Women’s Ashes Under Way

Yesterday morning the Women’s Ashes got underway with day one of a five day test match (this move being not before time – see here). This post looks at the action so far.

THE PRELIMINARIES

The warm up matches (England v Australia A and England A v Australia) both went better for England than Australia. England’s chosen XI included an international debutant in Lauren Filer and a test debutant in Danni Wyatt. Filer was part of seam/ pace trio alongside veteran Kate Cross and the tall swing bowler Lauren Bell, while the front line spinner was inevitably Sophie Ecclestone. In addition to these Natalie Sciver-Brunt’s medium pace, Sophia Dunkley’s leg spin and Heather Knight’s off spin were also available as back up options. Australia’s side included Ellyse Perry, adding to her many entries in the record books by taking part in a tenth Women’s Ashes series. They opted for two front line spinner, Ashleigh Gardner and Alana King. They also had such strength in the batting department that Annabel Sutherland, a regular number three in Australian domestic cricket and coming off the back of a century in her warm up game was at number eight (she is a seam bowling all rounder, and has a better record at the age of 21 than Perry did when she was that age. Australia won the toss and chose to bat.

DAY ONE

Yesterday was a work day for me, so I missed a lot of the action, but tuned in just in time to catch Sophie Ecclestone’s second wicket. Two balls later Aussie skipper Alyssa Healy was out for duck and it was 226-5. That was as good as it got for England, and by the end of the day Australia were 328-7, with Sutherland going well.

DAY TWO

The second morning definitely belonged to Australia. Bell claimed the wicket of Alana King, but Kim Garth has providing staunch support for the brilliant Sutherland since then. Australia have just reached 450, with Sutherland now on 121. Ecclestone has been by far the best of the England bowlers, and now has figures of 44-9-115-3, with the rest of the attack going at closer to five an over than four – rather a contrast to the men’s test, when England’s supposed front line spinner was the one getting smacked around while the seamers were significantly more economical (on a side note, the England men’s selectors seem to have realized that persisting with Ali is not on – Rehan Ahmed has just been added to their squad). Although Australia are in a very strong position England are themselves a powerful batting side, with an opener, Beaumont, coming off a double century in her warm up match and a few others in good form. As I type this Garth has just been given LBW to Ecclestone, though she has reviewed it, it has been confirmed as out and Australia are 457-9, Ecclestone has 4-120 in her 45th over of the innings. Darcie Brown, the sole member of this Aussie XI with no batting pedigree has joined Sutherland at the crease.

PHOTOGRAPHS

The first four pictures in today’s gallery were taken a few days earlier than any of the others, which all date from the last couple of days. To view a photo at full size just click on it.