Commemorative knitted mushrooms
Speaking of the fans, one thing both of these teams are brilliant at is really engaging with the people that have turned out to see them.
Way after the game, when it was fairly humid, the Australia and England teams hung around the boundary and engaged with fans of all ages long after they could have been forgiven for heading to the air conditioning in the sheds.
Here’s some fairly impressive knitted handiwork from one young superfan of the Aussies. Bespoke knitted mushrooms for each player. Don’t knock it until you’ve seen it. Deadset, I want one.
What of the weather?
I am going to dodge giving definitive weather updates after totally misreading the rain radar and predicting certain rain on North Sydney Oval. Blame my high school geography teachers at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution not me.
But, according to the weather for St Kilda, it is sunshine all day so we should get a full day’s play at Junction Oval. The historic ground holds 7000, and after a very healthy crowd of just over 6200 at North Sydney, hopefully there will be a good pile of schoolkids hugging the boundary.
Speaking of, at North Sydney, as ever Ellyse Perry was absolutely swamped by signature requests from young boys and girls everytime she came near the boundary, but spinner Alana King was running her pretty close.
Ash Gardner also had to delay her post match press conference to get through a sea of well-wishers, and why not, after her performance in the first ODI it wasn’t surprising.
Allrounder Ash Gardner was named player of the match after taking three wickets and scoring 42 with the bat.Credit: Getty Images
Patience is a virtue
The key intel on Junction Oval is that the coin toss can prove an early victory. It’s a little bit of an earlier start, so with some moisture on the wicket, expect the combination of Lauren Filer and Lauren Bell to cause some headaches for the Australian openers.
It will be a big job for Alyssa Healy and Phoebe Litchfield to keep it cool, calm and collected for the first hour. No changes to the teams below.
Australia 1 Alyssa Healy (capt & wk), 2 Phoebe Litchfield, 3 Ellyse Perry, 4 Beth Mooney, 5 Annabel Sutherland, 6 Ashleigh Gardner, 7 Tahlia McGrath, 8 Alana King, 9 Kim Garth, 10 Megan Schutt, 11 Darcie Brown
England 1 Tammy Beaumont, 2 Maia Bouchier, 3 Heather Knight (capt), 4 Nat Sciver-Brunt, 5 Danni Wyatt-Hodge, 6 Amy Jones (wk), 7 Alice Capsey, 8 Charlie Dean, 9 Sophie Ecclestone, 10 Lauren Filer, 11 Lauren Bell
Can Australia back it up?
England win the toss and opt to bowl
England have won the toss and have elected to bowl, Heather Knight believes that there’s a little bit of the moisture on the ground.
Australia have never been defeated at this ground, but it will be a decent challenge early on against a motivated England seam attack with a new ball.
The key questions
There are some major questions ahead of this second ODI and let’s start with Australia first.
Ash Gardner revealed that she had been dealing with a pesky tennis elbow recently in the post match presser, not that it stopped her from taking three wickets and 42 runs with the bat.
Can the all-rounder back up her heroics? There is no reason why not. Her captain Alyssa Healy was also nursing a knee injury, not that it stopped her throwing herself around behind the wickets and then scoring an outstanding 70 runs.
Ellyse Perry will be disappointed with her 14 runs on her home deck at North Sydney and will be looking to turn things around in Melbourne. Similarly, opener Phoebe Litchfield will want to start afresh after her four runs in the first ODI.
Now onto England, there are possibly more questions than is allowed within this humble blog, but firstly, can they do better with the bat and set a total of just 204 runs?
North Sydney’s wicket was proving a delight for bowlers with lots of turn, but the English batting lineup can still do far better, and all-rounder Nat Sciver-Brunt, so often their inspiration will want to lift for Melbourne.
Similarly their openers of Tammy Beaumont and Maia Bouchier managed 13 and 9 runs respectively, and left their captain Heather Knight with a major hole to dig out of and she valiantly tried with 39 runs, but this cannot happen again.
There were also dropped catches in the field, notably from the world’s best bowler Sophie Ecclestone who somehow lost control of the ball allowing Gardner to stay in and guide Australia home. As everyone’s grade cricket coach told them as a youngster, certainly mine did on the rainy ovals of Ireland, catches win matches and England will know that only too well.
Alyssa Healy looks dejected after being dismissed for 70 runsCredit: Getty Images
Welcome back
Hello and welcome back to the second game of the women’s Ashes, my name is Jonathan Drennan and thank you for your company.
It’s a seriously quick turnaround for both teams, after a tough enough Sunday in the muggy heat of North Sydney Oval for England, with Australia triumphing by four wickets, thanks to a stunning 70 runs from the captain Alyssa Healy and three wickets from Ash Gardner.
In the press conference afterwards, England seamer Lauren Bell came into the tiny room set up and with a smile, rhetorically asked was it always this humid in Sydney? The answer is a categorical yes Lauren. But never fear, we are now off to the dryer climes of Melbourne at Junction Oval.
It was a sell-out in Sydney on Sunday and both teams will be hoping for a decent crowd at Melbourne today.
I’m looking forward to this.
Australia celebrates victory in the first game of the women’s AshesCredit: Getty Images
