Womens Ashes 2022 News

England women's skipper Heather Knight has expressed her disappointment after the tourists squandered the opportunity to regain the Ashes following a 27-run defeat in the first of three ODIs in Canberra on Thursday.

England keep their Ashes hunt alive as they secure a draw in the only Test by the skin of their teeth at Manuka Oval, Canberra on Sunday. It was the 6th instance this Australian Summer, that an English team was playing a Test Match on Aussie soil. In the first 5 attempts by the Men’s team, they were never close to victory by any chance. The Women’s team on the other hand walked in with a resilience beyond conquest. A situation and position which was tantalizingly close to victory, a true test of the nerves. The challenge they had in front was an on song Alana King on debut who was spinning a web with her leg-spin on a 4th-day pitch. As the batters survived the turn and bounce of King, at the other end was Annabelle Sutherland bowling relentless short-pitch bowling. Away Ashes victories never really come easy. The scenario was incredibly critical to the context of the proceedings as well as the series. The multiformat Women’s Ashes consists of three T20Is and ODIs, and a stand-alone Test. Each of the limited over games carries two points for a win while the Test has four points for a win and two for a draw. England walked into this Test as challengers, losing a T20I and a No-Result in the couple T20Is due to rain. An outright loss in the Test match would have meant them losing grips on the Ashes series with three matches to spare. England started the Test positively after electing to bowl on a wicket helpful for the seamers. After picking three crucial wickets in the first 15 overs itself, English Women were looking threatening to seize the opportunity. The opportunity came but was left begging as Meg Lanning was dropped in the slips with the score reading 67-3. As seasoned a campaigner as Lanning, she piled up on that missed opportunity and smashed 93 to take Australia to shores of safety with a 169 run partnership with Haynes. However, England struck back again as both Lanning and Rachel Haynes (86) missed on their centuries. While England was trying to come back in the game, Ashleigh Gardener and Tahlia McGrath counter-attack and both compiled quickfire fifties to take Australia to a 300 plus score. Only after taking the second new ball were England able to clean up the Aussie lower order, where Katherine Brunt picked up a well-deserved fifer. Australia carried this momentum into their bowling. The quartet of Ellyse Perry, Darcy Brown, Sutherland, and McGrath absolutely peppered the English women with their quick bowling, along with the wily spin duo of King and Gardner. Their collective efforts reduced England to 169-8 as the English fans sighed “Not again”. The Australians were pumped and were already smelling a victory, but what stood in their way was the English captain Heather Knight. Knight ended up with a monumental knock of 168* with a right balance of stroke play and defiance, taking England within touching distance of Australia’s first innings total. Rains played spoilsport on Day 2 & 3 as many overs were lost. However, on Day 4 Australia came out with an enterprising approach. Despite losing wickets at regular intervals, some impetus from Gardner and Jess Jonassen, in the end, ensured that Australia declared at 216/7 in 64 overs. This left England with 257 runs to chase in 48 overs on a tricky wicket to bag four points in the multi-format Ashes. After an inspiring performance by Captain Knight, the English side was pumped and keen to make a statement in the Ashes. The intent was visible right at the top as Lauren Winfield and Beaumont provided a good platform to build the innings. And then everyone else chipped in with handed contributions at healthy strike rates including Knight, Natalie Sciver and Sophie Dunkley. At one point England was marching to victory at 218-3 with two set batters at the crease in Sciver and Dunkley and only 39 needed in 45 balls. Australia counter-punched with different tactics. They spread the field deep and dried the boundaries to build pressure. While King was bowling her ripping leg spinners from around the stumps, Sutherland was peppering them with short-pitched bowling. Finally, the pressure got big on England and wickets fell in a heap. In the zeal to continuously attack they lost wickets, and once Sciver fell it was a procession. The equation for England was simple, with 13 runs required from 16 deliveries and three wickets in hand. But a double strike in the next two balls ensured that England gave up hopes of a win. They hoped to survive, with King getting the ball to spit off the surface and Sutherland getting it to whizz past the edge. But the resilience in the English rose again as they successfully as number 10 and 11 successfully blocked eleven more deliveries. Then, all the fielders came in. Nine catchers around the bat to an English number 11 with a leg spinner bowling wasn’t a hard memory to recall. The result ended up being the same as Kate Cross played the day out without fuss, as England safeguarded their two points and kept the Ashes alive. England survive to fight another day as the Ashes moves on to the ODI leg now.

Australia’s favourite cricketing couple Mitchell Starc and Alyssa Healy were spotted together on the final day of the Women’s Ashes Test match as the game broke momentarily due to a rain delay. Starc, recently stated that he pulled out of the Indian Premier League because he wanted to enjoy some off time with his partner and his family. He stated that he would do well to stay off the bubble for a while and refresh his body for the upcoming assignments for the country.

England toiled throughout Day 1 of the one-off women’s Test match at Manuka Oval as Australia raked up 327 runs for the loss of seven wickets. Two extremely crucial partnerships in the batting order set Australia for a big total as England failed to capitalise on the momentum despite picking up wickets in a bunch. The visitors rued dropped chances early on in the innings, chances that could have sealed the game in the early hours of play. After picking up quick wickets of Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney in the first five overs, England dropped Meg Lanning on 14 and Racheal Haynes on 44. The duo added 169 runs together seeing off 50 overs and more importantly a threatening stage of play. However, both were denied individual centuries as English pacers struck back with the old ball by correcting their lengths and getting them further up the pitch, sending the ball to the corridor of uncertainty. Two set batsmen were edged back behind the stumps and England once again looked to pull the game back. Once again it was not to be as Tahlia McGrath scored her first half century in Test cricket, alongside Ashleigh Gardner who scored 56 runs off 74 balls. England were in desperate need of breaking the partnership that had lasted 134 balls and the new ball brought them some fortune. Gardner was troubled consistently by the ball that jagged back into her and ended up getting caught plumb in front of the stumps after surviving a DRS decision. The final ball of the day saw McGrath needlessly throwing her bat to an avoidable delivery and becoming the seventh batter of the day to get out. At the end of day’s play, Australia were 327/7 in 97 overs. Click here for the full scorecard.

Australian top order batsman, Beth Mooney is set to stage an incredible return in the Women’s Ashes on Thursday, 27 January. Mooney, who fractured her jaw in the nets on January 18, has been confirmed to return by captain Meg Lanning, who has stated that the attacking batsman has been looking really good in the nets. The left hander, who is the top ranked T20I batsman in the world got caught off guard against a ‘rouge delivery’ while practicing throwdowns with the head coach. Lanning revealed that Mooney has been an incredibly positive influence on the rest of the camp who are taking inspiration from her miraculous recovery. She said that there is a flipside to playing Mooney in the Test match as the batter cannot yet eat solid food. "She's only a liquid diet at the moment, which doesn't sound like a lot of fun, not a lot of variety," Lanning said. "I think our physio and Pip the doc and the dietitian have been coming up with some meal plans for her to make sure she's getting enough energy and obviously with the Test match, the longer format you need to have that over a long period of time, but they've done a great job and so far, so good. "She said she can eat unlimited amounts of ice cream. So she's pretty happy with that." Australia take on England on one-off Test match starting January 27 in Manuka Oval.

Tayla Vlaeminck's injury prompted Australia to make a forced change as Stella Campbell has been added to the squad ahead of the Ashes Test.