Women's Ashes | Aussies Women Triumph by 3 Runs, Retain Ashes Title
The Australian Women's Team retain the Ashes (Source: Twitter)
The Australia Women retain the Women’s Ashes by defeating the England Women in the 2nd ODI at Southampton by 3 runs in one of the most thrilling encounters. After a slow start where both the openers got out inside the first six overs, Ellyse Perry took the responsibility to take the innings forward where she stitched some important partnerships with Mooney and Gardener.
Even after these 50+ partnerships, the Australian innings were still struggling at 162-5 after 34 overs due to great spells from Sophie Ecclestone and Lauren Bell. These setbacks still didn’t stop the Aussie women as Ellyse Perry formed another important partnership with Annabel Sutherland who reached her maiden half century and Perry just fell short of the three-figure mark on 91. The quick and explosive 14 balls 37 from Wareham boosted the Australia Women’s total to 282-7.
The English Women were looking good early in the innings with Tammy Beaumont continuing her good form with a great half-century, but the Australian spin trio of Alana King, Ashleigh Gardener and Georgia Wareham put the English batters under pressure and took wickets at regular intervals. In spite of the wonderful century of 111 of 99 from Nat Sciver Brunt who took the game to the Australia women bowlers and got the game to the last over, the England Women still fell short by only 3 runs.
Crunching the Numbers: Analysis of Innings Progression
Both the innings progression analysis
In close encounters like these, there are no major comparisons between the two sides. Compared to the Australian women the England women’s innings had a good start where at the end of 10 overs they were 62-0 whereas the Australians were 59-2 and they lost both the openers early inside the first 6 overs. In fact, between 10 to 20 overs the England women were still ahead of the Australian women where they were 99-2 and the Australians might have just fallen back with one extra wicket at 99-3.
Even at the halfway stage England women were ahead of Australian women at 132-4 whereas the Australian women were struggling at 119-4. It is the period between 25 to 30 where the England women started falling back as at the end of 30 overs they were 147-5 where even though they were 7 runs ahead the extra wicket lost did make a difference. The England innings still made good progress in the 5 overs as they were 17 runs ahead of the Australia women.
It was the period between 35 to 40 where the game changed and even though they were ahead, the couple of early wickets was the major setback for them. With Nat Sciver Brunt still playing still kept the England women in the game after 45 overs but it was the last 5 overs which finally took the game away from England where they could only get 34 runs whereas due to that 26 run over in the Australia women innings due to that Wareham made the difference in this nail-biting encounter.
Conclusion
Overall this is one of those games where both sides were battling it out in the middle. We could say that the England women were the better side until the last 5 overs, but the real reason for the failure of England Women was losing wickets at regular intervals which put them under pressure throughout the game compared to the Australia women who after a slow start still built some decent partnerships in the middle.
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