Australia completed a historic Ashes whitewash on Saturday night when they beat England in the day-night Test at the MCG inside three days.
It capped a horror tour for England – the first time a team had gone winless in the hybrid points format. It was a one-sided series to say the least – three Twenty20 wins, three ODI wins and a Test victory for Australia – but there were a few moments that stood out above the others as series-defining.
Australia’s victorious team after completing a clean sweep of the Ashes.Credit: Getty Images
We take a look at those moments – and what’s up next for the dominant Australian team.
1. King rescues Australia after collapse
The sliding doors moment of the series came in the second one-day international at the Junction Oval when leg-spinner Alana King first stamped her imprint on the series. Dismissed for 180 after a massive collapse, Australia needed something special – and it came from King, bowling at the club ground where the legendary Shane Warne cut his teeth. King changed the game with two wickets in the middle orders then unleashed back-to-back strikes to cripple England’s chase, finishing with 4-25 from 10 overs. She came tantalisingly close to a hat-trick with a gem of a leg-break that England’s No.10 could get nowhere near. Skipper Alyssa Healy said after the series this escape was the game she knew Australia would win the Ashes.
2. A leggie mesmerises in an MCG Test
Warne had some of his most iconic moments at the MCG, his home ground – and King followed suit in the series’ marquee game. Bowling all 46.4 of her overs from the Shane Warne Stand end, she put on a clinic. England’s broken batters had no idea how to combat her combination of turn, drift and accuracy. Her delivery to dismiss Sophia Dunkley in England’s second innings was comparable to Warne’s fabled Gatting ball in 1993. King’s bag of five in the second innings (following four in the first) ensured she had her name etched onto the MCG honour boards, joining spin greats Warne, Nathan Lyon and Stuart MacGill – a fitting way to end a campaign where she was named player of the series. A record women’s Test crowd of 35,365 across the three days vindicated Cricket Australia’s decision to play the game at a major stadium instead of a smaller boutique venue that may offer a more intimate atmosphere but cannot accommodate such an audience.
3. Australia seal Ashes victory after rain thwarts England
There was much mirth in 2023 when rain at Old Trafford ensured Australia’s men retained the urn. This time, Australia’s women clinched the series after rain robbed England of the chance to pinch a last-over win in the second Twenty20 at Canberra. England captain Heather Knight was shattered when umpires led players off the field as the heavens opened with her team needing 18 to win off five balls – a difficult ask but not impossible, given how well she was batting. Before you have too much sympathy for England, they had been keen to leave the field earlier in the run chase when they were ahead of the Duckworth-Lewis-Sterne par score. This was as close as England came to winning a game.
Heather Knight shows her displeasure at being called off for rain.Credit: Fox Sports
4. Sutherland creates history at the MCG
Local product Annabel Sutherland has spent plenty of time at the MCG watching Boxing Day Tests and her beloved Geelong in the AFL. She is now part of the venue’s rich history for her deeds on the field after becoming the first woman to score a Test century there. Given three lives by England, Sutherland made the old enemy pay with a match-winning 163, her third century in her six-Test career. Only two other Australian women have hit three Test tons. At the age of 23, Sutherland is already up to ninth on Australia’s women’s Test runs chart with 586, and has plenty of time to pass Karen Rolton’s current mark of 1002. She was named player of the match as Australia secured a 16-0 clean sweep with victory by an innings and 122 runs.
5. England’s diabolical fielding
A disastrous series reached high farce for England when they missed 10 chances on a comically bad second day of the Test. The beleaguered visitors put down eight catches, blew another – which they did not get a hand to because they had made a hash of a sky ball – and missed a stumping. Some of the drops were so basic that park cricketers would have been embarrassed, let alone internationals earning considerable salaries. Sutherland and Beth Mooney made England pay a premium for their sloppiness, kicking on to make centuries. The lives cost England 289 runs, a luxury they could not afford when they made 170 and 148.
What next for Australia?
All roads now point to the World Cup, in August and September, for Healy’s side. Winning the 50-over tournament was one of the goals Healy listed in her audition for the captaincy in December 2023. Though they failed to make the final of last year’s Twenty20 global event, the powerhouse of the international women’s game will start an overwhelming favourite later this year in India. While Australia’s whitewashes in the men’s Ashes of 2006-07 and 2013-14 were achieved with ageing teams, this is a side that has already invested in youth and can win without enormous contributions from stalwarts Healy and Ellyse Perry.
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