If there’s a better place in the world to watch live cricket than North Sydney Oval, I’ve not been there. With its compact nature and delightful “Olde Worlde” feel, provided by its green-painted tin-roofed stands which were partly imported from the SCG when that was rebuilt in the 80s, it somehow draws you into the action in a way that the bigger first-class grounds never do. If a cricket ground can have “soul”, then North Sydney Oval has it like Otis Redding, sittin’ on the dock of the Sydney bay.
England v Australia at North Sydney Oval
Over 6,200 Sydneysiders turned out to enjoy it on a beautiful summer Sunday, and were rewarded with a home win in the first match of the 2025 Women’s Ashes, with Alyssa Healy making her first “score” of the Aussie season – 70 off 78 balls – to put the hosts 2-0 up in the series.
It hasn’t been the easiest few months for the Australian skipper, and had she not been captain her place in the XI would almost certainly have been at real risk with the recent form of Georgia Voll, who in just 3 appearances this antipodean summer has scored more international 100s than Alice Capsey has in almost 3 years since her debut.
Prior to today, Healy’s 9 matches this summer in the green and gold had seen her pass 30 several times, but no further. With two different injuries nagging at her knee and foot, we wondered who she needed more – her coach or her doctor? But all those worries evaporated today into the hazy blue New South Wales sky, as Healy turned on the class when it really mattered. Having kept wicket energetically, she then batted with an authority that made a mockery of any suggestion that her 34 years were starting to take their toll.
Coming into this match, England insisted they were in brilliant form after their success in South Africa – that tour wasn’t officially a multi-format points series, but if it had been, England would have won it 14-2. Those of us who raised question marks at the beginning of that tour were beginning to feel like killjoys by the end, but the result here suggests that we may actually have had a point.
Australia were not at their brilliant best; but against them England nonetheless looked very, very mediocre at times – those times being mainly between 10:30am and 4:30pm. Outside of those times, there were some positives – England joined arms to belt out the national anthem prior to play; whilst later on Heather Knight and Lauren Bell performed their post-match media duties with customary aplomb.
But in terms of the actual cricket, it didn’t go quite so well. Lauren Bell sending down 9 overs for 25 runs – an Economy Rate of 2.8, by far her best in ODIs – was probably the best of it; but she couldn’t make it count in the wickets column, which is what England really needed having been bowled out for only just north of 200.
England 204 v Australia #Ashes 🏏
A typical first innings score in meetings between the top 5 sides since 2020 is 264; and on a pitch which looked decent (if slightly sweaty, after a night under the covers) 280 felt more like par going in. Australia’s run rate would have put them at around 260/270, even though they took their foot off the gas at times, which obviously they had the luxury of doing, chasing the target they were chasing.
The bottom line: 204 was not nearly enough. England sold their wickets far too cheaply, with Heather Knight and Nat Sciver-Brunt particularly standing out in the “What Were They Thinking” stakes. My advice? If you want to be out on the pull in Sydney, try Kings Cross on a Saturday night, not North Sydney Oval on a Sunday morning.
Both captains made a lot in the press conferences yesterday of getting those first points on the board; of getting momentum in what is a punishingly quick series – tomorrow, we take the first of 6 internal flights to play 7 games (including a 4-day Test) in 22 days. And it is Australia who now have those first points and that momentum. All is not lost for England by any means – there are still 14 points to play for. But they are going to have to bat a lot, lot better if the final scoreline isn’t going to look much more like that South Africa series than the last, tied Women’s Ashes in England in 2023.
CRICKETher 
An amusing & accurate summary! England’s intent was clear from the start, with Bouchier wafting at thin air too frequently, until she , inevitably, fell to one she actually connected with…but too finely! S-B & Knight, sweeping from so far outside off-stump??Crazy…surely a cover drive would be safer, but England don’t want to play safe!I was concerned about our batting before the series began (& post an easy SA series)..this has not alleviated my worries.Would love to be proved wrong!
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I think some of the team feel a bit too comfortable in the team, not seeing any pressure on them from outsiders who could take their place??
catching, or lack of, is appalling!
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The worrying thing is the Aussies didn’t even play that well nor were England especially bad compared to recent performances. For England to win they’ll have to play out of their skin and Aussies have an off day.
The 2023 Ashes remains a slight blip really – an over-performing England met a below par Aussie side at home, and played well to give them a tight series. Whenever one thing of those three changes, it’ll all only go one way unfortunately for England. England never had much hope coming into this series, and these 2 short-turnaround games won’t help.
Australia haven’t even picked the right team – for me, Voll should be in there, as well as Ainsworth and Illingworth or Day in the bowling attack. Schutt and Garth are just about good enough opening pairing but still but not that much penetration, Garth bowled too wide really.
Same old problems for England – batting way too fragile and keen to give wickets away, as it’s not viewed as enough of a problem within the side. The buck for knuckling down is always passed. Sometimes Beaumont, Knight or NSB will take up the mantle but not often enough. Fielding and catching inconsistent – sometimes a good run of a few games is put together, where the whole side are on point, but then we see the same old patterns emerge again. And if Capsey won’t bowl and not score many runs, we might as well play Glenn instead?
All we ask is to see a bit more fighting spirit, 50 more runs would have been a tighter game. England must bat out the 50 overs and need a big improvement to even get there.
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