Right, that’s it from me. I’m going to try and get a couple of hours sleep before morning. Thanks to anyone out there for tuning in, and to Ravi for his tweets! A disappointing game for England, who are yet to win a match this series, but a pleasing one for Australia, who WIN THE ASHES and can delight in seeing Perry back to her best with bat and ball. We’ll be back late on Monday night.Have a lovely day.
Well, that wasn’t a box-office thriller. Australia used their innings to safely row towards the shore rather than try any fancy detours. England’s bowling was adequate, did the job , but without much ballast from the batters. A few problems for England at the top order, they’re so reliant on Heather Knight which puts a huge responsibility on her shoulders. We wait, incidentally, to hear any news on Kate Cross’s injury - who took two wickets.
They’ve already rattled through the media presentations - the player of the match is Ellyse Perry; Heather Knight is disappointed in what might have been on a slow pitch; Meg Lanning would have liked to finish a little bit better with the bat but is very happy, says Perry is bowling better than she’s seen her bowl for a long time.
Australia win by five wickets and WIN the Ashes
35.2 over: Australia 131-5 (Gardener 31, Sutherland 2) Easy does it, with a couple past the mid-off fielder then four leg byes. Australia have now not only retained but WON the Ashes, taking an unassailable 10-4 lead in the series with just one game to go.
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35th over: Australia 125-5 (Gardener 29, Sutherland 2) Australia need five runs to win! Enough! says Gardener: she sends Shrubsole for six without moving a muscles in her boots, then pulls a short one for four more.
34th over: Australia 114-5 (Gardener 18, Sutherland 2)Charlie Dean gets a second and a direct hit from her last ball would have seen a run-out.
33rd over: Australia 111-5 (Gardener 16, Sutherland 2) Gardener eyes up a wide one from Shrubsoleand square drives it bounteously. Peculiarly, if/when Australia win this game - it will be the first time they’ve won the women’s Ashes at home since 2010-11. Cross, by the way, is off the field. They take DRINKS before the final act.
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32nd over: Australia 106-5 (Gardener 11, Sutherland 2) At last Charlie Dean gets a bowl: not much left in the game for her to play with but she’s neat. A single a piece.
31st over: Australia 104-5 (Gardener 10, Sutherland 1) Australia crawling towards their target - but they can afford to. Just file your nails and froth up some morning milk.
30th over: Australia 102-5 (Gardener 9, Sutherland 0) Ecclestone polishes off her spell - bowled straight through. Gives away as little as usual - just a single from it - but unusually wicketless. As they pointed out on the radio - England scored so few that Australia didn’t have to take risks against her.
29th over: Australia 101-5 (Gardener 8, Sutherland 0) Knight beckons Shrubsole back into the attack, and she’s on the money straight away.
Some wisdom from the oracle that is Raf:
The problem isn't so much that the ECB's investment in women's cricket back in 2015 was "top-heavy". England's international players were never better paid than Australia's. (1/3)
— Raf Nicholson (@RafNicholson) February 6, 2022
28th over: Australia 100-5 (Gardener 7, Sutherland 0) Ecclestone rattles through her ninth over - wicketless but effective. It feels like that Perry dismissal was too little too late, but crazy things do happen. Nicely played by Perry - she didn’t zip along but sensibly pulled Australia along with her.
WICKET! Perry run-out (Cross) 40 (Australia 100-5)
Perry calls for a quick single, but she’s not quick enough to beat the crocked Cross’s direct hit from mid-on, even with a dive.
27th over: Australia 99-4 ( Perry 40, Gardener 6) Cross continues, despite the dodgy digit. But perhaps all isn’t quite well as the over goes for 12. Perry whoop-a-loops her for six over mid-off and a glorious four through the covers from Gardner.
@tjaldred I earlier predicted England would get three early wickets but Australia would finish it off by over 30. Not looking like quite coming true. But close?
— Ravi Nair #FBPE #PerfectPorkPie #JohnsonOut#FBPPR (@palfreyman1414) February 6, 2022
26th over: Australia 87-4 ( Perry 33, Gardener 1) Perry drives Ecclestone and Cross injures herself at mid-off. It looks nasty - wrist or finger - but the plucky thing lets the physio do something revolting, and she plays on.
25th over: Australia 85-4 ( Perry 32,Gardener 0) And as the target drops below fifty with a strawberry milkshake of a straight-drive from Perry, Cross snaffles another one, keeping her nerve with a wobble ball as McGrath goes for a swing.
WICKET! McGrath b Cross 19 (Australia 86-5)
Through the gap! McGrath misjudges one that nips in, fancies a drive and the ball removes her sticks.
24th over: Australia 80-3 ( Perry 27, McGrath 19) McGrath gets bored with all this tippy-tappy and lifts Ecclestone back over her head with a shimmy for four. Smartly done!
23rd over: Australia 75-3 ( Perry 26, McGrath 15) The end of Cross’s sixth over (1-29)- with Australia rotating the strike like speed chess players.
22nd over: Australia 71-3 ( Perry 24, McGrath 14) Perry, whose (relatively) sluggish strike-rate was the reason for her being dropped for the T20 earlier this series, is happy to play out a maiden from Ecclestone.
21st over: Australia 71-3 ( Perry 24, McGrath 14) Cross arranges and rearranges her hair in her run-up. Perry and McGrath gently farm the strike and pick up four.
Mitchell Johnson has been busy bristling his moustache I see:
Mitchell Johnson is mincing no words.
— Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) February 6, 2022
Could Pat Cummins have handled the Justin Langer issue any better? pic.twitter.com/9w1guFvquq
20th over: Australia 67-3 ( Perry 22, McGrath 12) Ecclestone rattles through another, one of great skills - amongst all the technical stuff - is an ability to scream through an over before the opposition have got their heads round it.
19th over: Australia 66-3 ( Perry 22, McGrath 11) McGrath square-drives the first ball of Sciver’s over with great aplomb four four. Lovely shot. She grabs another couple from an outside edge. This is Sciver’s sixth now - I guess there probably isn’t that much point leaving her anything to bowl at the end. This match will be decided in the next ten overs.
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18th over: Australia 59-3 ( Perry 22, McGrath 4) Whenever Ecclestone has the ball, you feel potential in those fingers. Australia are patient though, with just a couple of singles from it.
17th over: Australia 57-3 ( Perry 21, McGrath 3) Sciver sprints in, arms and legs going full piston, and Australia take just a couple from the over. McGrath makes a late call to duck a bouncer and Jones gathers nicely.
16th over: Australia 55-3 ( Perry 20, McGrath 1) As the Manchester rain hammers down outside my window, they stop for DRINKS out in Melbourne. The sky is cornflower blue, with a few blobs of cotton wool cloud stuck on the collage with some sticky copydex. The city skyscrapers glimmer in the distance. Ecclestone rattles through another quick over.
15th over: Australia 54-3 ( Perry 20, McGrath 1) Perry ends the over by hooking Sciver’s bouncer for four. Healy’s wicket was an important one - she just looked to have turned the key in the motor.
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WICKET! Healy c Winfield-Hill b Sciver 22 (Australia 49-3)
Winfield-Hill hangs on for dear life after leaping for the ball at mid-off, grabbing it, but then clinging on desperately as it threatened to escape her mid-drift. Healy’s lofted drive not quite lofted enough.
14th over: Australia 47-2 (Healy 21; Perry 15) England were 2-45 at the same stage - but the innings then disappointed like a popped balloon. Ecclestone whisks through her over - just a single from it.
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13th over: Australia 46-2 (Healy 20; Perry 15) A two armed lbw appeal from Cross against Healy but after some chin-stroking they decide not to upstairs - wisely as it turns out. A peppering of singles, till Healy cha-chas way down tthe pitch and lofts her last ball over mid-off for six
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12th over: Australia 37-2 (Healy 12; Perry 14) Knight decides it is time for spin, and Ecclestone it is, wearing sunglasses and a long plait . Perry greets her first ball with a sublime cover drive.
11th over: Australia 29-2 (Healy 11; Perry 9) Slightly distracted by a teenager making an early-morning return, but just the two for Healy, flicked off her pads. Here is Cross’s piece of gorgeousness from earlier:
How good was this delivery from Kate Cross? 🤩 #AUSvENG | #Ashes pic.twitter.com/oE3LubLudN
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) February 6, 2022
10th over: Australia 29-2 (Healy 9; Perry 9) A maiden from Shrubsole, who has now bowled five miserly overs for just nine.
9th over: Australia 29-2 (Healy 9; Perry 9) Healy gets herself in a terrible muddle against Cross’s first ball, but the thick edge flies free of the fielders and she survives. Cross bowling with vibes.
8th over: Australia 27-2 (Healy 8; Perry 8) Just a penny off Shrubsole’s over: England’s bowlers giving their team a ghost of a chance here.
7th over: Australia 26-2 (Healy 7; Perry 8) Perry, who seems to have gone blonde again after a flirtation with brunette, is off the mark straight away with two consecutive fours: a cover drive and another through the off side which slips through the fielder’s legs.
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WICKET! Lanning b Cross 0 (Australia 18-2)
A beauty! Lanning has to walk off, head drooping, after her stumps are rearranged by a full seaming bomb. An attempted booming drive falls flat.
6th over: Australia 17-1 (Healy 6; Lanning 0) Nice bowling by Shrubsole who had beaten Haynes the ball before
WICKET! Haynes c Jones b Shrubsole 10 (Australia 17-1)
Shrubsole gets her woman - an away swinger that Haynes edges behind, well caught by a swooping Jones.
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5th over: Australia 14-0 (Healy 3; Haynes 10) The first boundary of this Australian innings, as Haynes grows tall and cuts Sciver sharply, down to the rope.
4th over: Australia 8-0 (Healy 2; Haynes 5) Neat and tidy again by Shrubsole, whose face is pinking in the southern hemisphere sun. It looks a beautiful day in Melbourne - if you’re there, do send an email and tell us just how gorgeous it is.
3rd over: Australia 5-0 (Healy 2; Haynes 2) Slow and steady here by Australia - but no need to take risks I guess. Would like to see them tuck into this though, not tackle it bite by bite. A beauty from Sciver first ball, which Healy survives.
@tjaldred Now is the Winter of this content: England lose, England lose, England lose.
— Ravi Nair #FBPE #PerfectPorkPie #JohnsonOut#FBPPR (@palfreyman1414) February 6, 2022
Very good!
2nd over: Australia 4-0 (Healy 2; Haynes 1) Shrubsole starts with a wide, but redeems herself with five dots. Haynes off the mark with a pull to mid-on.
Oh @tjaldred , that you had to be up at 0230 for this: a spirited drawn Test, but abjectness either side of it. Are they England's men in disguise?
— Ravi Nair #FBPE #PerfectPorkPie #JohnsonOut#FBPPR (@palfreyman1414) February 6, 2022
Anyway, @GeoffLemonSport referenced Herakles, Iron Msiden, and the nature of causality during his stint. What delights do you have?
There’s always pressure when you’re following Geoff on the OBO! Can I just give his Steve Smith’s Men another quick plug - such a good read on Sandpaper gate and Australian cricket culture - relevant again with all the chat about Langer et al.
1st over: Australia 2-0 (Healy 2; Haynes 0) Sciver opens in the absence of Katherine Brunt, who is watching from the boundary, sunglasses disguising her feelings. A largely uneventful over apart from a strangled appeal against Healy: lovely ball and Healy plays and misses.
A cup of tea for all occasions ... and Nat Sciver is at the top of her run-up... let’s see England they can redeem themselves with the ball.
Thanks Geoff! Well that was rather a wet lettuce of a performance by England in their penultimate innings of the tour. There isn’t much to add to Geoff’s pithy set of numbers below - but my sleep-deprived eyes can still admire the leafy gorgeousness of the Junction Oval. Just going to fill up my hot water bottle - back in five.
Anyway, that’s enough from me. I’m tipping this chase will be done in about 30 overs. Your guide through that, or the thrilling batting collapse to come, is Tanya Aldred.
“A refreshing thought on how time and circumstance works,” Damian writes in. “I’ve often argued the consequence thing in sport about how one thing changes all subsequent things. Or something. Everyone else usually tells me to shut up, calm down, and have another beer. But it’s important, no?”
It’s important when people make judgements, incorrectly, about mistakes. Say the team loses by one run in the 50th over, and someone got called for running one short in the 29th. The response will be that the short run cost the match. But if that run was scored, everything that happened after it would have been slightly different. The target would have been different. The players would have approached the last couple of overs differently. All of that.
If you miss a goal in the 40th minute, you’re a villain when it ends 0-0. But maybe if you had scored that goal, the other team would have scored three times after it. No one knows.
Australia must chase 130 to win
What a profoundly limp performance from England, after at least competing in the other matches so far. Their bowlers will be left the thankless task of trying to do something with this. And yes, yes, don’t judge until both teams, blah blah. But this was a batting performance sapped of all confidence.
The Australians were ruthless, they just keep bowling in the right spots consistently and giving very little away. They were good enough to keep that pressure on and let England do the rest.
Wrap your head around these numbers. A run rate in a completed ODI innings in the year 2022 of 2.85.
Alana King, 10 overs, 1 for 23.
Ellyse Perry, 7 overs, 3 for 12.
Tahlia McGrath, 3.2 overs, 3 for 4.
Jess Jonassen, 9 overs, 2 for 25.
Megan Schutt, 7 overs, 0 for 20.
Annabel Sutherland is the only one with vaguely normal figures, 1 for 44 from 9 overs. Ash Gardner didn’t bowl. Not required.
44.2 overs: England 129-10 (Ecclestone 32) McGrath has 3 for 4 in her fourth over, and England are all out for sod-all.
WICKET! Shrubsole c Healy b McGrath 7, England 129-10
That’s the ballgame. Shrubsole has a little waft outside off, the edge is dying as it reaches Healy but she gets across and low and scoops it up.
44th over: England 128-9 (Ecclestone 31, Shrubsole 7) Ecclestone has finally seen enough of Jonassen to have a dip. Advances, gets to the pitch, and uses her long reach to lift it over the straight boundary for six. Great timing. She’s top-scored with that shot too.
43rd over: England 119-9 (Ecclestone 23, Shrubsole 6) Look out, McGrath has conceded two singles. That’s three runs from three overs now.
42nd over: England 117-9 (Ecclestone 22, Shrubsole 5) Seeing the previous over, McGrath denies England the leg side, bowling outside off stump and having Shrubsole prod and miss repeatedly. Now McGrath has two overs, two wickets, one run.
41st over: England 117-9 (Ecclestone 22, Shrubsole 5) A couple of boundaries for England against the current. Both down the leg side off Sutherland. Shrubsole gets a little edge on one, Ecclestone pulls the other.
40th over: England 107-9 (Ecclestone 17) I should clarify that given the way time works, if one of the earlier reviews had not been taken, then the exact delivery that dismissed Cross would not have been bowled. But another opportunity to use the review in a useful manner may have come up instead. You get the idea.
Two wickets for one run in McGrath’s over.
WICKET! Cross lbw McGrath 0, England 107-9
That’s purely down to burning the reviews. Cross is hit on the foot, gets fired by the umpire, but I think on replay that would have been going down the leg side. England used up their reviews on top-order players who looked very out, and now Cross is denied the chance to swing a few boundaries away and boost their total.
WICKET! Jones lbw McGrath 28, England 107-8
Well, well, well. We haven’t seen Tahlia McGrath all day. She finally gets thrown the ball... and takes a wicket within three deliveries. Just fired in at the stumps from over the wicket, Jones misses a leg-side flick, and that’s out.
39th over: England 106-7 (Jones 28, Ecclestone 16) Sutherland carries on, three singles tucked away. Ecclestone tries to pull a short ball but misses.
38th over: England 103-7 (Jones 27, Ecclestone 14) Good shot from Ecclestone! Gets down and sweeps Jonassen firmly behind square, beating the two outfielders for four. She formed the biggest partnership of the Test match for England, and now she’s part of the biggest partnership in this match. Not much competition, but still.
37th over: England 97-7 (Jones 26, Ecclestone 9) Sutherland back, and England finally start turning the strike over, four singles from it.
36th over: England 93-7 (Jones 24, Ecclestone 7) Jonassen returns, Jones nearly spooning to mid-off, the batter wanting to go after a ball that wasn’t full enough, just like Sciver did. Gets off strike after that, and Ecclestone makes the same mistake. That one doesn’t carry either. Three more dots, then England’s spinner nudges a run around the corner. They still haven’t reached 100. The run rate is 2.58.
35th over: England 91-7 (Jones 23, Ecclestone 6) On 4 from 26 balls, Ecclestone finally has a dip and miscues King to the deep, but too far square of deep midwicket for Gardner to catch it. Two runs, after a Jones single, and that’s it for King: 1 for 23 from ten overs. Outlandish.
34th over: England 88-7 (Jones 22, Ecclestone 4) Nicked by Ecclestone, and survives! There is no slip for Schutt, and the keeper is standing up. So that edge goes past Healy’s bicep, no chance for a catch. Would have been a simple one standing back. Again King comes flying around from deep third to save four, she’s at least seven runs to the good today even before you get to her bowling. Schutt then gets a leg-before appeal turned down, hitting Ecclestone around off stump and maybe swinging down, but could have collected leg stump. No review.
33rd over: England 85-7 (Jones 21, Ecclestone 2) King to bowl her ninth, turning a ball past the outside edge, giving lots of flight, and Jones needs five balls to drive a run to long-on. King has conceded 20 runs from nine overs.
32nd over: England 84-7 (Jones 20, Ecclestone 2) Lanning keeps ringing the changes, bringing back Schutt for a spell through the middle. That same line starting wide and swinging into the stumps. Ecclestone can’t do a thing with it. No run.
31st over: England 84-7 (Jones 20, Ecclestone 2) Another boundary for Jones, flicking King away through the leg side with good timing. Takes another four balls to find a single.
30th over: England 78-7 (Jones 15, Ecclestone 1) Perry to Jones, having got Jones out so many times before, and the England keeper is very cautious still. One run eventually. Drinks break.
29th over: England 77-7 (Jones 14, Ecclestone 1) A boundary? For England? What dark magic is this? Sutherland bowls short and Jones pulls it with authority through square. Drives what should be a single to mid-on but Jones is not confident enough to take it. Then she stretches and nicks Sutherland fine, looks like four more but King slides perfectly and stops it, outstanding save of two runs. A single goes the same way for Jones to keep the strike. Suddenly an over worth seven.
28th over: England 70-7 (Jones 7, Ecclestone 1) Perry keeps hitting a perfect line outside off, and Ecclestone keeps fishing at it. Somehow doesn’t nick it through the whole over. No run.
27th over: England 70-7 (Jones 7, Ecclestone 1) Jones skews a single behind point, Ecclestone slaps one in the air through cover. Sutherland 1 for 20 from five.
26th over: England 68-7 (Jones 6, Ecclestone 0) A much sharper bouncer from Perry to Ecclestone, who just sways back out of the way of the line on off stump, flummoxed.
WICKET! Dean c Healy b Perry 0, England 68-7
The wickets just keep falling. Dean doesn’t look too composed with her cross-bat shots, as we saw in the Test match. She gets a slow bouncer from Perry, it’s sitting there waiting for her to hit it, and she tries a little nibbling pull shot to hit it fine, but only lobs it down the leg side to the keeper. Yuck.
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25th over: England 67-6 (Jones 5, Dean 0) Mel Jones notes on the TV commentary, “Dean at one end, Jones at the other.” Bring back Deano.
WICKET! Wyatt c Lanning b Sutherland 0, England 67-6
Catch of the summer! What an effort from the captain! Spin was winning, she goes the double change to seam regardless, and it produces a double wicket. Bruce Dickinson.
Wyatt pushes at Sutherland, bat face towards mid-on, and it takes a thick almost leading edge that flies away wide of slip. Past slip, surely? No. Lanning takes off, flies at it, and gets one hand to the ball as it passes her, somehow keeping hold of it as she hits the turf. A genuine stunner.
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24th over: England 66-5 (Jones 4, Wyatt 0) Last-chance saloon as far as genuine batting pairs go: Danni Wyatt joining Jones. They’ve got the Augean Stables to clean out though. And yes, that means that England’s batting has been...
WICKET! Dunkley lbw Perry 2, England 66-5
It seems a weird call to bring Perry back on after the spinners have been choking out England. But Meg Lanning is the Bruce Dickinson of this team today. Never question Bruce Dickinson. Fourth ball of the over, a bit of width at delivery, angling in, smashes Dunkley on the pad in front of middle. Gone, and England’s last review goes with it.
23rd over: England 64-4 (Jones 3, Dunkley 2) Sheesh, England are going at 2.8 runs per over. This is ugly stuff. Yes, the Australians are bowling well, but...
One more run from King, who now has bowled seven overs, 1 for 13 runs.
22nd over: England 63-4 (Jones 2, Dunkley 2) The new player Dunkley is batting out as though Jonassen were Jim Laker on a doctored Manchester pitch. Six balls, six blocks.
21st over: England 63-4 (Jones 2, Dunkley 2) A single for Dunkley, a hurried two for Jones, good running to push the fielders after clipping to midwicket. Three from the King over.
20th over: England 60-4 (Jones 0, Dunkley 1) Jonassen with figures of 2 for 8 from four overs. Sophia Dunkley to the middle.
WICKET! Knight lbw Jonassen 18, England 59-4
What a peculiar review! Healy barely appeals. Jonassen half-turns and gives up before getting there. But it’s Lanning who says hang on, that’s close. The simple Jonassen angle at the stumps. Knight plays across the ball and misses. It hits her on the back leg, just above the pad, but there isn’t much bounce in this track and Jonassen often darts them through flat. This is one of those, and so even though the impact point makes it look like it will go over, the trajectory is carrying on flat to hit the top of middle stump.
19th over: England 59-3 (Knight 18, Jones 0) King burns through another over for a single, she’s conceded 9 from 5. Dolly Parton figures.
18th over: England 58-3 (Knight 17, Jones 0) Here comes the wicketkeeper Jones then, who has - and I’m not being unkind here - an atrocious record against Australia with the bat. Her wicket in the Test match was the one that got England panicking, to a truly awful slog, and in the white-ball stuff she averages 8 against Australia. Here’s a chance for redress.
WICKET! Sciver c Sutherland b Jonassen 8, England 57-3
And that struggle to score brings the wicket. Sciver tries to go leg side again, big shot across the line. She’s not to the pitch though, Jonassen lands it short of the batter. Big slicing top edge that instead of going over the midwicket fence lands in the hands of cover. The scent of desperation.
17th over: England 57-2 (Knight 16, Sciver 8) King after drinks, another quiet over worth two singles, England really struggling to get things moving.
16th over: England 55-2 (Knight 15, Sciver 7) The big slog-sweep attempted by Sciver, who gets more top and toe than middle, hitting it up over mid-on for a streaky couple of runs. Attacks Jonassen’s short ball as well but doesn’t get it cleanly, only a single.
15th over: England 51-2 (Knight 14, Sciver 4) Lots of flight from King, challening them in the air. She gets worked around for four singles, a bit better from England.
14th over: England 47-2 (Knight 12, Sciver 2) Double spin now, with Jonassen’s left-arm orthodox. As she always does: around the wickets, in at the stumps, denying room to swing on a good length. Simple and it works. Two singles from the over.
13th over: England 45-2 (Knight 11, Sciver 1) Turn in that over from King, throwing the ball up more and getting it to spin past Knight’s outside edge. All the tricks coming out. A couple of singles from the over. England going at 3.46. Safe to say that won’t be enough.
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12th over: England 43-2 (Knight 10, Sciver 0) Back into their shells go England, with Sutherland conceding a couple of runs and a leg bye.
11th over: England 40-2 (Knight 8, Sciver 0) No runs, one wicket. That’s the way to start for Alana King.
WICKET! Winfield-Hill lbw King 24, England 40-2
A long wait on review, but it was given out on the field and stays that way. King is lucky that she doesn’t turn the ball much that time. She floats it down and it pitches on off stump. LWH tries to lap-sweep but plays over the top of it. The ball goes straight on, and ball-tracking shows it nailing off stump rather than turning past it. Winfield-Hill produces another useful score without going big, which is a limitation in what she tends to offer England.
10th over: England 40-1 (Winfield-Hill 24, Knight 8) With Sutherland on the runs start to come. Winfield-Hill gets a two and a one through the off side. Knight steers away through point and it takes a good save from King to keep her to two runs. Then Knight adds four, edged through an empty cordon area for four. In the air.
9th over: England 30-1 (Winfield-Hill 21, Knight 2) Schutt ties down Winfield-Hill, to the point that when the batter gets a fuller length she flings her hands at it and drives airily through cover. Gets four runs, but that could easily have been a catch. Goes just to the right of the fielder there. Pulls a single to follow, keeping this one on the ground.
8th over: England 25-1 (Winfield-Hill 16, Knight 2) Sutherland on to bowl, short and wide, Winfield-Hill leans back and carves it... and Haynes stops it at backward point. The batter groans in frustration. But focuses again, gets a straight ball next, and drives it through midwicket for four. Good shot. Gets off strike towards point, then Knight is beaten outside off.
7th over: England 20-1 (Winfield-Hill 11, Knight 2) Another very quiet over from Schutt, with Winfield-Hill driving a single but then Knight finding the field repeatedly.
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6th over: England 19-1 (Winfield-Hill 10, Knight 2) Perry to Winfield-Hill, who can’t get through the field on the off side, and has to settle for a glanced single to end the over.
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5th over: England 17-1 (Winfield-Hill 9, Knight 1) A couple of singles, Knight off the mark, then Winfield-Hill lays into a shot through cover from Schutt for four.
WICKET! Beaumont c Healy b Perry 6, England 11-1
4th over: England 11-1 (Winfield-Hill 4) What a catch from Healy! The over starts good off-drive as Beaumont sees a fuller length from Perry, down the ground and beating the dive at mid off. Perry responds with a good yorker that Beaumont can only block out. The key point is a wide, giving Perry a seventh delivery. And she uses that to hit a perfect length, seam away, and given how hard Beaumont has to go at the ball defensively from that high backlift, her edge flies to Healy’s right. The keeper flies away, takes the ball just, just, in the webbing of the right glove, then she tucks that arm in so the ball can’t be jarred free, and uses her left arm to brace her fall and roll over.
3rd over: England 6-0 (Winfield-Hill 4, Beaumont 2) Big inside edge from Beaumont with her high backlift, done in by Schutt’s inward movement, but it goes past the leg stump. Then Schutt pins LWH on the front pad but it’s going down the leg side.
2nd over: England 5-0 (Winfield-Hill 4, Beaumont 1) A very tidy start from Perry, bowling a tightness of line that sees Beaumont keep finding the field either side of the wicket. The fifth ball is a full toss but Sutherland dives well at mid-on to keep the scoring to one.
1st over: England 4-0 (Winfield-Hill 4, Beaumont 0) Megan Schutt starts us off, those hovering in-swingers that are her trademark. LWH finds them hard to hit, but tries a pull shot against a slightly shorter length ball, and gets a big top edge away behind square for four. Very lucky that Perry is further around at fine leg and can’t get there for a catch.
And we’re away...
In other news pertinent to England, their men’s under-19 side lost the World Cup to India yesterday / earlier today, depending where you are.
Teams
No Katherine Brunt for England, after her big workload in the Test and a brilliant performance in the first ODI. Vague information about a sore side muscle. Similarly for Australia, young Darcie Brown gets a rest, as does Beth Mooney, who played with a broken jaw but the medicos won’t let her play with a tight quad muscle. Charlie Dean in for England, Annabel Sutherland and Nicola Carey for Australia. If you include Alana King, who can strike the ball powerfully, that’s seven all-rounders for Australia. Looks like Cross has a deserved promotion on current form in the batting order.
England
Lauren Winfield-Hill
Tammy Beaumont
Heather Knight *
Natalie Sciver
Amy Ellen Jones +
Sophia Dunkley
Danielle Wyatt
Charlie Dean
Sophie Ecclestone
Kate Cross
Anya Shrubsole
Australia
Alyssa Healy +
Rachael Haynes
Meg Lanning *
Ellyse Perry
Tahlia McGrath
Ash Gardner
Annabel Sutherland
Nicola Carey
Jess Jonassen
Alana King
Megan Schutt
Australia win the toss and will bowl
The coin favours Meg Lanning this time, and as Heather Knight chose in the first match, she’ll choose to chase. No floodlights or evening dew to contend with here, just the advantage of seeing how the pitch plays and knowing how many to get.
Preamble
Hello, cricket friends. It is a beautiful blue and golden day in old Melbourne town, it is early in the morning in cricket terms, and we’re going to start a one-day international match at the curious time of 10am.
England have lost the chance to win the Ashes, but they haven’t yet lost the series. Winning the final two matches would tie it up on eight points each, as they did in 2017.
This series though has been defined by the Australians holding their nerve and the English losing theirs. The visitors should have strolled the run chase in the first ODI but somehow fell apart. They should have won the Test match with a bold start in their run chase there, but panicked as well. And they set a big target in the only T20 that wasn’t rained off, only to see Australia mow it down. So they have been competitive, but still haven’t won a game, with their four points coming from washouts and that draw.
Time to see what both teams have left in the tank.
