Women’s World Cup - Australia v England Report Card

Featuring professional captaincy, tortoise shells, Sophie Ecclesti and ignoring Kim Garth

Professional Captaincy
Grade: B

Perhaps inspired by the relentless pre-series chat about the upcoming men’s Ashes, the Australia and England women’s team decided they’d play a match in this here World Cup.

It is also possible that the match was a result of the pre-determined tournament schedule, but does that explain why Alyssa Healy decided to go full captain-with-a-frustrating-injury-that-rules-them-out-of-the-contest? It does not.

Still, Healy’s injury allowed Tahlia McGrath to step into the captaincy role for Australia. It was a role she took incredibly seriously, not bothering to bat or bowl, lest it distract her from winning the toss or moving a fielder a few degrees to the left or telling a bowler they were up next. Great focus from McGrath.

Having won the aforementioned toss, McGrath sent England in to bat. This led to a particularly odd power play, in which the England openers Tammy Beaumont and Amy Jones oscillated wildly between high-scoring overs, in which they took toll of rubbish bowling, and dotted out maidens, in which they didn’t.

Eventually, after England had reached 0/55 from the first eight overs, McGrath decided she’d had enough and brought on Annabel Sutherland to put an end to it with a wicket maiden.

Reliable AS.

Tortoise Shells
Grade: D+

From that point, the Australian bowlers clawed their way on top, bidding a very good night to the very good Heather Knight (lbw Sophie Molineux for 20 (27)). England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt proved less amenable to that kind of wordplay (‘a very good nat’? ‘a very good sciver-brunt’? Doesn’t really make sense, does it?), so Alana King simply had her caught at mid-off.

It was part of a spell from King that utterly derailed the England innings, as Sophia Dunkley and Beaumont retreated into their shells. At least, we assume they had shells, so tortoise-like was their progress during the middle overs of the innings.

They eventually warily poked their respective heads out once King was removed from the attack. But the damage had been done.

Attempts to accelerate the innings were met with further wickets, the highlight of which was a Georgia Voll catch on the boundary after Beaumont skied a Sutherland slower ball into the deep. Casual rope juggling from Voll saw her earn the ultimate reward in world cricket - a low five from Ellyse Perry.

Great stuff. It’s why you play the game, isn’t it?

Sophie Ecclesti
Grade: D-

A late flurry from Alice Capsey and Charlie Dean saw England reach 9/244 from their fifty overs, a total that felt about forty runs short.

On the other hand, England had Sophie Ecclestone in their side, or, to use her correctly adjectived title, number one ranked bowler in the world Sophie Ecclestone.

England fans are incredibly proud of Ecclestone’s ranking, and rightly so. Her numbers speak for themselves, and they are undoubtedly phenomenal. She is a fearsome wicket-taking force. She’s Sophie Ecclestone, not Sophie Ecclesttwo or Ecclesttwenty-three.

Having said that, her numbers against Australia also speak for themselves. And those numbers are far less impressive. Which is disappointing. You’d hope that the number one ranked bowler in the world would perform better against the batters in the number one ranked team.

It’s as if against every other team she’s Sophie Ecclestone, the rightly ranked number one bowler on the real number line. Whereas against Australia, she’s Sophie Ecclesti, with her ranking existing more along the imaginary axis.

A little bit of biting mathematical comedy there - and specifically cutting complex numbers humour. Apologies for that on every possible front, England fans.

Ignoring Kim Garth
Grade: F

Nevertheless, Ecclestone did contribute an early wicket in the defending champion’s reply. Australia’s top order, sensibly, got themselves out of the way quickly, falling to 3/24, and then 4/68, in a desperate bid to get to Kim Garth’s cool-headed runs at number nine.

Bizarrely, Sutherland and Ash Gardner then deviated from the plan, eschewing Garth’s batting entirely. Instead, they put on a weird, unbroken 180-run partnership that saw Australia cruise to an effortless win.

So effortless, in fact, that the pair decided the most interesting challenge in the final overs of the match would be to see if they could both reach their century. With the number of runs needed for victory almost precisely equal to the total number of runs the pair needed for respective tons, an attempt was made to manufacture a maiden World Cup hundred for Sutherland after Gardner bullied her way to her second of the tournament.

Gardner did her best to refuse the runs Sutherland needed for her landmark, but eventually lost patience. She drilled the match-winning boundary through cover to deny her junior teammate, stranding her on 98*.

Technically a win to Australia, by six wickets and almost ten overs. But at what cost?