So it finally arrived: the first day of women’s Test cricket at the Melbourne Cricket Ground since 1949. Long planned by Cricket Australia, there was a crackle of history in the air, as Alyssa Healy (ruled fit to play at the 11th hour) wore Betty Wilson’s green blazer out to the middle for the toss, before a procession of former Australia Test captains – from Marg Jennings to Rachael Haynes – led the way on to the field to begin the anthems.
Then, as Alana King spun her web around England – taking four for 45 as the visitors fell to 170 all out in 71.4 overs – the spirit of another leg-spinner echoed around the ground. No, not Shane Warne but Peggy Antonio, the Melburnian factory-worker who took six for 49 the first time a women’s Test was played at this ground, in January 1935. Her achievement is marked on the honours board in the home changing room – the only woman so honoured – and though a dropped catch off her own bowling denied King the chance to take a fifth wicket and join Antonio, it was nonetheless a Test bowling performance for the ages, in front of a crowd of 11,643.
“Pretty cool. Can’t get much better than that,” was King’s verdict on her continuous 23-over spell either side of the dinner break. “It’s been fizzing out of my hand, and the beauty of Test cricket is you can do it for longer periods of time.
“She [Healy] tried to get the ball out of my hand at stages, but I’m like: ‘Don’t try and take the ball out of my hand, it’s coming out really nicely.’”
In reply, Australia rammed home their advantage, reaching 56 for one – the debutant Georgia Voll the only wicket to fall, with some ominous signs of intent from Phoebe Litchfield and Annabel Sutherland as stumps loomed. Australia’s only concern will be for Ellyse Perry: Sutherland was promoted to No 3 in her stead, after Perry sustained a hip injury while fielding. She will undergo a medical assessment before play on Friday, to determine if she is able to play any further part in the match.
Before this Test, no one knew how the pink ball would behave. There is little historical data – the last pink-ball women’s Test was in 2021 – but a clue was perhaps to be found in the makeup of the two teams, with Australia omitting Georgia Wareham, while England preferred the seamer Ryana MacDonald-Gay over Charlie Dean.
Yet even on day one, on a pitch on which the groundstaff had deliberately left an extra 2mm of grass to protect the pink ball, King found prodigious turn. Australia saved her up for the second session, when England were attempting a rebuild from 47 for three: again and again she beat the bat of Sophia Dunkley and Nat Sciver-Brunt, whose 50-run partnership was as good as it got for England. At one point some spectators accidentally threw a beachball on to the outfield at the G. If King had bowled with it, England might have had a chance of hitting the thing.
As it was, Dunkley played patiently for 70 balls but could not quite resist driving the 71st back into the hands of King. A terrific catch from a diving Litchfield at silly point did for Danni Wyatt-Hodge, but Sophie Ecclestone plonked one straight into the hands of cover.
Only Sciver-Brunt provided any resistance, patiently acquiring a 129-ball half-century – though only after surviving a scare on 44, edging to first slip and starting to walk off, before third-umpire technology suggested Healy had not taken the catch cleanly.
At that point, the Aussies apparently tried out some interesting chat in the field. “They asked who the boy was on the screen that had Sciver-Brunt on his back,” Sciver-Brunt said. “It was my brother.”
But Sciver-Brunt was undone by King’s first over of the final session. First, she sent down a leg-break that spun so far it bamboozled the wicketkeeper, Beth Mooney, and went for two byes. Three balls later she did it again, this time smashing it into Sciver-Brunt’s middle stump.
King put down Lauren Filer, and a DRS review failed to yield the wicket of Lauren Bell: Mooney eventually ended the England innings by running out Bell, denying King a third opportunity to add a fifth wicket to her haul.
But, five-fer or no five-fer, this was Australia’s day, from the moment Kim Garth – who had sent down a spell of dangerous both-ways movement with the pink ball – had England’s captain, Heather Knight, playing down the wrong line and trapped lbw. “Where the hell did we go wrong?” sang G Flip in the tea break. “Was it in the timing?” Well, that and the shot selection.
