They know their farming down in Somerset – agriculture still makes up a significant proportion of the local economy, and “I’ve got a brand new combine harvester, and I’ll give you the key” by The Wurzels is the official team song of the Western Storm, the KSL side based here in Taunton.

So they’ll likely be familiar too with the expression to “bet the farm” on something; but if not… well, it’s pretty-much what England did today – they bet the farm on spin, selecting not just the more attacking left-arm spin options of Sophie Ecclestone and Kirstie Gordon, but the also the containing off-spin of Laura Marsh, while leaving the seam of Kate Cross gathering dust in the shed.

That was their first mistake. Cross might not have taken the most wickets of England’s bowlers this summer, but she has often looked their most likely to take a wicket – there’s been that feeling when she’s been bowling that “something” might happen… and boy did England need “something” as play drifted towards a close today.

England’s second mistake was arguably more forgivable – they lost the toss! This put all the cards in Australia’s hands – their long batting lineup is their real strength, and opting to bat first gave them the chance to dictate the pace of the game, which they did with increasingly mechanical efficiency, losing just 1 wicket as they ground-out 150 runs in the two sessions after lunch.

England had no answer.

Their spinners toiled for 64 overs, taking 2-167; while their seamers got through 36 overs, finishing with 1-92. Neither particularly great returns, though for what it’s worth (which isn’t much) the seamers were the more economical, by half a run an over.

Truth be told, they actually weren’t that bad, some careless fielding aside; but Australia were just clinically good, with only the out-of-sorts Nicole Bolton failing to pass 50.

Australia finished the day on 265-3. Having scored 100-odd in each of the first two sessions, Ellyse Perry and Rachel Haynes were happy to take the evening session at their leisure, scoring just 64 between tea and the close – the game was done by then; the Ashes basically won – it will take a miracle for England to win the match from here, and the Aussies know it. The weather forecast for tomorrow is terrible, and it’s little better for Saturday – there’s simply no time for England to take the 7 + 10 more wickets they need and score the 500-odd runs they’d require in-between.

Is there a “glass half full” scenario for England? If the forecasters have got it completely wrong, and we get 3 more full days, they could bowl Australia out tomorrow morning, bat aggressively for a day and a half to pile-on 500, and then try to bowl them out again on the final day, leaving them a small (or even no) target to chase at the death on Sunday.

Stranger things have happened; but it doesn’t feel terribly likely.

England haven’t got a brand new combine harvester – they’ve got a rusty old one… and they’ve lost the key.

England have called up left-armer Kirstie Gordon to their squad for the 4-day Women’s Ashes Test which begins in Taunton on Thursday.

Gordon, who made her England debut at the T20 World Cup in the West Indies last November, has been fighting her way back into England contention after being diagnosed with a stress fracture of the lower back at the tail-end of last year. But she looked to have rebounded to her best as she took 8 wickets, including a 6-fer, for England Academy against the Australians in their warm-up at Marlborough last week.

Another player coming back from injury – Georgia Elwiss – is also included for the first time this summer. After years on the fringes, Elwiss looked to be challenging for a spot in England’s 1st choice ODI XI this spring on the tour of India and Sri Lanka, until a broken finger brought that trip to a premature end for her. However, she was one of England’s better performers in the last two Test matches, scoring a crucial 41* off 190 balls as England salvaged a draw in Sydney in 2017.

Fran Wilson and Alex Hartley are not officially in the squad but will stay with the team in Taunton as cover, with gun fielder Wilson odds-on to play a 12th-man role if and when England need cover in the field.

Meanwhile Danni Wyatt and Jenny Gunn will both take part in a series of T20 matches this week against Australia A and Ireland, and Wyatt at least will almost certainly return to the squad for the T20s.

With England already 6-0 down in the multi-format series, they need to win the Test, plus all of the three T20s which follow, to reclaim the Women’s Ashes.

Likely Team

1. Tammy Beaumont
2. Amy Jones
3. Sarah Taylor
4. Heather Knight
5. Nat Sciver
6. Georgia Elwiss
7. Katherine Brunt
8. Anya Shrubsole
9. Sophie Ecclestone
10. Kate Cross
11. Kirstie Gordon

Full Squad

Heather Knight (Berkshire)
Tammy Beaumont (Kent)
Katherine Brunt (Yorkshire)
Kate Cross (Lancashire)
Sophie Ecclestone (Lancashire)
Georgia Elwiss (Sussex)
Kirstie Gordon (Nottinghamshire)
Amy Jones (Warwickshire)
Laura Marsh (Kent)
Nat Sciver (Surrey)
Anya Shrubsole (Berkshire)
Lauren Winfield (Yorkshire)
Sarah Taylor (Sussex)

In retrospect, it was Canterbury that was the beginning of the end: a top-order batting collapse led to a convincing Ashes defeat; and within a year, both coach and captain were gone.

The year was 2015, and England were led by coach Paul Shaw and captain Charlotte Edwards – two figures from the amateur era, struggling to keep-pace with Australia in an increasingly professionalised game.

Four years later – another coach; another captain; another Ashes – but the same old city of Canterbury… and the same old problem!

England had hoped that Australia’s thumping victory in last year’s World Twenty20 final was a one-off; but after 3 shell-shocking ODI defeats in the space of a week, culminating in yesterday’s humiliation at Canterbury, it is apparent that it was no aberration.

England were abject.

It started at the toss, which was perhaps a bad one to win, given that Meg Lanning said she’d have bowled too; but in retrospect it is difficult to justify putting Australia in.

With Katherine Brunt out and Sarah Taylor back, England had chosen to make a straight swap, in effect replacing a strike bowler with a batsman, in a situation where they needed to take wickets in order to seize the game by the scruff.

Brunt’s absence, and Heather Knight’s reluctance to bowl herself, meant that Nat Sciver had to bowl almost a full quota of overs, and while they did eventually buy the wickets of Alyssa Healy and Meg Lanning, they came at some cost – Sciver going at well over 6 an over, where Brunt had gone at under 4 in the first two ODIs, as the Aussies took command.

It’s true that Australia didn’t reach the 300-plus total which at one point looked on the cards; but in reality it always felt like 250 could well have been enough anyway, so 269 was 20 better than par… and ultimately 194 better than they actually needed.

Because of course this was Canterbury – where England Ashes collapses seem to come around like pilgrims – every one with a tale to tell!

This time that tale belonged to Ellyse Perry, whose 7-22 were the best figures ever returned by an Australian in a Women’s ODI. With her second Player of the Match performance of the series, Perry ripped England’s top order to pieces, punishing equally lose strokes across the line (Jones and Beaumont) and lazy prods outside off stump (Knight and Taylor) – and from 18-5, with Schutt having also sent Nat Sciver home for a duck, there was no way back from there.

So what’s answer? Force out the coach? Again? Fire the captain? Again?

No, because it won’t make a devil of a difference – it isn’t the coach or the captain – it is that Australian women’s cricket is quite simply operating on a different level right now. With the WBBL going from strength to strength, and professional contracts for an entire cohort of domestic players in the WNCL, the Southern Stars are just the tip of a cricketing iceberg; and while England can cruise past the West Indies as they did this summer, or South Africa and New Zealand as they did the last, when it comes to the Australian iceberg… they are cruising aboard the Titanic!

Tammy Beaumont blamed herself for England’s 2nd defeat in the space of 3 days at Leicester, telling us in the post-match: “I probably should have got a few more. I felt good but I got out at the wrong time – I should have been the one to manage the back end of that innings and get us up to 230/ 240 and give us a bit more of a chance.”

To be honest though, that feels a tad unjust – she wasn’t the one that failed! In fact, there is a fair argument that Beaumont should have been Player of the Match – it might be deeply unfashionable to hand the champagne to someone on the losing side, and taking nothing away from Delissa Kimmince, but Kimmince picked off a slogging tail, while Beaumont did the hard graft against Megan Schutt and Ellyse Perry.

TB got over half of England’s runs, and she ran hard to get them. Of each of her 6 ODI centuries, this contained the highest proportion of “run” runs, at 58%, with just 42% of her runs coming in boundaries. (Her other 5 hundreds average 46% “run” runs, and 54% boundaries.)

“I’m always trying to improve,” she said. “I’ve been working really hard with Ali Maiden on my balance, trying to score off more balls – I think that’s the first time I’ve got 100 in 100 balls.”

She thought right too – although two of her other tons ended with a higher strike rate, this was the only one where she actually passed the 100 mark in less than 100 balls… albeit only just – it was 99! (Maybe someone should buy her a Flake to make up for the lack of champagne?)

So where did England lose this match? Knight’s innings doesn’t look great in the scorebook – 17 off 47 balls at a Strike Rate of 36 – but she was clearly desperate to ensure that England didn’t lose another early wicket and end up reliving Tuesday’s collapse, and that was the right thing to do in the situation. And the tail didn’t wag, but you can’t expect it to every time – that’s why it’s a tail!

Overall then, the feeling has to be that England didn’t really “lose” the match so much as Australia “won” it, by batting sensibly at the end. The key player there was Jess Jonassen, who frustrated England 2 years ago in the Test at Canterbury, and did it again here. 31 off 34 balls doesn’t sound like a particularly decisive contribution, but having come in at a point where it could have been swinging back England’s way with 60 still required, Jonassen made sure that the run rate maintained that bit of impetus it still needed, without taking the risks that had seen England bowled out leaving balls on the pitch.

With the Aussies going 4-0 up, regaining the Ashes is an uphill struggle for England now. The Test isn’t technically a “must win” yet – if England win the 3rd ODI they could theoretically draw it and still claim the spoils if they win all the T20s, but the way things have gone so far, you’d have to say they probably aren’t the hottest favourites to do that unfortunately.

It was all going so well. Tammy Beaumont had gorgeously clipped the first ball of the innings off her legs, through to the midwicket boundary for 4.

This was the England we had come to see – bold, brash and beautiful.

The hope was becoming expectation.

And then it wasn’t.

It wasn’t even hope any more.

Just existential dread as first Jones… then Beaumont… then Taylor… then Knight all went in the first 6 overs, as Schutt and Perry between them humbled England’s top order. The ball that got Taylor was an absolute “beaut” as the Aussies themselves say; but both Jones and Beaumont got themselves out.

And Knight? Well, the England captain clearly felt hard-done-by in the moment – making the “T” DRS review gesture as she walked back to the pavilion, presumably feeling she’d hit it, as it was clearly dead in front. It was a protest that was DOA, however, as there is no DRS in this series – a decision which came more sharply into focus a few minutes later with Fran Wilson.

Wilson swung at a ball from Perry and got a bottom edge which was taken behind the stumps. “Not Out” said the umpire, and that was that. But if DRS had been in place, there is every likelihood that it would have seen Wilson sent back two overs before she was eventually dismissed, by another controversial decision which set people asking why DRS was not being used, as she was given out “Glove” Before to Jess Jonassen.

The answer, we understand, is financial – full DRS is expensive, with much more kit and caboodle required to meet the minimum standards for player referrals, compared with what is needed for umpire referrals for run-outs and stumpings.

Sky, finding themselves under fire on Twitter as the “host broadcaster”, were quick to point the finger at the host board as the ones who had actually made the decision not to spend the money; but the ECB perhaps can be defended on this one. There is only a limited amount of budget, and the minimum standards required by the ICC for international series mean you can’t just use the “normal” TV pictures, even when the decision is a howler of Molly Weasley proportions! (And if you want to complain about that, complain to the ICC not the ECB.)

It is easy to forget that as recently as 10 years ago, Ashes internationals were still being played at club grounds in front of crowds of literally tens! (Okay… the match at Stratford in 2009 wasn’t technically part of “The Ashes” at that point in history, but still…) So while we are not quite flying “First Class”, the fact that we are flying “Business”, with full TV coverage in front of crowds which break 4-figures even on a “school” night, is easy to overlook.

And as we’ve said, it wouldn’t have saved England anyway – Wilson would have been out two overs earlier, and even if she hadn’t been, the damage was already done at 19-4 – that was the ball game, from 6 overs in. The rest? It wasn’t quite a formality – Nat Sciver’s efforts with the bat had insured England had something to bowl at, and bowl at it they did. To come within 2 wickets of victory was a fine effort from them with the ball, but at the end of the day all the Australians needed to do was park the bus just long enough to get away with the loot, and that’s exactly what they did – 2-0 Australia!

Warwickshire (AKA Birmingham Bears) have won the T20 Cup with a dramatic victory over Lancashire in the final match of the season.

Despite losing their opening fixture of the day to Sussex, Warwickshire stayed in the hunt due to Hampshire’s defeat to Kent, but they still needed to beat Lancashire and hope that Wales could do them a favour in Hampshire’s final game.

Wales did their part, with Alexandra Griffiths taking 3-12 as Hampshire were bowled out for 73, which Wales chased-down with 4 overs to spare.

Simultaneously at Edgbaston Warwickshire had racked up a massive 150 against Lancashire, largely thanks to 76 off 57 balls from captain Marie Kelly, who had earlier been awarded a special county cap by Warwickshire legend Ian Bell for her hundredth appearance in a Bears shirt.

With nothing to lose, Lancashire gave chase hard, reaching 70-2 after 9 overs, but a collapse to 75-5 was the beginning of the end and Warwickshire completed the job by bowling out Lancashire for 130 – Georgia Davis and Jess Couser taking 3 wickets apiece.

Elsewhere, Bryony Smith was in the runs again, scoring 77 for Surrey as they posted 142 against Middlesex, with Hannah Jones taking a hat-trick to kill off Middlesex’s reply at 87 all out.

Meanwhile Somerset finished top of the tree in Div 2, beating Derbyshire and Worcestershire, with Sophie Luff top-scoring in both matches, as they finished 4 points ahead of Durham, who lost to Scotland and Yorkshire.

England have announced a 14-player squad for the 1st Women’s Ashes ODI against Australia.

The squad contains no surprises, and is identical to the squad selected for the first two matches of the West Indies ODI series, save for the omission of Alex Hartley, who was “let go” during that series.

Heather Knight, who was due to miss the washed-out T20 at Derby last Tuesday as a precautionary measure, having twanged her hamstring in the game at Northampton, is included and is expected to lead the team out as usual.

With the England Academy playing games against Australia A during the week, England have the option to bring in other players later in the series, which might provide an opening for Bryony Smith, who impressed in her ODI debut versus the Windies and also hit a half century in the warm-ups against Australia last week.

The multi-format series begins next week with a pair of day-night ODIs at Leicester on Tuesday 2nd and Thursday 4th July, followed by the final ODI at Canterbury on Sunday 7th July. The teams then have 10 days preparation before the only Test, which begins in Taunton on Thursday 18th July.

Full Squad

Heather Knight (Berkshire)
Tammy Beaumont (Kent)
Katherine Brunt (Yorkshire)
Kate Cross (Lancashire)
Sophie Ecclestone (Lancashire)
Jenny Gunn (Nottinghamshire)
Amy Jones (Warwickshire)
Laura Marsh (Kent)
Nat Sciver (Surrey)
Anya Shrubsole (Berkshire)
Sarah Taylor (Sussex)
Fran Wilson (Kent)
Lauren Winfield (Yorkshire)
Danni Wyatt (Sussex)

The Professional Cricketers Association has agreed with the ECB to represent an additional 100 female players participating in The Hundred from next season.

The Professional Cricketers Association [PCA] acts as a Trade Union for players, looking after their legal interests and their ongoing welfare both during their playing careers and post-retirement. Each player pays a small subscription, but the PCA is largely funded by the ECB.

In a Press Release, the PCA promised that “every male and female professional player” [emphasis ours] would benefit from the new agreement reached with the ECB and the 18 First Class counties.

One of the problems with the current setup is that although the Kia Super League players are “semi-professional” they have no formal representation within the system, because only the full time contracted England players are members of the PCA.

Bringing The Hundred players, whose interests do not necessarily align with those of the England contracted elite, into the PCA is therefore a huge step forwards.

The agreement also mandates a new minimum wage of £27,500 for full time professionals. It is unclear how (or even whether) this applies to The Hundred players, who will not be “full time”; however, this may mean a pay boost for those on the lowest tier of England contract.

There also remains potentially a gap for those players who play in the new “pro county” competition but not in The Hundred – though the suggestion that 100 additional players will be represented does actually imply that they might also be covered, because only about 80 “domestic” players are expected to be contracted for The Hundred, with the rest of the squads being made up by England and overseas players.