Won, won, won, won, won, won, won, won, won, won, won, won, won, won, won. That was Australia’s recent form in 15 ODIs leading up to this match. They hadn’t lost an ODI since India successfully chased-down 264 in September 2021 – almost two years ago.
The writing was on the wall though, as early as the toss – that match against India was the last time Australia won the toss in an ODI and elected to bat. Six tosses won since, and six times Australia chose to bowl – winning every time; and yet today Alyssa Healy cited “the data” to justify batting. I don’t know what data she’s looking at, but I suspect it isn’t the data on Women’s ODIs.
England opted to be fairly conservative in their selections – there were no new caps for Lauren Filer or Dani Gibson, and veteran Kate Cross was preferred over young-gun Issy Wong.
Having made that choice to bat, Healy came out looking to make a statement against Cross, and in a similar vein to so many of her recent performances, looked fantastic – bashing two 4s either side of the wicket from Cross’s first three deliveries. But it was Cross who had the last laugh, reviewing an LBW appeal off the following ball to send Healy back to the sheds.
Phoebe Litchfield, brought back in to open the batting after missing out to the big hitters in the T20s, played nicely for her 37, including an absolutely gorgeous whipped drive through midwicket which was probably the shot of the series. It took doubtless the catch of the series to dismiss her – Sophie Ecclestone leaping back gymnastically to take a one-handed screamer.
Litchfield aside, Australia’s batters didn’t look quite themselves though. Perry and Mooney both outscored the teenager, but England’s bowlers made them work awfully hard for their runs. Alice Capsey, bowling in an ODI for the first time, sent down 9 overs straight for only 37 – an Economy Rate of 4.1 – whilst Lauren Bell produced one of those magic balls that she can occasionally conjure-up to bowl Annabel Sutherland. Both are encouraging signs, for now and for the future. England’s fielding coaches will definitely have something to say about the dropped catches, but England’s commitment in the field at least didn’t waver, unlike… well… more on that below!
Australia produced a bit of an up-tick at the end of their innings to take them to 263-8 – pretty-much a par 1st-innings score in ODIs between the top sides in recent years.
Without a massive total to bowl at, Australia needed to be frugal with the ball; but their openers served up a Premier Inn All You Can’t Eat Breakfast Buffet of bad bowling to allow England to get off to a flyer, getting 100 on the board in the 12th over.
Darcie Brown’s bowling is in some ways Australia’s equivalent of Alice Capsey’s batting – you know she is going to give away a few extras bowling a few wides and no-balls, just like you know Capsey is going to get caught on the boundary. But in both cases the hope is that they’ll smash some stumps/ sixes to make up for it. Brown didn’t today, delivering just 4 overs before Healy decided to swipe-left. Capsey on the other hand had a good day, following up her heroics at Lord’s with another rocket-propelled 40. With Tammy Beaumont also making 47 at a strike rate of over 100, England were in the box seat when Heather Knight and Nat Sciver-Brunt came together at 121-3. Needing just 4 an over from there, the only thing they had to do was keep wickets in hand and the result would come.
By the 30th over, Australia seemed to have given up, despite having taken the prize wicket of Sciver-Brunt in the meantime. Beth Mooney and Tahlia McGrath both declined to dive on the boundary for balls that could have been saved.
In the middle, Heather Knight was slowly but surely batting her way back into form, after a little-bit of a lean patch in white-ball cricket. (Though of course she did score a 50 in the Test.) Knight scored just a single boundary from her first 50 balls faced, but began to accelerate later to finish with a strike rate of 87 for her 75 runs.
Wickets continued to fall at the other end, with Knight visibly rolling her eyes to the sky after Ecclestone got out playing a completely unnecessary slog-sweep. This is why Ecclestone remains a tail-ender – a very good tail-ender, but a tail-ender nonetheless – she only really has one gear, and when she needed to keep a lid on it, she couldn’t help herself. (Perhaps a Speed Awareness Course is in order?)
It was left to Kate Cross to save England from what really would have been snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, sweeping and ramping her way to 19 to take England level, before Knight hit the winning runs with 11 balls to spare.
So that’s 3 defeats in a row now for Australia – unprecedented territory for this team, and they really do seem genuinely rattled. The old superstars can still deliver a professional show, but they aren’t hitting the high notes quite the way they once did, whilst the young guns are not yet churning out the hits. Perhaps… dare I say it, Issy Wong was right? England have done what nobody thought they could do – brought the series back to level-pegging. A river has been crossed, and though they still need to win both of the remaining matches to win back the Ashes, they might just be looking like favourites for the first time in a long time against the self-proclaimed (and… to be fair… quite a lot of other people proclaimed) greatest team in history.
CRICKETher 
Well written article Syd, lots of good points here. I particularly liked your descriptions of Australia’s bowling travails, and Ecclestone’s dismissal, which had many England fans with their heads in their hands . I also agree it does seem that the choice to bat first was a bit of a mistake, not sure why Healy did that.
What a great win in this ODI, to continue this improbable but amazing run for England. England took wickets at fairly regular intervals and didn’t let Australia really get away, although there was a late flurry that had me thinking they’d got 20 or so more than they should have. Capsey bowled well and perhaps her 9 overs were more than Australia were expecting. Their batters certainly seemed to be reluctant to take her on. No one bowler really let the side down for England. Then England’s powerplay, with Beaumont and Capsey hitting lots of quick runs, was very impressive. So, England were good, but despite this being their highest run chase (against Australia of all teams!) it was hardly one of their best performances.
There were lots of dropped catches, although most were quite tough, with the exception of chances to Glenn and Cross which definitely should have been taken. And England gave away a few unnecessary wickets too, with a late scare that had me thinking we were gone for all money, after Ecclestone then Glenn got out. But Cross had nerves of steel and played a little blinder of an innings, packed with drives and a very gutsy ramp, to support Knight at the end. I maintain that Dunkley and Jones look like frightened rabbits in the headlights, in any other format but their preferred T20 (at least, compared to the bravery of some of the other batters who seem unfazed by this Australian attack).
Australia were strangely very much off their game again, it was a very sloppy performance from their point of view, in many areas, and not something we’re used to seeing. The same features were noticeable to me – batters getting themselves out under a bit but not that much pressure, when previously they would have found a way to not only stay in, but increase the scoring rate; a lack of energy/spirit/conviction in the field with players looking deflated & waiting for things to happen rather than seizing opportunities; occasionally England fours that maybe could have been saved are being “escorted” to the boundary; poor opening bowling characterised by very wayward early spells, giving away lots of wides/no balls and getting England off to fast starts with fumbles in the field.
It’s a curious malaise that has settled into the Australian camp and it’s almost as if they have caught something off England. I think Australia should hand the gloves to Mooney, so Healy can concentrate more on her batting and captaincy, and might feel less pressure. Mooney’s out-fielding was uncharacteristically very poor in this game anyway.
It would be easy to have hope from this point that England could continue this run, but I think we all know better don’t we Syd!
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