After the best part of a century, then, the England cricket team finally made their debut in the Commonwealth Games. The firework smoke had not even cleared when Katherine Brunt, who had been presented with a ceremonial cap before the start of play to mark the start of her 100th international T20 match, dismissed Vishmi Gunaratne lbw with the very first delivery. For a minute Brunt seemed to be the only person in Edgbaston who had realised what had happened, and her appeal echoed out loudly around the stunned ground. And then the umpire’s finger went up and everyone else joined in with her.
The place was about a third full, which was a fair turnout by the standards of some of the events at the Games, but considerably less than the organisers had promised were going to attend. England’s games were supposed to be all sold out.
