After Australia won the lone Women’s Ashes Test at Trent Bridge in June, Alyssa Healy would have been keen to celebrate. She had spent her rare Test appearances across years playing out draws on surfaces that offered drudgery between thunderstorms: North Sydney in 2017, Taunton in 2019, hosting India on the Gold Coast in 2021, even the Canberra Ashes Test of 2022 where a close finish relied on Australia manufacturing a target.
Now she was unexpectedly captain, filling in for the absent Meg Lanning, and celebrating a bona fide Test win in a match that was given the full five days. Wicketkeepers are generally the life of the party, and Healy is the most outgoing of a publicly reserved bunch of teammates. Winning before lunch, they must have enjoyed their afternoon.
Since then, the Australians have seemed more than a little hungover. They did take the first Women’s Ashes 20-over match, but just – from the second-last ball, thanks to the standalone work of Beth Mooney after a middle‑order collapse. In the second they conceded 186, one run away from the highest score made against Australia, and were flattered by the margin when Ellyse Perry hit a couple of sixes after the chase was already gone.
In the third T20 there was another mid-range score, reduced for England in a shortened chase after rain, and Australia couldn’t string together wickets until only a few runs were needed. Again, the surge came too late.
With three 50-over games to finish the multiformat series, the change was supposed to suit Australia. Instead, the hangover looked worse. Perry was a shadow of herself, miscuing three times over fielders and dropped twice before she was held for 41. On a slow pitch nobody could time their bigger shots, wickets falling regularly even as England’s fielders missed seven chances. Once more, only Mooney hung in for the long haul.
Defending 264, Darcie Brown’s first over gave up a no-ball and two wides, Perry’s did the same, Phoebe Litchfield misfielded to give away four, then Brown bowled a solitary wide and a set of five more. England had 27 from the first three overs, a turbo boost to their chase, and Australia had conceded more extras in three overs than England’s bowlers in 50.
A delightful Perry delivery to bowl Sophia Dunkley was the high point. Megan Schutt, a bowler whose potency relies on swing, was not given the new ball to use that skill. While the ball was harder and easier to hit, Tammy Beaumont and Alice Capsey did so. Brown got thrashed for three boundaries in an over, Perry for six of them in two.
On that slow surface, spin was an obvious answer – for England, Capsey’s part-time offies had been worth nine overs in a row, and hadn’t conceded a boundary from the first eight. Australia had three spinners. Still, the seamers stayed on. Concerns about fielding restrictions didn’t mean much when Beaumont flat‑batted Annabel Sutherland for four, laced her through cover for the same, then dumped her over long-off for six. There were more misfields, more wides, more no‑balls.
When spin did appear after 12 overs, England had 102 on the board at a run rate of 8.5. Within three balls Georgia Wareham had a wicket, unsurprisingly a player unable to time an aggressive shot from a slower bowler. That was Beaumont to midwicket. Ash Gardner’s off-spin had Capsey hit to long-on. Jess Jonassen’s left-armers had Nat Sciver-Brunt mistime a reverse sweep. Schutt got Danni Wyatt with pace off the ball. Wareham returned to do Amy Jones in the air. Gardner went through two more of England’s lower order.
But that huge early scoring bump was still enough to get England close, and for the captain, Heather Knight, to finish the chase at eight wickets down. The misfields kept coming, including Schutt dropping Kate Cross with scores level and only the No 11 to come.
Australia’s women are all‑conquering. They hold both World Cups, Commonwealth gold and the Women’s Ashes trophy. Eight days ago, the idea of beating them five times in a row was absurd. England’s first win was an anomaly. The second a coincidence. The third brings the contest alive.
Now Australia need two from two. Their margin for error is gone. Winning only one would let them keep the trophy but draw the series – the scoreline that left them incensed in 2017. And of course if England take the next match, or rain does, then the third ODI and final contest in the series will be winner takes all.
