Key events
18th over: England 86-2 (Knight 38, Sciver-Brunt 12) Gardner whirls through another over.
17th over: England 82-2 (Knight 36, Sciver-Brunt 10) Brown again. NSB kept caged for a few balls until the last hits her on the back pad. The umpire says no, but Healy marches over to her bowler to chat things over – and indeed calls for the review. It looks pretty tasty on replay, and the impact was in line but it is umpire’s call! Australia shake their heads.
16th over: England 78-2 (Knight 33, Sciver-Brunt 9) Just an over for King as it turns out, at this end at least, as Gardner is unleashed. England are watchful as a breeze picks up and blows at shirts and stray hairs.
15th over: England 78-2 (Knight 33, Sciver-Brunt 9) The kids bounce around the picket fence showing off their autographs, on the grass suncream is being rubbed in and hampers unpacked. A double change as Darcie Brown joins the attack, and she starts with a wide. A handful of singles keeps the score ticking along.
14th over: England 74-2 (Knight 31, Sciver-Brunt 8) The first over of spin, as Alana King is thrown the ball. She whistles through her over, without too much incident, until NSB decides to throw kitchen sink and various pots and pans at the last ball, slog-sweeping for SIX. And with that, they take DRINKS.
13th over: England 66-2 (Knight 30, Sciver-Brunt 1) Beaumont looked slightly nervy today, as if she was itching for boundaries. Her wicket brings in Sciver-Brunt, who has been rather deified in the Australian press in the build up to this series. As she should be, obviously. A four for Knight, off her ankles.
WICKET! Beaumont c Garth b Sutherland 13 (England 61-2)
Beaumont goes up, up and into the hands of Garth at mid-on, who plucks for the ball as if reaching for the juiciest peach on the branch.
12th over: England 60-1 (Beaumont 13, Knight 25) Beaumont looks slightly at sea against Garth here.
“Hey Tanya,” Hello there Cressida Evans!
“Just checking in from a sweaty night in Bahia, summer rain all day yesterday and today, so staying in with a beer and following the match.
“Whatever anyone says these Ozzies look a bit sharp and so many of them look like scary prefects, yikes!”
Yes. If not quite on the Belinda Clark terrifying scale.
11th over: England 51-1 (Beaumont 12, Knight 23) You heard it here first, as predicted by Raf, Mitchell Starc has arrived in the Australian commentary box, suited and smiling to commentate on his wife’s work. There’s a lot of marriages where this wouldn’t be a wise choice. Dib and dab, and six runs off Sutherland’s over.
10th over: England 45-1 (Beaumont 12, Knight 19) A beauty of an over from Garth who has Beaumont poking and prodding all over the place. Picks up a four from the final ball but it has a sense of desperation about it.
9th over: England 41-1 (Beaumont 8 Knight 19) The first change of bowling – as Annabel Sutherland replaces Schutt. She livens things up a full toss exoceted towards Beaumont’s head. Knight picks up another boundary with a square drive.
8th over: England 33-1 (Beaumont 78 Knight 13) Just a single and a wide off Garth’s over, though Knight was lucky not to pick up a boundary from the final ball, beautifully fielded by Garth off her own bowling.
And many thanks to Carmen Lockwood in sunny Hobart for pointing out that I might have got my fixtures in a twist earlier on. “Hi Tanya, I think you have got some of your times mixed up.Eg you say that the Tasmanian ODI (in Hobart) is on 15th January at 11:05pm GMT. Seeing as the match is on 17th January here in Tasmania it will be the 16th January in the UK not the15th.I think you might have quite a few of the other matches on the wrong day too.”
I haven’t got time to double check right now but this might be more reliable source – from the ECB website.
11 Jan – 1st ODI – 11.30pm UK – Sydney
13 Jan – 2nd ODI – 11.05pm – Melbourne
16 Jan – 3rd ODI – 11.05pm – Hobart
20 Jan – 1st IT20 – 8.40am – Sydney
23 Jan – 2nd IT20 – 8.40am – Canberra
25 Jan – 3rd IT20 – 8.10am – Adelaide
30 Jan – 3 Feb – Test Match – 3.30am – Melbourne
7th over: England 31-1 (Beaumont 7, Knight 13) Schutt misses here length and Beaumont whisks her wrists and posts her through the covers for four. And another as Knight takes on an over-pitched delivery, only to be beaten next ball. There’s a lovely buzz and chatter from the crowd who are spread out on their rugs on the grass.
6th over: England 22-1 (Beaumont 2, Knight 9) Garth runs towards the giant fig tree, spreading its arms behind Healy. She starts with a wide and finishes a ball that Knight plays and misses at. In between, Knight picks up four with a thick edge that flies through where third slip might have hovered.
5th over: England 17-1 (Beaumont 2, Knight 5) Knight eyes up a loose delivery from Schutt and says thanks very much, off the mark with a boundary cut with precision. An inside edge to finish the over has slightly less conviction.
4th over: England 11-1 (Beaumont 1) Time for Bouchier to hit another striking boundary, before Garth got her reward for keeping the pressure on.
WICKET! Bouchier c Healy b Garth 9 (England 11-1)
That reprieve didn’t last long. Bouchier’s feet remain stuck to the crease as she gives a simple catch to Healy behind the stumps.
3rd over: England 7-0 (Beaumont 1, Bouchier 5) A maiden from Schutt as well – both Beaumont and Bouchier look very eager to get going but can’t quite lay bat on ball.
2nd aover: England 7-0 (Beaumont 1, Bouchier 5): Kim Garth flies in, pony tail following. Bouchier plays and misses at her fourth ball, flaps unconvincingly at her fifth, is beaten by her late-swinging sixth. An on-song maiden
“A dramatic version of God save the Queen”? asks Mark Bendall. “I think the Queen died a couple of years ago.” Arghg – apologies Mark, Charles if you’re reading. After 50 years of GSTQ, I’ve got a bit of a mental block on that one.
1st over: England 7-0 (Beaumont 1, Bouchier 5): Just a wicket with the third delivery – overturned because of a no-ball. What drama! Maia Bouchier gets a life after dragging an inswinger from Schutt into the stumps on 0, Schutt’s boot the culprit (just). Bouchier immediately lofts the next ball up and into the shade for four.
The players line up for the anthems, England in royal blue tops and navy trousers, Australia in their usual custard. After the Welcome to Country, a dramatic version of God Save the Queen which provokes a stifled fit of the giggles in some of England’s players. Advance Australia Fair is much more straight down the line.
Ebony Rainford-Brent says she thinks the Aussies have lost their mojo. “The Australia of the past would hold every single trophy. They’ve lost that ruthless edge they had up Meg Lanning.” Ebony isn’t often wrong…
Australian team – unchanged
Australian XI: Alyssa Healy (c & wk), Phoebe Litchfield, Ellyse Perry, Beth Mooney, Annabel Sutherland, Ash Gardner, Tahlia McGrath, Alana King, Kim Garth, Megan Schutt, Darcie Brown.
England team – no Kate Cross
England XI: Tammy Beaumont, Maia Bouchier, Heather Knight (c), Nat Sciver-Brunt, Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Amy Jones (wk), Alice Capsey, Charlie Dean, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Lauren Bell.
No Kate Cross, who hasn’t recovered from her back injury. England will miss her in the power play and it leaves an inexperienced pace bowling attack.
Australia win the toss and will bowl!
Winning captain Alyssa Healy says. “I think there is always a little bit in it early, and though we’re starting a bit later than we would domestically, hopefully if we can get the job done early on and get a couple of wickets we can restrict them to something chaseable. I’m back out in the gloves today, its been a couple of months. No team changes from the last game in New Zealand.”
Fixtures
11 January: First ODI (11:30pm GMT), North Sydney Oval (2 points)
13 January: Second ODI (11:05pm GMT), CitiPower Centre, Melbourne (2 points)
15 January: Third ODI (11:05pm GMT), Ninja Stadium, Hobart (2 points)
20 January: First T20 (08:40am GMT), Sydney Cricket Ground (2 points)
23 January: Second T20 (08:40am GMT), Manuka Oval, Canberra (2 points)
25 January: Third T20 (08:10am GMT), Adelaide Oval (2 points)
30 January-2 February: One-off Test (03:30am GMT), Melbourne Cricket Ground (4 points)
And we catch a glimpse of the first shots of the gorgeous North Sydney Oval, home of rugby league team the North Sydney Bears, and famous for its huge Moreton Bay Fig tree, 22 metres tall and 45 metres across. The sky is outrageously blue.
Raf reports that there is a huge choir warming up on the outfield and that the word on the street is that tickets have sold very well and they’re expecting a near-capacity crowd (six thousand).
The television coverage doesn’t start for 20 minutes so I’m just going to make a quick coffee. Do send me any thoughts/resolutions/nightime rumination. And bring your left-over double gloucester with cranberries, we can work through it together.
Lauren Filer, who has had pulses racing around the world, and even roughed up the phlegmatic Laura Wolvaardt in the recent Test, spoke to Raf yesterday.
Raf Nicholson
“Gorgeous sunshine this morning. Forecast the best it has been all week (thundery rain hasn’t materialised) although possibility of showers later on this afternoon. That’ll be good for England who are likely to play Filer – she slipped over about four times while bowling here on Thursday during the abandoned Gov General’s XI match.
Not been confirmed yet but Kate Cross unlikely to feature for England – only joined in the warm up yesterday very minimally.”
Our star reporter Raf Nicholson is at the ground, and she has already spotted Mitchell Starc who she thinks may be sitting in the commentary box for the match. She did mention it was gloriously sunny too.
Preamble
Hello! The clock has tocked. The gates are open. The limbs are stretched and the coin is polished. Welcome, from a snowy Manchester, to a sunny Sydney, where England and Australia are maneouvering into position in the first match of the Women’s Ashes – an ODI at the North Sydney Oval.
It was eleven years ago that England last won the Ashes and, despite Australia falling before the final hurdle in the T20 World Cup earlier this year, the hosts remain the favourites. They greedily gobbled up both India and New Zealand in series earlier this summer, though England too arrive on the back of a succesful tour – theirs in South Africa before Christmas.
A strong start will be vital because the entire Ashes, consisting of six white-ball games (three 50-over, three T20) and one Test, is being crammed into three weeks. Fall behind early and the series could slip out of reach – despite the multi-point Test being the last game of the series.
Play starts at 10.30 at the ground, 11.30GMT. Do join us. The snacks are on the sidetable.
