With one ball to come in the 100th over of the match, it was Natalie Sciver-Brunt on her haunches holding the handle of her bat, puffing for air. She needed six to win, four to tie and force a super over. After her final swing of the match, one that didn’t connect cleanly enough to find either variety of boundary, it was the whole ground that was short of air, one long exhale from the England-supporting crowd. Taking back the trophy had still been a chance, then it was gone.
As the men’s and women’s Ashes series have unspooled side by side across the past few weeks, the comparisons to 2005 have not stopped. That year is still the emotional lodestone of cricket in England, for locals and Australians alike. Both English teams wrestled a series win from Australian opponents who at the time were so dominant as to seem unapproachable.
This year, the close results have been the point of comparison. But this year, in the second-last match of the women’s series, something went differently. In 2005, the Australian men were up against an English team with a huge weakness against leg spin, and didn’t take advantage of it. Shane Warne took 40 wickets that series, but Stuart MacGill sat on the bench. After Glenn McGrath’s injury before the second Test, conservatism saw an ineffective third seam bowler picked in each subsequent match instead of just picking the four best bowlers.
This time around, when Australia’s women had their target run down in Bristol to lose their third match in a row, the obvious missteps were recognised. That surface had been a slow and tacky one that favoured taking the pace off the ball. It looked that way before the match, and it has historically been similar. Yet still Australia went with two specialist quicks, Darcie Brown and Megan Schutt, to complement their seaming all-rounders, and left out the leg-spinner Alana King.
With Georgia Wareham and Jess Jonassen already in the team, that natural tendency towards a certain structure was evident. After all, you can’t pick three specialist spinners, right?
Except that you can, and Australia should have. By the time they reached Southampton on Sunday, that is exactly what they did. Brown was left out, the decision probably aided by her wayward start in Bristol that donated extras to England’s cause. Now Australia’s approach would be to take the pace off, to keep control of the scoring, to make England force the pace.
Before that, they had to bat. And the reason they ended up with a scoring bump – making 282 instead of the 263 at Bristol – was also down to their leg-spinners. Wareham routinely comes in down the order, but has for some time been one of the cleanest hitters on the Australian domestic scene. Her batting almost got Australia a win this series in the Oval T20, and in this match she looted three sixes and two fours from the 50th over of the innings, adding 26 to the total.
Indeed, this is partly what got Wareham back in the side ahead of King, who bowled so well across formats during Wareham’s long absence with a knee injury. But with the series on the line, Australia’s selectors realised they needed the skills of both.
So it proved in the defence. Wareham first, a flatter and skiddier bowling, knocking over Sophia Dunkley with persistence at the stumps. Then King, first with the slider to dismiss Heather Knight, then with a pearl of a delivery that uncurled past Tammy Beaumont’s outside edge to take her off stump. She had Alice Capsey held in the deep to complete her three for 44, Wareham taking one for 47.
With both of their allotments used up, there was no question as to the strategy as Sciver-Brunt chased the late win. More slow stuff, finger spinners Jonassen and Ash Gardner completing the job that could not have done without the two leggies. The 2005 team with the rigid thinking ended needing to win their last match to draw the series and retain the trophy – and didn’t get there. Today’s team have the trophy wrapped up, and can play the final match for a series win.
