For a while on the first morning of the women’s Ashes Test in Canberra, England had the match firmly in their hands. Then those same hands let it slip, dropping catches in the cordon from Meg Lanning and Rachael Haynes before they both went close to making centuries. By stumps, the score was a hefty 327 for seven.
England captain Heather Knight was sure from years of Big Bash experience that the surface at Manuka Oval would be good for batting throughout the full four days. Confident that any assistance for bowlers would come at the start of the match, she chose to field on winning the toss.
Initially, it worked. Long-time attack leaders Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole found significant swing and got movement off the pitch, with Brunt drawing Alyssa Healy’s edge from a loose drive for a duck before Shrubsole found the edge of Beth Mooney’s defensive push for three. Mooney was playing despite a recently broken jaw, but her courage was not rewarded with Australia’s score at four for two.
The bigger dismissal came when Ellyse Perry top-edged a pull shot from Natalie Sciver on 18. From the Ashes Test in 2017 until that moment, Perry had made 492 Test runs for a solitary dismissal. As wicketkeeper Amy Jones ran around to backward square leg to tumble for her third catch, Perry was out for 18, and Australia were 43 for three.
Just before lunch, England had the chance to seize the Test. Left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone came on for a solitary over, turning the ball away from the right-hander. Lanning offered an outside edge to the left of Knight at slip, who got hands to the regulation chance but deflected it. Lanning would have been out for 14, the score would have been 78 for four, and the session would have been undoubtedly England’s. Instead, given Australia’s deep batting, honours were fairly even.
In the second session Haynes was given two reprieves, first by Shrubsole running around a possible catch at mid-on instead of attacking it, then by Sciver half-diving to her left at second slip for a thick edge off Brunt at a comfortable height. Haynes was on 42 for the first error, 44 for the second, and until that point had been taking on the bowling especially through point while her partners had struggled.
Shrubsole produced a good spell to Lanning, finding inside and outside edges while swinging the ball in at the pads. But most everything else went Australia’s way as Lanning and Haynes batted through the session and raised half-centuries, with Lanning passing her curiously low Test best of 57.
Ecclestone has become England’s major weapon, but dropped short consistently and was punished on the cut and the pull. Likewise Kate Cross, who drew Lanning’s edge on a couple of occasions but also offered fodder for her strength through point. Off-spinner Charlie Dean on debut produced nice flight and occasional turn but rarely looked threatening, though Knight used a DRS review for a Lanning sweep that could have been gloved to slip or out leg before wicket, but was neither.
By tea Lanning was 84 and Haynes 82, and Australia were cruising at 199 for three. The third session saw England come to life for a moment. Sciver’s outswinger had Lanning driving on 93 for Knight to take a diving catch at a wide slip, ending the partnership on 169. Three balls later, Brunt got a ball to rocket off the surface at Haynes, surprising the left-hander into gloving a catch to Jones on 86. Australia had new players in Tahlia McGrath and Ash Gardner at the crease.
They were happy to take the game on though, with Gardner hooking the first six of the match and both players driving powerfully down the ground and square, especially facing spin. Gardner raced to 50 from 63 balls before Brunt trapped her lbw for 56, while McGrath reached 52 via a successful lbw review against Shrubsole and another drop at point by Sophia Dunkley. Sciver got McGrath’s edge from the last ball of the day for Jones to take a fifth catch, but Australia will resume with capable batters in Annabel Sutherland and Jess Jonassen, while England will be wondering what might have been.
