Key events
24th over: Australia 110-4 (Perry 45, Gardner 3) Glenn keeps the scoring down. Gardner playing a shot a ball, but only gets one of those through the field, a cut for two.
23rd over: Australia 108-4 (Perry 45, Gardner 1) Alice Capsey on to bowl. It felt like the Australians let her bowl at them in Bristol, with her innocuous off spin, but from a few wickets down they had fewer options to take risks. Exact same scenario today. Perry pulls Capsey’s first ball for four, slightly short, then sweeps one. Gardner drives her first run through cover.
22nd over: Australia 102-4 (Perry 40, Gardner 0) Australia would like Gardner coming to the crease after 35 or 40 overs, not this early. She’ll have to adapt today. Usually an attacking player, here she can’t score from five balls from Glenn, the bowler twice stopping a drive getting back past her.
WICKET! McGrath c Jones b Glenn 5, Australia 102-4
Trouble now for Australia! McGrath has been such a performer in the last couple of years but she goes cheaply here, top-edging a cut shot into the keeper’s gloves. Glenn was expensive in her first over but gets a big wicket in her second.
21st over: Australia 102-3 (Perry 40, McGrath 5) Ecclestone tightens it up again. Three from the over, including a wide.
20th over: Australia 99-3 (Perry 39, McGrath 4) Sarah Glenn on for some leg spin. McGrath drives to deep extra cover, has a sweeper coming around to keep her scoring to two. Then another drive through the hands of Knight at cover, one more. Wickets falling regularly, but Perry won’t hold back! Gets back to a drag-down ball and lumps it over wide long on for four! Adds two more to midwicket.
19th over: Australia 90-3 (Perry 33, McGrath 1) The previous partnership ends at 61 runs, a helpful start but not match defining. Tahlia McGrath gets going with a drive struck hard at cover, only half stopped.
WICKET! Mooney c Bell b Ecclestone 33, Australia 88-3
The biggest wicket of the day! It’s not from Ecclestone’s top drawer but it doesn’t always need to be. A bit short, trending towards leg stump, and that’s inviting Mooney to play the sweep. Hits it powerfully but airborne and flat, straight at short fine leg.
18th over: Australia 86-2 (Perry 31, Mooney 32) Heavy swing across the line from Mooney at Sciver-Brunt, after three more dot balls to start the over. Jones behind the stumps in vocal in approval, feels they’ve pushed Mooney into a bad shot. Heather Knight though puts a fielder back there, and Mooney takes a single into the gap.
17th over: Australia 81-2 (Perry 31, Mooney 27) Again a first-ball four from Ecclestone’s over, this time Mooney shifting across her stumps to sweep. Then dropping and running to cover, Perry on that replay would have been just short running to the striker’s end had the throw hit. Perry using her feet again to Ecclestone, even just defending to cover.
16th over: Australia 76-2 (Perry 31, Mooney 22) Mooney drives to cover, Dunkley hits Perry’s stumps at the far end but they don’t take an overthrow. Mooney happy to back away to Sciver-Brunt and carve off the line of her stumps, but can’t beat cover point. So she goes straight down the ground, swings it away for four. Dabs a run to keep the strike.
15th over: Australia 71-2 (Perry 31, Mooney 17) Everyone hydrated? On we go. Ecclestone bowling. Perry sweeps four first ball, and seems content with that while playing out the rest of the over.
14th over: Australia 67-2 (Perry 27, Mooney 17) Really quietening down before the drinks break. Perry taps one run to cover, Mooney just waits out the rest of the over after a ball from Sciver-Brunt goes past her outside edge.
13th over: Australia 66-2 (Perry 26, Mooney 17) Time for spin. England have ten valuable overs from Sophie Ecclestone. Willing to start using them if it means breaking this partnership. Mooney flicks a single first ball, Perry settles in before nudging another.
12th over: Australia 64-2 (Perry 25, Mooney 16) Sciver-Brunt to Perry. The field restrictions were done with a couple of overs ago, and the two batters look pretty happy to start the consolidation phase immediately. Just a couple of singles.
“I heard someone say after the last game that if we had a washout here the series would be 7-7 with the Taunton game to become the decider,” writes Rocket from Melbourne. “Looking at the poor weather predictions for Tuesday at Taunton I’m starting to think that that game could yet be a washout, which would mean today’s winner would win the series 9-7.”
Quite right, that is another consideration.
11th over: Australia 62-2 (Perry 24, Mooney 15) Cross will bowl a sixth over, again trying the short one but Perry gets her hands very high over the top of the bounce and pulls it down for one run. A square drive gets Mooney a single, good shot but there’s protection back. Perry glides another.
10th over: Australia 59-2 (Perry 22, Mooney 14) Bell finishes after four overs, Nat Sciver-Brunt comes on, but struggles for accuracy at first, a couple of wides outside the off stump. Perry shovels three runs through midwicket off the top of the bounce of a straight ball.
9th over: Australia 53-2 (Perry 19, Mooney 13) Cross to bowl her fifth, in at the thigh pad of Mooney to start. Keeps the Australians to three singles, but there’s the pressure release again, this time from the last ball. Leg stump and glanced for four.
8th over: Australia 46-2 (Perry 14, Mooney 11) Swing from Bell! Draws Perry into a big drive aimed at extra cover, beats her by a margin as the ball shapes away. Then inswing the next ball, Perry meeting it with the full blade. But the bowler keeps giving away an opportunity here or there, this time a leg-side ball that Perry can glance for four. Then Mooney climbs into a cut shot that Danni Wyatt has to chase back to keep the scoring to three.
7th over: Australia 36-2 (Perry 9, Mooney 8) Cross running in to Perry, a short ball that Perry plays down, then a cutter inward that beats the inside edge as Perry walks at her. Dunkley knocks down a cover drive and keeps the scoring to one. Mooney rescues the over for Australia with an off drive for four, just full enough for the shot.
6th over: Australia 31-2 (Perry 8, Mooney 4) Seems like Australia have relied more and more on Beth Mooney through the last few years. She’s the reason they got a competitive score in Bristol. She’ll have to do a job again. Starts with a crisp cover drive for four.
WICKET! Healy c Capsey b Bell 13, Australia 27-2
What was Healy thinking there? Bell bowlers a shorter ball outside off stump. It’s sitting there for a shot through the off side, and Healy elects for a little dab, running it off the face towards deep third. Except they’ve brought that fielder up inside the circle. Did the batter just forget, or not notice? That’s literally in the style of a catching practice drill for Capsey.
5th over: Australia 27-1 (Healy 13, Perry 8) Dicey shot from Healy against Cross now, thick inside edge between pads and stumps. Gets two runs, glides another. England doing a good job of keeping the pressure on.
4th over: Australia 24-1 (Healy 10, Perry 8) Near miss for Perry! She hasn’t scored from her first six balls, so she gets forward to a straight ball from Bell and clips it hard through mid on, but aerial for a moment. Too straight for Sciver-Brunt at short midwicket. Then next ball, swinging away, takes the edge wide of slip! Two boundaries, two with some luck involved.
3rd over: Australia 15-1 (Healy 10, Perry 0) First boundary for Healy, off the pads from Cross. Repeats the dose a few balls later. Amy Jones comes up to the stumps in an attempt to mess with Healy’s footwork.
2nd over: Australia 7-1 (Healy 2, Perry 0) Another early visit to the crease for Perry, who usually bats No4 when Meg Lanning is around but is first drop in this series. Can’t beat short fine leg with a glance.
WICKET! Litchfield lbw Bell 4, Australia 7-1
Early blow for England! Lauren Bell bowls a wide, a leg-stump pie for Healy to flick for one, then a wide floaty delivery that Litchfield drives for four. But with those out of her system, she bowls one that comes the other way, back into the left-hander. Hits her in front!
1st over: Australia 1-0 (Healy 1, Litchfield 0) More accurate start for Kate Cross than when she opened the bowling in Bristol. Healy dabs a run behind point but Litchfield isn’t game to play shots against the next five balls, all in the channel across the left-hander.
Players on the ground, we’re set to go.
Teams
No changes for England. Australia drop fast bowler Darcie Brown, who was wayward in Bristol, and bring in Alana King for some more spin. That’s the bowling lineup they needed a few days ago, will it do the job here?
I suspect that Georgia Wareham will float up the order if Australia have wickets in hand in the last ten overs. She’s the purest hitter.
Australia
Alyssa Healy + *
Phoebe Litchfield
Ellyse Perry
Beth Mooney
Tahlia McGrath
Ash Gardner
Annabel Sutherland
Alana King
Jess Jonassen
Georgia Wareham
Megan Schutt
England
Tammy Beaumont
Sophia Dunkley
Alice Capsey
Heather Knight *
Nat Sciver-Brunt
Danni Wyatt
Amy Jones +
Sophie Ecclestone
Sarah Glenn
Kate Cross
Lauren Bell
England win the toss and will bowl
They want to chase again. It worked last time, so why not?
And another important moment in the women’s game, with this ICC announcement during the week.
England’s players are speaking with confidence now.
This was my summing up of the situation, a few seats down from Raf.
And had time to do a match wrap podcast with Melissa Story of TMS.
If you need to revise, here’s Raf Nicholson with the match report from the last dramatic day at Bristol.
Preamble
Geoff Lemon
Here we go again. After Australia won the Test match and the first T20 in this year’s Women’s Ashes series, there was surely no way back for the other team. England weren’t going to beat the world champions for five limited-overs matches in a row to overturn the points deficit.
They won the first of those five. Fine, but not going to win four more, are they?
They won the second. But not three?
Yep, three. Two 20-over matches and one 50-over match, the latter coming with the closest finish as Heather Knight and Kate Cross reached the target in Bristol eight wickets down.
Now, it’s Australia who must win. The equation is simple. Whichever team loses today can no longer win the series, they can only draw it.
And yes, Australia would retain the trophy with a draw, but they would hate that result after holding such a strong early lead.
This is where it really gets interesting. The Australians looked rattled after that third loss in Bristol. Blowing that early advantage is now a real possibility. Will that throw them off, get in their way? Or will the jeopardy concentrate their approach, and see them produce the dominant performance we’ve been expecting?
All to play for today..