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

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2025-01-11T23:31:33.596Z

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 🏏

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2025-01-12T02:39:41.603Z

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.

This week:

• We’re at North Sydney Oval!
• Knight calls for more support for Afghanistan women’s team in exile
• Team news ahead of the first Ashes ODI
• 2 contrasting approaches to Ashes training

England wrapped up the Test in Bloemfontein with a day to spare as South Africa disintegrated – Lauren Bell finishing with 8-76 across the match as South Africa were bowled out for just 64 – their lowest ever total in a completed innings in a Women’s Test. (Though South Africa still have some way to go to match the 35 that England were bowled out for in  Melbourne in 1958, on a day when Australia were also bowled out for 38 – remarkably, the game still ended in a draw, partly because one of the three allocated days was lost to rain, so it was effectively a two-day match.)

England (395-9 & 236) bt. South Africa (281 & 64-9) #ENGvSA 🏏

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2024-12-17T14:33:26.603Z

From what felt like (at worst) a half-decent position on Day 2 at 237-3, South Africa lost 16-108 across their two innings to go down to their heaviest ever defeat by 286 runs.

Heather Knight will be cracking-out the champagne to celebrate her first ever Test win in 8 years as captain; but if we are honestly weighing up the scales of England Good <-> South Africa Bad then they mostly fall down on the latter side, which has been the story of the entire tour. Lauren Bell did bowl well today, and England did take 20 wickets. (Well… 19 actually – Ayanda Hlubi apparently could have batted if she’d really had to, but the coaches correctly surmised that the chances of her batting out 4 sessions for the draw were not high.)

But in-between, England were themselves effectively bowled out twice. (Though technically they declared their first innings at 9-down.) Their performance with the bat in the 2nd innings certainly won’t be giving the Australians any sleepless nights ahead of the Ashes Test at the MCG next month.

Maia Bouchier added a 19-ball duck to her century from the first day; Nat Sciver-Brunt was forced to remind people that she can’t do it every time; whilst Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Amy Jones showed again that they aren’t really able to adjust to the different pace required for Test cricket. Only an obstinate 90 from Heather Knight made the difference between a respectable 2nd innings score and something that could have put a very different complexion on the game. That, plus the lead from the first innings, meant that South Africa were always batting to save the game.

Subsequently, the bowlers did their job – putting the ball in the right place and letting momentum do its work as the South African Jenga-tower began to topple one last time in a series where we’ve seen a few castles crumble. We weren’t supposed to be counting overall series points, but if we were it was 14-2.

It’s a big win, but perhaps the biggest winners today were not England but Sony – yes, that Sony – the company that made your PlayStation, who also own Hawk-Eye – better known to cricket fans these days as DRS.

DRS is a fantastic technology and the game of cricket is the better for it, but it is also very expensive, so Cricket South Africa opted to leave it on the bench for this Test, which was clearly being run on a shoestring. South Africa were soon ruing its absence however, after Laura Wolvaardt was given out LBW yesterday having clearly inside-edged the ball onto her pad. Wolvaardt’s reaction earned her a reprimand (somewhat unfairly, I think – she was obviously fuming, but she didn’t actually argue with the umpire) but worse was to come.

Annerie Dercksen also got an edge onto her pad, but this one ballooned-up into the air and was caught by Tammy Beaumont at short leg. England appealed vociferously, and the umpire behind the stumps appeared initially to say no, before conferring with her colleague at square leg, and then sending it upstairs to the 3rd umpire. To everyone watching, the question appeared to be whether or not Dercksen had edged it – there was no doubt that Tammy had caught it cleanly – so when the verdict came back “Out”, it left everyone wondering on what basis it had been referred.

This is important, because the 3rd umpire can check if the batter hit it; but first the decision has to be referred, and that can only happen if there is doubt over whether or not the catch was fair, which there didn’t appear to be any doubt about; suggesting the umpires had got it wrong.

However, there was one more twist in the tale to come. Heather Knight revealed in the post-match press conference that the referral had been not for a clean catch, but for a bump ball. Once that has been referred (as with the catch) the 3rd Umpire can check whether or not the ball was actually hit.

So ultimately the correct decision appears to have been made, although there is still perhaps an argument that without a “Snickometer” the 3rd umpire didn’t have enough evidence to relitigate the on-field decision. Regardless, the decision came at the expense of huge confusion over whether or not the right procedure had been followed and whether Dercksen should have been given out, which leaves a bitter taste on the tongue.

It certainly left the new South African coach, Mandla Mashimbyi, with questions. In his post-match press conference, he was diplomatic – explicitly saying that he was concerned that the assembled journalists were trying to get him to say something which would get him into trouble – but he made it pretty clear he wasn’t happy, and that the board might wish to reconsider their decision not to use DRS in future.

The bottom line is that it now feels like a Rubicon has been crossed – we’ve already been here in other formats and series, and every time we’ve ended-up saying “Enough!” We can’t play matches of this profile, without DRS in future – it always ends in controversy and the boards backing down anyway. The concern is, as Raf expressed on the CRICKETher Weekly last Sunday, that the cost of hosting a Test will then become prohibitive for the less prosperous boards; but perhaps imaginative solutions can be found? For example, could this game have been played back-to-back with a men’s Test, using the same cameras and saving on setup and tear-down costs? Could Sony be leaned-on to offer the system pro-bono as a gesture of equality? Whatever the answer, it needs finding – the SOS has gone up – someone needs to answer it.

A half-century from Sune Luus kept South Africa just-about in the game, though England lead by 145 runs at the end of Day 2 in the Test at Bloemfontein.

England (395-9 & 31-1) v South Africa (281) #ENGvSA 🏏

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2024-12-16T16:21:08.392Z

Luus’ innings was one of marvellous mental fortitude – it is enlightening to compare her innings with Maia Bouchier’s yesterday: Bouchier faced 154 balls and scored 126 runs; Luus 148 balls for 56 runs. In other words, Bouchier scored more than twice as many runs in (roughly) the same number of balls. For players brought up on white-ball cricket, scoring runs is the easy bit – occupying the crease, as Luus did, is a much tougher ask. Hitting the balls that are there to be hit is what the modern white ball player does by instinct; leaving the balls that are there to be left goes against every grain.

Over the past few years, since Luus stopped bowling her leg-spin, I’ve sometimes wondered why South Africa continued to pick her; but she showed today what a crucial cog in the South African machine she can be, and ‪I thought Global Cricket‬ on Bluesky made a really interesting observation about her:

She scored an epic century against India when SA almost saved the game. It's intriguing to think how modern women's players would be viewed if they played more long format and less short format stuff, because some of them who aren't elite T20 players might be seen much more positively.

— Global Cricket (@somuchcricket.bsky.social) 2024-12-16T12:50:23.537Z

But despite 3 half-centuries (Wolvaardt, Luss and Kapp) and a 40 from Annerie Dercksen, South Africa really didn’t get what they wanted out of the day; and once Luus was dismissed, they subsided from 259-5 to 281 all out – losing their last 5 wickets for 22 runs. Lauren Bell was the key beneficiary, taking 3 of those 5 wickets to finish with 4-49; but arguably Lauren Filer (2-53) and Ryana MacDonald-Gay (2-50) both bowled better.

Filer’s role today was her most effective one – basically “The Heavy” in a Mafia movie: go in; break stuff; leave before the police get there! It is noticeable that she really is only capable of bowling very short spells – she looks knackered after 3 overs; and although England justify this as an explicit tactic of “short, sharp bursts”, I suspect this is post-rationalisation and they’d really like her to be able to go on for slightly longer. If she can lift her fitness over the next couple of years, that really would take her to another level.

Ryana MacDonald-Gay is in some senses the anti-Filer – she hasn’t got much pace at all, so she has to be totally on-the-money, which means trying to bowl consistently hitting the top off off stump and waiting for the reward – a tactic which bought her both her wickets today – Marizanne Kapp bowled and Nadine de Klerk caught behind. Kate Cross, who she replaced in the XI, needs to be her role model; but my feeling is that she isn’t quite ready to fill Cross’s shoes yet, and the Australians will probably find her easy pickings if she plays at the MCG in the Ashes.

Marizanne Kapp admitted in the post-match that England were “a little bit” ahead in the match. I think it is more like “a lot bit”, but there is still a path to South Africa overturning the odds and winning this match, if they can bowl England out in the first session tomorrow. If they don’t, then they are going to find themselves batting to save the game on the last day, on a pitch that is visibly starting to misbehave. Incredibly, Heather Knight has never won a Test in 8 years as England captain – she may never get a better chance to change that than in the next two days.

No one has ever lost a women’s Test having scored more than 300 in the 1st innings, so although there is a first time for everything it feels like England are in complete control having chalked-up 395-9 on Day 1 versus South Africa.

England (395-9) v South Africa (17-0) #ENGvSA 🏏

— CRICKETher (@crickether.com) 2024-12-15T15:18:51.277Z

Maia Bouchier and (who else?) Nat Sciver-Brunt both hit hundreds as England made the most of what looked like a decent track on a windy day in Bloemfontein, which is slap bang in the middle of South Africa on the Highveld – elevated at over 1,400m above sea-level.

Opening the batting on Test debut, Bouchier needed to find a balance between her natural instinct to play carefree, attacking cricket and the fact that this was, after all, a Test match; and she did that pretty effectively for 45 overs to reach her hundred. She did then slightly switch modes – throwing the bat a bit and going for a few more shots, and was inevitably out caught shortly afterwards. (Very, very well caught at slip by Sune Luus – memo to Sophie Ecclestone: if you want to field at slip in Test cricket, this is the sort of catch you should be taking!)

I’d have liked to see Bouchier knuckle-down and push on towards a second hundred – it felt like Tammy Beaumont’s England record score of 208 was there for the taking – but that’s not to take anything away from what she achieved today.

If Bouchier wasn’t going to take Beaumont’s record, then I was sure that Nat Sciver-Brunt would, providing she didn’t run short of partners. She looked in remorseless touch, and was only undone by a freak dismissal – run out at the non-striker’s end after a deflection from the fingertips of Nonkululeko Mlaba. NSB rarely shows emotion on the field, but she was obviously absolutely steaming as a consequence – Amy Jones walked over to try to apologise and… well… let’s just say NSB clearly wasn’t much up for an apology at that particular moment!

England then suffered a little bit of a collapse. Charlie Dean’s role with the bat for England is generally to play sensibly and stick around after the top order have messed up – in other words, to play what we might think of as a “Test match innings”; but when it came to an actual Test match innings, she went a tad too much into defensive mode and ended up in a right pickle to Mlaba – backing off the shot until there was nowhere left to go back to, and then somehow bunting it under her own legs and into the stumps.

England should probably have declared at this point, and given themselves a proper go at South Africa’s batters after a tiring day in the field. When Amy Jones was dismissed shortly afterwards, they definitely should have – they’d have had 13 overs, which could have meant 4 each for the Laurens, and then a handful for Ecclestone and Dean too. There is going to be some real turn on this pitch for Dean, and if Mlaba can walk away with 4 wickets, I’d back Dean to take 5 or 6.

As it was, Heather Knight waited too long for the declaration, and then only had the 6 overs at the South African openers, allowing them to set up camp to block everything, taking them to 17-0 at the close.

We mentioned that no one has ever lost a Test having made 300 in the first innings, but whether England can go on and win this game is another matter entirely. Teams have made more than England’s 395 on 11 occasions in the past, and over half of those matches have ended in a draw – all 3 matches where England have previously scored 395+ ended in draws.  Taking 20 wickets in 4 days is always the problem in women’s Tests – England probably need to take at least 10 tomorrow to have a chance of getting the win.