Match report
Australia win by 93 runs, and win the 2019 Women's Ashes!
That’s it, there’ll be no party-spoiling draws of the series this year. The points scoreline across all formats is 2-10 Australia’s way, meaning England can only close the gap to 6-10 at best. And that looks unlikely given the gulf between the teams tonight. England were shellshocked from the second over, when Beth Mooney went after them with four boundaries in no time. Lanning very quickly matched her, then passed her, and while Mooney fell for a fifty, Lanning powered on to the biggest hundred in this format of the women’s game.
Australia’s biggest ever score was never a realistic chance for England to chase, and predictably they lost early wickets trying to hit out. From then, even the slight chance was gone. England have been exposed in all three formats now in this series, and there will be reviews, recriminations and restructures once this series is done.
Records and jubilation for the Australians though. Oh, they’re having fun. All that firepower does make you wonder if they couldn’t have given that Test match a better shake, though... For now, they’re bringing their Harlem Globetrotters show to Hove on Sunday to do more unspeakable things to England. We’ll be there.
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20th over: England 133-9 (Brunt 29, Cross 0) Kate Cross is nowhere near the last ball, wide outside off. A dot to finish, and England avoid being bowled out, but that’s about all they can take out of tonight.
WICKET! Marsh b Schutt 25 (England 133-9)
Marsh gone, but she took a bit of paint off Schutt before she went! Twice she goes huge over the leg side, heaving the fuller balls away. Nice contact, the first goes into the crowd, the second is fingertipped over by Gardner. But that’s where it ends, Marsh stepping across to try to lap over fine leg, and gloving the ball down onto her stumps.
19th over: England 117-8 (Brunt 29, Marsh 9) Brunt drives a couple on the loft, Marsh drives four out through cover. Still a healthy response from the crowd to each boundary.
18th over: England 108-8 (Brunt 26, Marsh 3) Last rites. Marsh gets a couple to cover, then a single to keep strike.
WICKET! Ecclestone c Gardner b Kimmince (England 105-8)
She got a good piece of the pull shot, Ecclestone. Sounds good off the bat, soars a long way. But the boundary is long, and Gardner is tucked right inside the boundary line’s pocket. Catch-o.
17th over: England 104-7 (Brunt 25, Ecclestone 2) Australia staying on spin. Brunt sweeps a couple from Molineux, then they work singles. The hundred is up, but they’re going to lose by over a hundred tonight. Good grief.
16th over: England 99-7 (Brunt 21, Ecclestone 1) Two singles from the over.
Previous wicket post, for reference.
WICKET! Shrubsole lbw Jonassen 0 (England 97-7)
I don’t want no Shrubs. A Shrub is a girl can’t get no runs off me. Walking cross to the off side to a ball that slides, time to holler at the (umpire).
Updated
WICKET! Winfield c Wareham b Schutt 33
15th over: England 97-6 (Brunt 18) Last ball of the over again! Winfield gets a ball on leg stump, tries to flip it over fine leg like Mooney did, but fine leg is back. Wareham takes the comfy catch. Three singles and a wicket from Schutt’s over, giving nothing away as she so often does.
14th over: England 94-5 (Winfield 32, Brunt 18) Well, at least Lauren Winfield is having some fun out there. She’s been left out of the games so far, but nails a couple more boundaries on the sweep against Molineux.
13th over: England 81-5 (Winfield 23, Brunt 16) “Catch that!” Alyssa Healy keeps saying, but it keeps not being caught. Winfield slices a couple of shots away behind point and lands them safely for two. Then chips out in front of deep midwicket but pitches there too. Brunt dances at Kimmince and drives four through cover. Got it. They get 10, though the required rate is 21.
12th over: England 71-5 (Winfield 18, Brunt 11) Katherine Brunt out there, powerful bowler and powerful striker. Loves to bat. Uses her feet to get back to Wareham and pull a couple, then pound four over midwicket. Then jumps the other way to open up the off side and slap four through point. Quality batting.
WICKET! Sciver c & b Molineux 28
11th over: England 58-5 (Winfield 16) Oh dear again. A soft catch. Trying to turn to leg last ball of a quiet over, and Sciver gets the leading edge back to Australia’s off-spinner. Plopped into her hands. Donk.
“A steep ol’ fall,” writes Matthew Dony with exquisite timing. “I just had to go back and check the dates. Surely the West Indies series was, like, 18 months or so ago. It can’t possibly have been last month. Can’t have been.”
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10th over: England 54-4 (Sciver 26, Winfield 14) Sciver hits Kimmince lightly enough to leg that they’re able to get back for two. Rotates strike, and Winfield skips down to drive beautifully between mid-off and cover, splitting them for four. Nine from the over again. Just the... 173 from 60 balls to get.
9th over: England 45-4 (Sciver 22, Winfield 9) Georgia Wareham’s leg-breaks now, and Winfield comes down to pop one over mid-on for four. Assorted singles, nine from the over, and it would normally be a good one but it leaves England needing 17 per over from here.
If you’re English and need cheering up, here’s something nice from the boundary line.
My thoroughly inspirational friend @ElizaBart is here tonight. She is walking FROM ITALY TO SCOTLAND raising money for Type 1 Diabetes, and is nearly half way to her goal of 100 grand. If you have a few spare bucks, this is a brilliant thing. https://t.co/gh3sabR3fv #WomensAshes
— Adam Collins (@collinsadam) July 26, 2019
8th over: England 36-4 (Sciver 19, Winfield 3) Australia electric on the rope, twice saving what would have been Sciver boundaries. Once flicking Molineux down to fine leg, once advancing to clear mid-off. Sciver is doing her best but she’s a lone hand waving amongst empty waves.
England not going to get 227 on a combined series . let alone one game👎
— M Pawson MBE 🏴 💙💛⚽🎱 (@mpawson22) July 26, 2019
7th over: England 30-4 (Sciver 14, Winfield 2) Delissa Kimmince on to bowl. She has two weapons: accuracy and changes of pace. Really hard to get her away with all her slower balls. Dot balls coming up, several in a row, and that brings the pressure to swing. Winfield tries, and skews the ball high and straight. Mooney has a long way to get around from mid-on and has to dive backwards at the last second. Gets hands to it but can only parry it in front to save runs, but not take the catch. England need 15 an over.
6th over: England 30-3 (Sciver 13, Winfield 1) Lauren Winfield at six, the former opener. Sciver tries to shake off the run out by pulling another boundary. About 30 more of those and England might be back in it.
Updated
WICKET! Knight run out (Mooney / Healy) 3 (England 22-4)
Calamity to calamity. Sciver whips a boundary from Jonassen, but then tries a single to midwicket, hit hard enough for Mooney to steady, aim, and fire to Healy who whips the striker’s bails off.
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5th over: England 18-3 (Knight 3, Sciver 4) Australia are absolutely buzzing. Twice the English bats drive straight and would expect to get through for four, but twice there’s a big dive that stops the ball in the ring. Perry should have Knight lbw, hit on the back leg, but the umpire says no for height. Incorrect call. Then Perry draws the edge, and Lanning nearly pulls off a blinder at slip, diving to her right and an inch off the turf.
4th over: England 14-3 (Knight 1, Sciver 2) Schutt continues being unplayable. Two singles from the over. Simon McMahon emails in. “England’s decision to have a bowl looking about as good as Nasser’s at Brisbane in 2002.”
Poor old Nasser. I’ve argued this before, but... if he’d batted then they would have got smashed as well, but no one would have blamed the toss. Confirmation bias, y’all.
3rd over: England 12-3 (Knight 0, Sciver 1) Needing about 13 an over to win, I’m going out on a limb to say England won’t be winning this one.
WICKET! Beaumont c Healy b Perry 8 (England 13-3)
Hoo boy. When it’s not going your way, it’s going somewhere else. Tammy Beaumont, who has just clipped a beautiful boundary from a no-ball, then failed to score off the free hit. She gets a ball that would be a wide if she left it. But needing this many runs she’s not in a headspace to leave anything. Has a go, and it nicks the outer edge of the toe end of her bat through to the keeper.
Updated
WICKET! Jones c Mooney b Schutt 0
2nd over: England 6-2 (Beaumont 0) Last ball of the over, and this time it’s Jones for a duck. Beaumont came in and picked up a couple, Jones got a leg bye, then tries to belt the last ball over mid-on and fails. Megan Schutt the bowler, and she was swerving it through the air like The Fast and the Furious.
Updated
1st over: England 1-1 (Jones 0, Beaumont 0) One extra from the first over and they’re chasing 227. Nuff said.
WICKET! Wyatt c Gardner b Perry 0 (England 1-1)
It was always a big chance. England had to come out swinging, but Perry did as well. Utterly hooping the ball away from Wyatt. She couldn’t lay bat on three, then the only run of the innings came from one that swung so much it became a wide. So eventually Wyatt just has a huge hoick, big outside edge, and Gardner at deep third runs it to dive and catch.
A bit of correspondence from readers:
@GeoffLemonSport Huge pity about Taylor's absence but, imo, Jones is still a better keeper than Healy, who is prone to inexplicable mistakes. I know she isn't in the squad at all, but I miss Villani. (And oh, I'm supporting England.)
— 🌈Ravi Nair #FBPE #PerfectPorkPie (@palfreyman1414) July 26, 2019
Villani is in the T20 squad Ravi, she just wasn’t around earlier while she was with Australia A.
@GeoffLemonSport With a run rate up there with the blokes' standard, it's cheering to see a sell-out crowd applauding these teams tonight. What with the summer weather, cracking boundaries, and the win-or-die attitudes of both teams, this is glorious to watch. Cheers! Sarah.
— sarah jane bacon (@sportzzzgirl) July 26, 2019
The Sixers women’s team have the highest score in either men’s or women’s Big Bash, so this is well above standard I reckon Sarah. Nice to hear from you.
And an email from Ben Foster: “Sophie Ecclestone should probably be a bit lower-key in her celebrations when she bowls someone hoicking to cow when the score is 200 after 18 overs.”
Can’t argue.
England will need to chase 227 to win
TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY SIX.
Yeeeeeesh.
A couple of years ago Danni Wyatt made a brilliant ton and England chased about 170 in Canberra. That win seemed stunning at the time. They’ll need something truly meteoric to come back tonight.
Heather Knight won the toss, elected to chase, and then conceded Australia’s highest ever score in this format, as well as the highest individual score. Meg Lanning has had enough of mucking about for 40s and 50s, and did something about it. That was exhilarating.
11.3 runs per over across the innings.
If you’re wondering about the bowling figures, it’s best not to ask. Kate Cross the most economical at 9.33 and a wicket across her three overs. Shrubsole 50 runs from three. Marsh 36 from three, Brunt 40 from four. Ecclestone again tried with 2 for 42 from four, with a few near misses.
<Tony Greig voice> Carnage! </Tony Greig voice>
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20th over: Australia 226-3 (Lanning 133, Perry 7) Katherine Brunt to be the last fowl in this shooting gallery. Perry takes a single. Brunt bowls a sloppy full toss. Lanning wallops it over cover for four, and...
Meg Lanning has the highest score in Women’s T20 Internationals!
A couple of players (including her) had made 126 before, but now she’s left that in the dust.
She mis-hits her next ball over point but it lands short of the sweeper. Perry slaps four through deep third, then takes a run. Lanning has one last shot, a slower ball cutter from Brunt, heaved across the line to square leg, and sharp running from Perry lets Lanning finish on 133 unbeaten.
19th over: Australia 212-3 (Lanning 125, Perry 1) Sciver unexpectedly quietens things. First Lanning middles one straight to short fine. Then leaves a very wide ball that is just inside the tram tracks and not a wide. Then absolutely nails a cover drive, but only a single to the sweeper. What a waste. Speaking of, Perry creams a straight hit, but it demolishes the non-striker’s stumps. She follows up with a single square. Two runs from five balls in the penultimate over? Can she finish it off?
Um. No.
(Hint: it involves, Lanning, long-off, and six.)
WICKET! Gardner b Ecclestone 27 from 14 (Australia 204-3)
18th over: Australia 204-3 (Lanning 118) Got one, but too little too late. Gardner has already belted two boundaries from the over by the time she misses one. Tries to go across the line when she would have been safer hitting straight, as Ecclestone darts one through last ball of the over. Perry will come in next. Interesting.
Updated
Century! Meg Lanning 103 from 51 balls
17th over: Australia 194-2 (Lanning 117, Gardner 18) A couple of cuts are saved by Wyatt diving at backward point, but in between times Lanning lifts a huge hit over midwicket for six! She is absolutely flying tonight! We haven’t seen her at her best since her shoulder injury, but this is it. Unleashed by the format, she’s flown all night. Deandra Dottin and Danni Wyatt were the only players with two T20 centuries in women’s cricket. Now Lanning joins them. It’s the fourth-fastest ever, and the fastest by an Australian.
Lanning isn’t done though. A filthy full toss lets her flick through fine leg. A ball pitched up lets her drive through mid-on, square of the close fielder but straight of the sweeper. All class. And the last ball is brutal, clubbed straight, nearly taking out the cameraman up on the gantry. Monster hit. This is some performance.
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16th over: Australia 174-2 (Lanning 97, Gardner 18) Lanning nudges Sciver for a single, then it’s the Ash Gardner show. Belts back for a second run after nudging square. Pulls a four viciously. Then lifts a lofted drive for six! This is incredible stuff from Australia.
15th over: Australia 161-2 (Lanning 96, Gardner 6) She can’t quite get the fastest T20I hundred, Lanning, but she can get one of the top few. Could be on track for the biggest score too, it’s 126. She nails another cut from Brunt for four, then gets a glove on one down the leg side to deflect that to fine leg.
14th over: Australia 150-2 (Lanning 87, Gardner 5) Kate Cross to bowl, and nearly has Lanning caught at backward point. Did that carry to Beaumont or bounce just in front? I didn’t entirely catch it. Either way, it’s hit the ground at some point, and that’s what matters to the umpire. Gardner finishes the over with a fat edge for four.
Just so you don’t think that we’ve seen tonight is normal, Beth Mooney’s 50 was the 15th fastest in this format, and Meg Lanning’s was equal 6th.
13th over: Australia 143-2 (Lanning 85, Gardner 0) Oh, dear. Did Danni Wyatt hit her head tonight? A second shocker in the outfield concedes a boundary, even less explicable than the last. Wyatt just got down to stop Lanning’s hard sweep, then let it bounce off her body and over the rope. Gardner has been promoted in the order.
WICKET! Mooney c Winfield b Ecclestone 55 from 33 (Australia 138-2)
Didn’t England need that. Mooney advances, looks to loft over mid-on, but there’s extra bounce and she hits it high to mid-off. Winfield steadies to take a good catch.
Updated
12th over: Australia 136-1 (Mooney 53, Lanning 79) What did I say about a softer ball? Laura Marsh has got to go, decides Lanning. A full toss to start the over helps, belted over midwicket for six. A half-volley follows, and instead of going straight Lanning plays a similar shot for six more! Marsh drags down, of course she does, and Lanning dips to nail the pull shot for four! And after a couple of singles, Marsh is so worried about Lanning that she bowls short again, and a carbon copy shot follows. The over costs 22, and the run rate is over 11.
11th over: Australia 114-1 (Mooney 52, Lanning 58) The ball maybe getting softer, because it’s not quite pinging off the bat like it has been. Sciver is bowling her mediums and there’s a stumping review as Lanning is beaten, and nearly dragged her foot out while looking for a run before realising that Jones had taken the ball behind the stumps. Jones takes the bails but Lanning’s awareness was good enough to keep her toe back with some serious circus stretching despite her weight falling forward. Finally Lanning does find the fence, timing her cut shot perfectly after previously mistiming a similar shot for one.
Half century! Beth Mooney 50 from 28 balls
10th over: Australia 106-1 (Mooney 47, Lanning 50) I guess they’ve blown up. The run rate down to 10.6 per over as Laura Marsh bowls a set of off-breaks conceding five singles.
Updated
Half century! Lanning 50 from 24 balls
9th over: Australia 101-1 (Mooney 47, Lanning 50) Clearly Dennis Hopper has had a hand in this. “Once the team goes above 11 an over, the bomb is armed. If it drops below 11 an over...” Shrubsole bowls, what would ordinarily be a good ball just outside the off stump, but Lanning opens the face and deflects it from a very deliberate nick through third for four! Then swings harder at the next ball, driving square for four more. Takes a single, then Mooney gets a dross toss and slaps it away through backward point for another boundary. Jeepers. The ton is up in nine overs.
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8th over: Australia 87-1 (Mooney 42, Lanning 41) I don’t want to take credit for this, but Meg Lanning did give me an icy and deeply unimpressed stare after the Taunton Test when I said in the press conference that it had been a drab and boring finish. And now she’s walked in here today singing ‘Let Me Entertain You.’
Ok, I do want to take credit. This is all me.
Laura Marsh has a go, and Lanning skips down again to drive her through cover for four! Lanning 41 off 21 at the end of the over, Mooney 42 off 22.
7th over: Australia 78-1 (Mooney 40, Lanning 31) The runs aren’t flowing, they’re pouring! Lanning punches four behind point, then rotates strike. Cross dishes up a half-volley next up, and Mooney swings sweetly through the line of that and lifts it over long-on for six. Lanning’s six was a bit dinky, not quite timed, but Mooney’s takes off. She follows it up by going off-side, threading the gap between cover in the circle and the deep sweeper to find another four! Make that 11 an over.
6th over: Australia 62-1 (Mooney 29, Lanning 29) Sorry Soph, but Lanning has come to play. Ecclestone bowled wonderfully well with a sore shoulder in the Test match and she’s one of the brightest talents in the world, but she’s being belted today. Lanning on the march, first driving four over cover, then lifting six over long on, before sweeping four though square. Ouch, ouch, ouch.
They’re going at 10 an over!
5th over: Australia 48-1 Mooney 29, Lanning 15) Mooney! She’s so good when she’s in form like this. Steps across her stumps does the left-hander, and picks up Brunt’s ball from a leg stump line to flip-pull it over short fine leg. One bounce over the rope! That was some serious timing. Gorgeous. That’s the first ball. After a few singles, she bookends the over with a square drive for four behind point. This is some strokemaking.
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4th over: Australia 38-1 (Mooney 20, Lanning 14) The early wicket was what they wanted, but it hasn’t slowed Australia. And England’s fielding isn’t helping. First Beaumont at backward point misreads the spin from Lanning’s cut, allowing a single. Then Wyatt at deep cover makes a real hash of one, sprinting around to cut off Lanning’s cut shot, but running too far and then losing her feet completely as she tries to slam on the brakes. It gets through for four, then Lanning cuts the last ball and gets a thick top edge for four more! Ecclestone has bowled a good over of left-arm spin there and it’s gone for 11 runs.
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3rd over: Australia 27-1 (Mooney 18, Lanning 5) Brunt manages to get things under control, tightening up until the final ball when she bowls on the pads and Lanning glances four. Sighs (and possibly stronger responses) erupt.
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2nd over: Australia 21-1 (Mooney 17, Lanning 0) Jeepers. Beth Mooney has come to play. A few internet issues here, apologies, we’ve been held up a minute. But Mooney hasn’t. Pulls out the full bag of tricks. Bang goes the cut behind point. Then classier with the midwicket clip, then the on-drive. She’s got all the shots, and proves it by nicking four to deep third. It’s a scoring area in this format. Four boundaries in the over!
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1st over: Australia 5-1 (Mooney 1, Lanning 0) Healy gone fifth ball of the over after whacking a four, and England have the early running.
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WICKET! Healy c Sciver b Cross 4 (Australia 4-1)
Early breakthrough! Huge for England, Healy is so dangerous off the top of a T20. She goes for a big one, gets a top edge, and Sciver is able to make excellent ground up in the circle and take the catch tumbling back.
Updated
Teams
I’ve got the XIs for you now. Australia going first. Perry gets a promotion from the World T20 setup, and Gardner is up the order after batting in the tail in the Test. Australia bat deep today with Kimmince all the way down at 10.
Australia
Healy
Mooney
Lanning
Perry
Gardner
Haynes
Molineux
Jonassen
Wareham
Kimmince
Schutt
I have no idea how England will line up, because they have four openers and the team sheet they’ve given us is helpfully filled out with 1 to 11 down the page, not by actual batting order. Unless Kate Cross is suddenly a first drop and Sophie Ecclestone second. Think not. Will Beaumont and Winfield come in down at 5 or 6, or has Wyatt’s successful run at the top come to an end?
England
Jones
Wyatt
Beaumont
Winfield
Knight
Sciver
Brunt
Marsh
Ecclestone
Shrubsole
Cross
Updated
England win the toss and will chase
The decision is Heather Knight’s. They’ll bowl first. Interesting given Australia’s batting depth. I would have thought putting pressure on them under lights might be the go. But in this format, sides do like knowing what the pitch is doing and what their required run rate is.
Contact
You know I always want to hear from you. Hit the classic old email button using geoff.lemon@theguardian.com, or the tweetphone using @GeoffLemonSport.
Squads
The big news is that Sarah Taylor is out – a recurrence of her mental health issues meant she decided she’s not in the right headspace to play. She hasn’t looked it in her last few matches, so it’s a sensible call on her part. Also the young bowling all-rounder Mady Villiers got a call-up.
England squad
Amy Jones, Danni Wyatt, Heather Knight *, Laura Marsh, Katherine Brunt, Georgia Elwiss, Natalie Sciver, Mady Villiers, Tammy Beaumont, Fran Wilson, Lauren Winfield, Anya Shrubsole, Kate Cross, Sophie Ecclestone
Australia squad: Elyse Villani, Alyssa Healy, Meg Lanning *, Rachael Haynes, Ash Gardner, Delissa Kimmince, Ellyse Perry, Nicola Carey, Nicole Bolton, Beth Mooney, Jess Jonassen, Megan Schutt, Tayla Vlaeminck, Georgia Wareham, Sophie Molineux
Preamble
Hello again. Welcome to sunny Essex, home of a lot of things that I don’t know about because I’m not from Essex. Chelmsford is the ground, where Goochy used to prowl with Salim Malik and Mark Waugh in the 1980s.
Today it hosts the first of three Women’s Ashes T20s. These have a bit more riding on them than you might expect after England got pantsed in the 50-over games and was nowhere near the mark in the Test match. But by virtue of escaping with a draw, they can still tie this series on points 8-8.
Three T20 games, 2 points each, and a 2-8 scoreline at present.
They need a clean sweep. Australia meanwhile gave up a lead in the last series to tie it 8-8 and they do not want to do that again. So both teams are going to come out today desperate to win. Should be fun.
