Key events
WICKET! Sutherland c Knight b Capsey 11 (Australia 146-4)
Knight clings on in the covers! Capsey has the wicket of Sutherland in her second over and that sound you can hear is the English sigh of relief! Sutherlan looked to be aggressive and came down the wicket but didn’t quite get to the pitch, she hit it well but in the air and Knight plucked it out of the air as it travelled past her at hip height.
25th over: Australia 142-3 (Perry 56, Sutherland 9) Ecclestone gets in and out of her fifth over for the cost of just two runs. England still thinking about the catch no doubt, Sutherland is such a dangerous player, if they pocketed her there then they would have been on top for the first time in the series.
24th over: Australia 140-3 (Perry 55, Sutherland 8) DROP! Alice Capsey comes on to bowl and shells a chance off her first ball! Surtherland bunted a ball back just above head height but the chance caught Capsey off her guard and she snatched at it. That’s a big moment!
Sutherland shrugs it off and plays a perfectly checked drive over mid-off for SIX. That will not make Capsey feel any better, neither will the memory of dropping a dolly in Sydney, England can’t afford to gift lives to this stellar Aussie batting line up.
24th over: Australia 132-3 (Perry 54, Sutherland 1) Annabel Sutherland is the new batter, Ecclestone has a slip in place and finishes the over with a full ball that the new batter drives for a single. England have a sniff.
WICKET! Mooney lbw b Ecclestone 12 (Australia 131-3)
Ecclestone and England call for a review after a ball grips and turns back into the left-handed Mooney, beating her forward pod and thudding into the back leg. This will be close…
GONE! Three reds on the DRS and England mob their star spinner. Lovely ball and a very good review after the umpire was unmoved.
23rd over: Australia 127-2 (Perry 52, Mooney 10) Sublime batting from Ellyse Perry! She whips Charlie Dean through midwicket for four and then launches an off drive off the next ball to make it consecutive boundaries and bring up her FIFTY. She’s not even halfway to making her average* on this ground.
*103 runs, as you’re asking. I know.
22nd over: Australia 117-2 (Perry 43, Mooney 9) Ellyse Perry uses her feet and lofts Ecclestone back over her head for SIX! That’s some shot, especially off Ecclestone. The Aussies looked to attack the left-arm spinner in the first game and that looks to be the tactic again, to not let her wheel away, join the dots and build pressure.
Ooooft! Nearly a run out as Perry drops into the off side and Mooney comes for the single, Perry hesitates briefly before committing and it would have cost her had Wyatt-Hodge’s throw hit the stumps rather than ricocheting off her bat as she stretched for her ground.
21st over: Australia 108-2 (Perry 35, Mooney 8) Charlie Dean has found her groove, landing the ball on a postage stamp and not giving any width, just two runs off the over.
20th over: Australia 106-2 (Perry 34, Mooney 7) Ecclestone and Mooney size each other up, four dot balls to the bowler and a wrist-snapping cover drive for four by the batter. Proper criggit.
19th over: Australia 100-2 (Perry 34, Mooney 2) Knight brings in a slip to Mooney, I like that intent from the England skipper, her side need to keep taking wickets, the Aussie batting card is longer than a lemurs tale. Mooney likes to go back and punch through the off side so it’s a good ploy to have a catcher in case the edge is found. Nice over from Dean, just two singles off it and the hundred up for Australia.
18th over: Australia 98-2 (Perry 33, Mooney 1) Ecclestone roared with delight when she bagged the wicket and she roars with something approaching disgust as she bowls too full to Perry who drives through the covers, Maia Bouchier then dives over the ball and it skims away to the fence. The middle overs tussle begins!
WICKET! Litchfield lbw b Ecclestone 29 (Australia 92-2)
Ecclestone strikes with her second ball! Litchfield attempts a reverse-sweep but the ball is too full and hits her on the shin in front of the stumps. The umpire raises the digit of doom and Litchfield trudges off, opting not to review after a brief discussion with Perry. England needed that.
17th over: Australia 90-1 (Litchfield 27, Perry 28) Ellyse Perry opens the shoulders, dancing down the wicket and lofting Charlie Dean over long-on for SIX! Sweetly struck, Perry laps Litchfield in the runs and the partnership approaches fifty. Sophie Ecclestone is warming up, England need their star bowler to step up.
16th over: Australia 82-1 (Litchfield 26, Perry 21) Sciver-Brunt is accurate, landing it on a length outside off stump, just three singles eked off the over.
15th over: Australia 79-1 (Litchfield 25, Perry 19) Nicely done from Litchfield as she gets the reverse-ramp out to Charlie Dean and nails it for four.
Talking of ominous. I’ve just heard my toddler mee-maw from the next room. This OBO could be about to get a guest ‘star’. Sleep eh, who needs it… erm EVERYONE.
PleasePleasePleaseLetMeLetMeLetMe… get through this shift unscathed.
14th over: Australia 73-1 (Litchfield 20, Perry 18) Knight brings in a silly mid-on for Litchfield who is struggling to time the ball. Australia take four from the over and that’ll be drinks. Electrolytes, get your Electrolytes!
Silly mid-on eh? The mind wanders back to this…
13th over: Australia 69-1 (Litchfield 17, Perry 17) Bosh! Filer whangs down another short ball but Perry is onto it in a flash, carving over point for four runs. Perry has started very well, ominous signs for England.
12th over: Australia 62-1 (Litchfield 16, Perry 11) Five runs off Sciver-Brunt, Perry picks off a couple of twos into the leg side and nabs the strike off the last ball with a single in the same area.
11th over: Australia 57-1 (Litchfield 16, Perry 6) Filer returns and bangs a few in short, Perry looks uncomfortable to one that bounces sharply and it takes her glove but lands short of slip. Both batters are watchful and use soft hands to drop into the gaps and rotate strike, four single off the over.
10th over: Australia 53-1 (Litchfield 14, Perry 4) Litchfield picks up her second boundary by driving Sciver-Brunt down the ground. Australia bring up fifty in the tenth over.
9th over: Australia 48-1 (Litchfield 9, Perry 4) Lauren Bell is finding a nice bit of shape out there, she jags one away that Perry inside edges onto her pad. Shot! There’s the class of Perry though, puts the last ball out of her mind and then stands tall to punch through point off the back foot to open her account with a boundary.
Here comes Ellyse Perry with her ABOVE ONE HUNDRED AVERAGE ON THIS GROUND.
WICKET! Healy c Jones b Bell 29 (Australia 43-1)
There it is! Bell sends down a beauty that draws Healy into the drive and shapes away late, taking the edge and Amy Jones does the rest with the gloves. Big wicket! The woman in form heads back to the sheds.
8th over: Australia 43-0 (Litchfield 9, Healy 29) Nat Sciver-Brunt replaces Filer and is greeted by a lighting handed Healy who pulls her first delivery away for four! Three further singles make it seven off NSB’s first over. England need a breakthrough…
7th over: Australia 36-0 (Litchfield 8, Healy 23) Healy nearly drags on first ball with a waft outside off stump, the ball runs away for a single and brings Litchfield on strike. Suddenly the Aussie openers look in a bit of strife! Litchfield nearly chops on herself and then there is huge appeal for a caught behind but the umpire rightly says no and England, rightly, don’t review. Just the one run off the over.
6th over: Australia 35-0 (Litchfield 8, Healy 22) Litchfield has struggled to time the ball so far, especially in comparison to the positively purring Healy, but she does get a pull shot away off Filer to notch up her first boundary. England haven’t looked that threatening so far, the sun is fully out and the wicket is getting more biscuit coloured by the minute.
“I’m checking in from Salvador, Bahia in NE Brazil, the cradle of capoeira!” says Cressida Evans. “Where, sadly everyone thinks cricket is an offshoot of baseball. Never mind, come on girls!”
The cradle of capoeira indeed! We’ll do well to beat that Cressida.
5th over: Australia 30-0 (Litchfield 4, Healy 21) A tighter over from Bell, dot balls keep Litchfield tied down and the opener attempts a risky trot down and loft over the top, the ball lands over the infield and plugs, the batters come back for two runs.
4th over: Australia 28-0 (Litchfield 2, Healy 21) Filer looks more settled after the ground has been sawdusted and hamered at her end, a decent over is blotted by a half volley at the last that Healy pings away in front of square for four. Sublime batting from the Aussie captain.
3rd over: Australia 23-0 (Litchfield 1, Healy 17) Another good over for Australia as Healy check drives Bell down the ground for four. The Aussie skipper is in fine fettle. Bell gives away another couple of wides down the leg side and Litchfield gets off the mark with a squeeze to square leg off a decent yorker.
2nd over: Australia 15-0 (Litchfield 0, Healy 12) Alyssa Healy is off to a flier! She pulls Filer’s first ball away over midwicket for four and follows up next ball by crunching the over correction half volley away through the covers for four more. Filer is having some trouble with her landing foot and the ground staff are summoned to do some earth pummelling. Filer’s first ball back is driven for another four by Healy!
The England seamer does not look happy, I think she feels the earth is moving under her feet, and not in a Carole King kinda way.
Lauren Filer will share the new ball.
Andy Roberts is off something of a long run (aptly given his name) in the emails.
“Hey James, Andy in FNQ listening along and loving the early start – cricket underway at 9am is a great start to the day! Looking forward to Healy and co. dominating again, feel they have just a bit too much class across the board for England (or anyone else really). HOWEVER…”
(here it comes… gulp)
“I have a bit of a gripe. I love the Guardian OBO coverage, but am frustrated that for cricket in Australia the Guardian consistently displays the score the wrong way around. If I am watching cricket played in Australia, on a Guardian Australian edition page, the wickets really should be BEFORE the runs. I understand that for cricket in England or elsewhere the reverse is true, but this is match is being played in AUSTRALIA and I access the OBO via The Guardian AUSTRALIAN edition. I hope I can count on you to encourage the editors to make the appropriate changes.”
I sort of see what you are saying Andy but my brain, heart, hell, my soul, just won’t allow me to do it the Antipodean way. Talk about an old dog and new tricks, I can barely get myself into matching socks these days man! `Next you’ll be asking me to catch with my hands facing upwards and start drinking beer out of miniscule receptacles…. Just kidding cobbah.
There undoubtedly is a reason why we do it this way, to keep it uniform and all that most likely. The Guardian big dog editors will of course all be reading this right now as they discuss my inevitable and hefty pay rise so maybe one of them will be in touch.
1st over: Australia 2-0 (Litchfield 0, Healy 0) Lauren Bell starts for England with the ball. She bowled well in the first game but shows some signs of nerves early on by spearing a couple down the leg side to give the umpire an early arm stretch.
Bell is into her groove soon enough though, the rest of the over is full as the tall seamer goes in search of some early swing, she’ll have to find it pronto, the sun is starting to burn through in Melbourne. Litchfield defends and it’s just two runs off the first over.
Ben Mimmack is an early contender in the OBO mailbag:
“It’s probably not very interesting, seeing as almost everyone in the US seems to be moving here these days, but I’m following from Dallas, TX. It is far-flung from both the UK and Aus though and still a bit snowy from the winter storm we had last week. Cheers!”
Great to have you on board Ben. I was going to call you ‘cowboy’ then but thought better of it.
The players are coming out as I type – yeehaw!
The weather is a bit overcast in Melbourne which gladdens my heart under a black treacle skied Blighty. More importantly it’ll provide some decent conditions for both Laurens Bell and Filer to make early inroads with the shiny white Kookaburra.
Time to make a pre-play coffee, we’re about 15 minutes away from the first ball. Let us know where you are tuning in from, furthest flung/most interesting location gets an as yet undisclosed prize*.
*OBO infamy not good enough for you eh? Eh?
The ECB have issued a quick update on Kate Cross, it appears she is still not quite fully fit, I’m sure we’ll see her make an appearance in the series before too long.
“Kate Cross has remained in Sydney to train and continue her return to play.”
Both captains mention they want their sides to be more “ruthless” and “clinical” in today’s match. Australia have never lost at the Junction Oval, a fact that Alyssa Healy wasn’t aware of as she was informed at the toss, “thanks for the good vibes before we start” she grins.
On the flip side, England have won the last seven matches in which they have chased… game on!
Both teams are unchanged from Sydney:
Australia 1 Alyssa Healy (c & wk), 2 Phoebe Litchfield, 3 Ellyse Perry, 4 Beth Mooney, 5 Annabel Sutherland, 6 Ashleigh Gardner, 7 Tahlia McGrath, 8 Alana King, 9 Kim Garth, 10 Megan Schutt, 11 Darcie Brown
England 1 Tammy Beaumont, 2 Maia Bouchier, 3 Heather Knight (c), 4 Nat Sciver-Brunt, 5 Danni Wyatt-Hodge, 6 Amy Jones (wk), 7 Alice Capsey, 8 Charlie Dean, 9 Sophie Ecclestone, 10 Lauren Filer, 11 Lauren Bell
England win the toss and choose to bowl first!
Heather Knight calls the coin correctly and inserts Australia on a green tinged pitch that she thinks might help her seamers. Teams incoming, will Kate Cross be fit to play for the visitors? They missed her experience and tight lined nous in Sydney…
The men’s Ashes is a long way off in traditional months and weeks notation. Talking about it at this distance is a breach of protocol, a red flag, signal for a weary roll of the eyes. It’s Big Three pandering, disrespectful to more marginalised nations, a diminishing of the contests in between.
It also involves reaching rudely across the Women’s Ashes, which kicked off over the weekend in Sydney, all set to be a genuinely fascinating spectacle. Australia have the numbers, the stars and the endless all-rounders. England have depth, reliable medium pace, dogged spin, and the quickest bowler in Lauren Filer, who was genuinely challenging in South Africa, but struggled to plant her feet during a rain-addled warmup this past week.”
Some pre toss reading for your delectation:
Preamble
James Wallace
Hello and welcome to the second instalment of the 2025 Women’s Ashes. Today’s fifty over bout takes place in Melbourne’s Junction Oval and comes hot on the heels of the home side taking the spoils (two points) in Sydney during the first encounter of the series at the weekend.
That first game was a comfortable win for Alyssa Healy’s talent toting XI, albeit they didn’t have to be in top gear to see off an undercooked England side.
Heather Knight will want to see an improvement in all departments from her team today – the top order batters need to not squander promising starts, kick on and make impactful scores and the bowling unit need to tighten up and fling down far fewer four balls.
In the field, England’s butter-fingered catching was notable once again after their chance squandering/turf bothering efforts in T20 World Cup a few months back.
With two more ODIs (including this one) and three T20s up for grabs before the historic day/night Test match at the MCG at the end of the month there are still plenty of points on offer and punches to be thrown in what could yet turn out to be a humdinger of a series.
I’m here in an icily fronded and window-fogged London to bring you the first half of the action from Melbourne before Martin Pegan will tag in for the chase.
Play gets underway in an hour’s time – 10.05am AEDT and 11.05pm GMT – do let us know if you are tuning in by clicking the email link on the left flank of this page and typing out a missive. The OBO is nothing without the wit and charisma of its punters (especially in the wee small hours, trust me).
I’ll be back soon with news of the teams and the toss and to hopefully trawl through your iridescent correspondence. No pressure…
