wattWith eight rounds remaining, low runner Sophie Ecclestone had just reached the finish line when television commentators began praising her skills. We are told that this type of player can hit sixes from ball one. Seconds later, from the second ball, Ecclestone did the opposite of his six batting attempts: a shot to the leg side. Leading the way and grabbing mid-wicket. Soon after, England's 204 were all out.
The ninth wicket that fell was far from the most important, but it was emblematic of how far England's performance fell short of any player's ability. Losing the first ODI of the Women's Ashes was always more likely, but weakness after defeat is another matter. Tammy Beaumont and Alice Capsey suffocated in the polka dot ball. Heather Knight, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Amy Jones and Danni Wyatt-Hodge all got up and ran, They hit a total of 13 fours and two sixes but none reached 40 and they took the ball hoping for a big win.
With such a small number in defence, England's only way out was to beat Australia. Instead, they abandoned the game before their first drink. They can point to lucky moments, such as Lauren Bell's LBW against Alyssa Healy being overturned on review. But most of the mistakes were in England's hands, or not in their hands, like Capsie's fall from the abyss of Ellyse Perry.
Despite Bell and Lauren Farrar needing wickets and a new ball to move, England had no slips or gullies to find catches. The opening bowler will hit the leg side with a full delivery or an errant swing.
Although Farrar's speed ended up hitting Phoebe Litchfield with a great lift and she failed to catch Perry two overs later, the next Farrar overscored the score for 19 .
Senior all-rounder Sciver Brunt shot 14 in the first round. A fumble by Beth Mooney gave Beth Mooney a foul ball, a missed out due to a pitch, and terrible lookbacks, one of which was caught in Perry's thigh The catch on the pads burned and the other was hit lbw after hitting the inside edge of Mooney. England did overturn a not-out LBW against Bell's Perry, but had lost both challenges by the 16th over.
At that stage, England's best bowler, Ecclestone, had just begun his shift and the left-arm spinner held back on the grounds that Charlie Dean's off-spin was a better option against the left-handed Mooney. Instead, Dean bowled the ball mostly to right-hand Healy and immediately hit boundaries through cover drives and sweeps. When she finally caught sight of Mooney, she was swept four times and then trashed another time outside Healy's leg stump.
By the time Mooney tried to hit Ecclestone's back-to-back sixes, she had taken Australia past the halfway point, and even with Annabelle Sutherland trailing in fourth, they needed just 80, three overs. Sloppy bowling and fielding have helped one of Australia's most dangerous players enter the series at a tricky time since Healy was severely disrupted by injury at the T20 World Cup last October.
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Batsman Healy is almost a luxury in this team. Apart from the fact that she captained and kept wickets, the freedom she had as an opener was to go all out knowing she had the firewall of Mooney, Perry and Sutherland behind her. When she comes out, it's a win, and when she doesn't, Ash Gardner and Talia McGrath's finishing can make up for it with strong post plays. Healy, who was on 70 off 78 balls in this match, almost ended the chase when she was bowled by Dean. While England were interested in the last minute over the wicket of McGrath and a missed catch by Gardner, too much was revealed by the errors at the end of the innings.
England will not underestimate the challenge of beating Australia, with many of their players having made multiple Ashes mistakes. But starting the series here, the strength gap is once again highlighted: Australia barely need to get out of second gear, England barely need to get into second gear. The visitors do have players at their best, but they can't beat Australia if they beat themselves with half a game.
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