And that’s that for the day
Just the 38 overs but Australia still have a very healthy lead of 196. An excellent effort from Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole, but England are really up against it tomorrow. I hope they take some of their positive play from today into their batting. Alex Blackwell showed today that batting in your shell makes you look more likely to lose your wicket.
The rain is back
Alex Blackwell has just broken her shackles, smearing Laura Marsh over mid-wicket for four, and the umpire’s have decided enough is enough. We’re off for bad light, with Australia on a healthy lead of 196.
It has got very dark all of a sudden and the rain is just starting. I think I’d like to be sat anywhere that isn’t near Anya Shrubsole, who is still not happy.
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Anya Shrubsole is fuming.
She’s bowling a really, really good spell. She beats Jess Jonassen’s bat a few times and she’s getting it to come through with a bit of pace and it’s somehow missing the stumps.
This is an odd innings from Alex Blackwell. I understand starting slowly but Australia want to put England under as much scoreboard pressure as possible. She’s playing the exact innings England played yesterday, and that didn’t go well for them. She’s also having to deal with a Shrubsole who is spitting feathers. Blackwell actually walked when she saw Heather Knight cling on to the catch - it was the dressing room that stopped her and sent her back. Mind you, having her there rather than Alyssa Healy does actually work in England’s favour.
Jonassen, meanwhile, is carrying on playing aggressively. She smashes Laura Marsh for a huge six straight down the ground; she dances down the wicket and throws everything at it. Lovely.
The Australian fans are chuffed
Heather Knight has taken what looks like an absolute blinder at slip to dismiss Alex Blackwell for 9. Anya Shrubsole, replacing Kate Cross in a good move from Charlotte Edwards, bowls a leg cutter that takes the edge of Blackwell’s bat. Blackwell just hung the bat out, there was no real commitment in the shot and Knight held it low down.
It’s one of those catches though; the umpires send it upstairs, having given it out on the field. Blackwell refused to move from the pitch, standing and waiting while England were celebrating. And the third umpire has changed it! She’s been given not out. The Australian fans are chuffed. To me, that looked like a very good reaction catch from Knight, but the video replays always confuse matters.
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Australia’s lead is 160
Well bowled Kate Cross. She hits the pitch hard with a full delivery, which Nicole Bolton wafts a loose drive at. The ball just takes the outside edge and flies to Katherine Brunt at cover. She’s gone for 25 from 81 deliveries and Australia’s lead is 160. No women’s Test team have ever chased down a total of 200. This game hasn’t entirely gone from England but if they can claim some more wickets tonight, they’ll feel a lot better going into tomorrow.
Australia lead England by 155 runs with seven wickets remaining
Kate Cross has taken over from Katherine Brunt, who was missing for a while after jogging off a bit stiffly. Anya Shrubsole is also moving a little stiffly between overs, jogging from fine leg to fine leg. That is one area where Meg Lanning has had the advantage over Charlotte Edwards - Lanning rotated her bowlers superbly in four and five over spells, whereas Edwards prefers to just persist with them for a few more overs.
Now she’s made the change, this is a good effort from Cross. She wasn’t at her best in the first innings. Cross isn’t a swing bowler. She has that extra nip and pace that she gets off the wicket and that’s the way she should bowl. She’s got a delivery to spit up to Alex Blackwell, who negotiated it awkwardly. It landed just in front of the fielders at slip.
Shrubsole’s spell is also at an end, with Laura Marsh on for some spin. Good move from Edwards; the change of pace and angle might just persuade Nicole Bolton to over-attack.
Australia are wobbling slightly at 30-3, a lead of 136.
England are properly up for this. Every dot ball is greeted with oohs and cheers from the close-in fielders. Charlotte Edwards is marshalling her troops from mid-on and the crowd are in fine voice. As well as Jerusalem, which was actually somewhere near a recognisable tune today, they’ve been singing, clapping and sledging Australia for the past five overs.
Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole are relentlessly bowling a tight line. Brunt has that sprinkling of aggression. A surprise short ball rounds off another maiden. She’s bowling from the Mackington Road end of the ground, which is where Shrubsole had her success in the first innings. Brunt, with the wind behind her, may find it easier to line-up the ball from this end - the slope goes up from the opposite end of the ground, which may have intervened with her line.
Shrubsole is bowling very, very full. They’re good yorker length deliveries too, not full tosses onto the pads and it’s making it really difficult for Australia. Having veteran Alex Blackwell at the crease will do Australia good; she is level-headed and can walk that line between caution and aggression.
We have cricket!
Anya Shrubsole finishes off her over from before the deluge. The first delivery is short, wide and driven absolutely gloriously through the covers by Ellyse Perry.
And it lasts all of three balls before there’s another wicket! Perry shapes to cut Shrubsole and Taylor, standing up to the stumps, takes an excellent clean catch to dismiss her for 13. That’s a very, very good catch. Poor from Perry, who was reaching for a ball that she had no need to play at, but well done Sarah Taylor. 19-3.
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While you’re waiting for some action, feel free to read this from Gary Naylor on the men’s series:
Play will hopefully restart at 3.45pm
Charlotte Edwards and Meg Lanning have been in consult with the umpires. It’s turned sunny now - well, sunny compared to earlier, when the entire ground looked like the set of a horror film. We’re taking an early tea at 3.25, with play re-starting at 3.45. The official cut-off time is 7 but, as we did yesterday, we could go to 7.30 again.
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Inspection at 3pm
News from the middle - we’ll have an inspection at 3pm. The ground staff have been doing the hokey-coked with the covers for the last half-an-hour. There’s also a bit more rain around in the next two hours...
Some of the covers have started coming off at Canterbury.
That lake on the outfield has magically evaporated, which is remarkable. It’s still really soggy underfoot - you can hear the player’s shoes squelching as they take a stroll across the pitch - but judging by the way the ground staff are going about their business, they think we’ll get back on.
We’ve had no news as of a restart or inspection. It’s going to be a big clear up job and I don’t envy the staff here. England will be desperate to get back on. It’s still quite humid out and given the movement Katherine Brunt was getting this morning, they’ll be wanting to test Australia’s technique against the moving ball.
The English summer!
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It’s not raining, but it’s not dry either
It’s stopped raining! Just a shame there’s an absolute lake on the outfield. I am utterly soaked after nipping outside for five minutes. It’s horrible out there!
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A hard rain is falling in Canterbury
This is now a proper, genuinely terrifying thunderstorm. The bulbs in the floodlights keep flashing and cracking, the outfield resembles a lake and I’m really not a fan of this. Only way we’ll get any play is if they put on scuba gear.
We’re off for bad light
Despite having the floodlights on, as they have been from about 10 am, it’s not fit for them to play. Katherine Brunt leads the team off with a massive grin on her face. What a spell from her this morning. She’s been bowling at around 75mph consistently; no idea where she’s got that bit of extra pace from but it has worked so, so well for her this morning.
Her battle with Ellyse Perry has been a good one as well. She beat a wafty drive from Perry and followed it down with a few words. Two balls later she dropped wide and Perry carved her through the gully for four. Australia are 15-2, a lead of 121.
Australia are 2-2.
Repeat, 2-2. Two wickets in 10 balls for Katherine Brunt, who is on fire this morning.
The highest fourth innings total in women’s Test cricket is 229, made in 1966. The highest score England have chased down is 173. All a bit ominous but Brunt is doing her absolute best to put them back into the game. She’s picking up the rewards she missed out on in the first innings. That first over to Elyse Villani was stunning.
Her celebration, standing in the middle of the pitch, fists pumping as Meg Lanning departed for a two-ball duck, said everything. Lanning was trapped on the crease to a ball that was full and straight. She was fuming as she walked off, thudding her bat on the ground. Australia still have a good lead but blimey. 4-2 after three overs.
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England have started well
Katherine Brunt is absolute magic. Beautiful first over - she has an lbw shout against Elyse Villani, that just traps her on the crease. Next ball is an absolute beauty, beats the bat by a centimetre or to. Brunt looks furious, Villani has a wry grin at her.
And then she bowls a ball on a good length that just swings back in and sends Villani’s off stump cartwheeling out of the ground. Brunt races off to square-leg in celebration as her teammates engulf her. A wicket-maiden to begin the day!
We have drama!
I’ve had some early morning seagull drama, thanks to a pack of them divebombing my window at 4am. But that’s an aside.
It’s pretty grim at Canterbury this morning. Grey skies, mizzly weather and it’s cold. It’s August and I’ve had to resort to three layers for warmth. The England girls are about to have their team photo taken after some early morning bowling practice. Katherine Brunt was really getting the ball to move on the practice strip. She batted extremely well last night, the one positive in what sadly was an attritional day’s cricket.
Australia, meanwhile, are in the nets. Megan Schutt said in the press conference last night they would look to be aggressive. Alyssa Healy has been practicing against spin and seam, both of which she’s been battering past the bowlers with pleasing ease. Meg Lanning, in the next net on, is getting some practice against the short ball. From a purely selfish point of view, I would love to see Lanning go big today. She is a joy to watch.
Morning all,
Amy Lofthouse will be continuing her live coverage of the Women’s Ashes from Canterbury as England try to recover from a poor innings yesterday. The hosts were bowled out for 168 last night, giving Australia a decent lead of 106 as they go back in to bat. Here’s Amy’s latest report:
