With eight overs to go and lower-order clouter Sophie Ecclestone newly arrived to the crease, the television commentary started talking up her skills. The kind of player who can hit sixes from ball one, we were told. A few seconds later, from ball two of that over, Ecclestone played the opposite of a six-hitting attempt: a dink into the leg-side. Leading edge, caught midwicket. Moments later, England were all out for 204.
The ninth wicket to fall was far from the most important, but it was emblematic of an England performance that went nowhere close to any players’ ability. Losing the first ODI of the Women’s Ashes was always more likely than not, but limpness in defeat is something else. Tammy Beaumont and Alice Capsey suffocated among dot balls. Heather Knight, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Amy Jones, and Danni Wyatt-Hodge all got up and running, 13 fours and two sixes between them, but none reached 40, coughing up catches looking to hit big.
