Innings break England 204 (Knight 39, Wyatt-Hodge 38, Gardner 3-19, King 2-35) vs Australia
Australia’s spinners, Ashleigh Gardner and Alana King, shared five wickets between them in the face of a below-par batting performance by England which left the hosts chasing 205 for victory in the opening ODI of the Women’s Ashes.
Gardner shone with 3 for 19 as England were bowled out in the 44th over amid prime batting conditions at a sold-out North Sydney Oval. She was backed up by King’s 2 for 35 and two wickets each for Annabel Sutherland and Kim Garth.
Heather Knight top-scored for England with 39 but a rash of soft dismissals hurt her side and Danni Wyatt-Hodge was their next-highest scorer with a laboured 38 from 52 balls.
England made a nervy start with Maia Bouchier chopping the third ball onto her stumps only to be saved when it was discovered that Megan Schutt had overstepped by the barest of margins and Tammy Beaumont wafting dangerously outside off stump in the third over.
Bouchier broke a run of 16 dot balls between the opening pair when she lofted Garth over midwicket for a one-bounce four but Garth responded by pushing one through from back of a length to draw an outside edge which Alyssa Healy collected behind the stumps.
Knight scored her fourth boundary in 20 balls faced driving Sutherland’s yorker outside off deftly through point and Beaumont broke the shackles of a slow start when she had eight off 22 balls, her lofted drive off Garth finding the boundary.
Beaumont and Knight brought up a 50-run partnership for the second wicket but, two balls later Beaumont chipped Sutherland straight to Garth at mid-on to fall for 13 from 31 balls.
That brought Nat Sciver-Brunt to the crease and she slog-swept King for six off the seventh ball she faced. On 10, Sciver-Brunt survived a close lbw chance on umpire’s call when she was struck on the back thigh by a fuller Darcie Brown delivery that swung late and looked to be clipping the top of leg stump.
Gardner claimed the crucial wickets of Knight and Sciver-Brunt in consecutive overs – both holing out to Ellyse Perry at deep midwicket.
Perry couldn’t hold on to another when she had to come rocketing in from the deep square-leg boundary and dive forward just to get hands to Amy Jones’ pull with just one run to her name.
Jones launched Sutherland for six over deep midwicket and looked in good touch with back-to-back fours off Garth, who conceded 18 runs all up in the 28th over. But no sooner had Jones raised the fifty stand with Wyatt-Hodge by driving King through mid on that she spooned the very next delivery back to the bowler to fall for a 30-ball 31.
Alice Capsey never got going, facing 20 balls for just 4 before she chipped Garth straight to backward point.
Australia had no recourse when King struck Charlie Dean, on nought, convincingly on the pad with the DRS down. The system was back up and running but couldn’t save Dean when King hit her directly in front for 1.
When Wyatt-Hodge picked out Brown at long leg off Sutherland, it fell to the tailenders to salvage the innings. Sophie Ecclestone made the most of being put down by Healy when she was yet to score, with two boundaries in her 17-ball 16 and Lauren Filer opened her tally with consecutive boundaries off Sutherland.
But Ecclestone followed England’s blueprint for easy wickets when she sent a leading edge off Brown straight to Gardner, who then claimed her 100th ODI wicket when she bowled Lauren Bell with a beauty to end England’s innings.