick.Evie Cousins, Frankie Blakey, Ella Donnelly, Connie Boyd and Liv Whitehead also crossed for dominant Leeds.
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It will be like that for Brook, whose batting had lit up a grey, blustery third day of this first Test. His crestfallen, horrified visage when he pulled a short ball from Prasidh Krishna straight into the clutches of Shardul Thakur at deep backward square, dismissed one run adrift of his century, testified to that. Suddenly, it did not seem to matter that he had just played an innings of savage beauty, that he had smoked the India attack all around the ground, clubbing its bowlers into submission with 11 fours and two towering sixes, dragging England back into this match. All that mattered was that he was out for 99. His dismissal made him the 81st player dismissed for 99 in Test cricket, the 14th Englishman and the first anywhere for three years since Travis Head fell for Australia against the West Indies in Perth. Jonny Bairstow had been the last England player to meet that fate, trapped lbw against South Africa at Old Trafford in August 2017. Brook's removal, by such an obvious, familiar old bowling trap, was part of a pattern of England players giving away their wickets unwisely here, and was made worse by the fact Headingley is his home ground. Maybe the chance to score a Test century here in front of fans that adore him will come again to a player as prodigiously talented as he is. Maybe it won't. A century is such a random target in so many ways. And yet the difference between three figures and two bestows greatness on an innings and falling one short confers sporting tragedy upon it, as if it would have been better to have fallen far earlier than to have just missed the mark. But cricket loves numbers. It obsesses about them. Not just in its statistics and its averages but in its staging posts. They say 111, a Nelson, is unlucky because it resembles three stumps. The Australians regard 87 with unease because it is 13 short of a century. Zero is never good, either. Ninety-nine, though, is cricket's number of the beast. Perhaps it is also because it gives an opponent so much succour. It is almost better than getting someone out cheaply. Getting a batsman out for 99 is a cause for unrestrained glee in the ranks of the opposition. It is as if there is great sustenance to be had from feasting on a player's crushing disappointment. It is as if a humiliation has been visited upon the batsman, even though he has just spent several hours getting the better of a group of bowlers. It is wrapped up in the idea that when the prize that is coveted so much was there for the taking, the batsman lost his nerve and showed weakness. Some find dark humour in the unfortunate's fate. When Shane Warne slog-swept a ball from Daniel Vettori into the air and into the hands of Mark Richardson at the WACA in 2001, Richardson bowed theatrically to the crowd and Ricky Ponting admitted some of the Aussies were 'laughing into their lockers'. Warne never did score a Test century. 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He looked like the embarrassed duck that Australian broadcasters flash up when a batsman is dismissed without scoring. At one point he even dropped his bat as he walked, as if he were losing his senses. Rishabh Pant, India's wicketkeeper, gave him a consoling pat as he ran to join his team-mates but Brook did not notice. Brydon Carse, the next batsman in, crossed with him near the boundary rope and half put an arm round him in consolation. Brook did not notice that, either. He is in the club now, like it or not. Clem Hill, the first man to be dismissed for 99 in a Test against England at Melbourne in 1902, scored 98 and 97 in the next Test at Adelaide. Good for the average, good for the team, but poison to that pursuit of three figures that consumes Brook and every batsman who has followed Hill to the crease since.
