Women’s Ashes: Aussies shake off injury woes to remain in control of Test
Australia’s bowling stocks have been depleted by injury, but the inexperienced members of the bowling attack showed they were up for the challenge on day two of the women’s Ashes Test.
Australia has shrugged off an injury crisis that could have derailed its Ashes campaign to remain in control of the Women’s Ashes Test through to stumps on Day Two.
With Georgia Wareham, Sophie Molineux and Tayla Vlaeminck unavailable through injury and Megan Schutt not yet back to full strength post-Covid, Australia’s bowling stocks looked severely depleted ahead of the one-off Test at Manuka Oval.
But led by fresh faces, Australia handled the pressure with aplomb, maintaining the momentum it worked hard to build at the crease on day one and holding England to figures of 8-235 at close of play.
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Australia declared at 9-337 early on Day Two with history on its side – no women’s team has ever lost a Test after scoring 300 runs in the first innings.
But few of those winning teams would’ve been relying on as many inexperienced hands as Australia is.
Annabel Sutherland, Alana King and Darcie Brown had played a combined total of two Tests prior to the toss on Thursday and none of the trio had ever claimed a Test wicket before.
But on the biggest stage, the new kids in town left the English veterans lost for answers.
“Everyone chipped in really well,” Ellyse Perry said at stumps.
“It was a pretty good day for us.”
Seven balls into her spell, Brown proved too powerful for Lauren Winfield-Hill, who edged straight to Beth Mooney in the slips cordon.
“Darce has just got raw pace and talent and a really good attitude to match that,“ said Perry.
“She just gives her all.”
Sutherland was composed in the face of the dangerous vice-captain Nat Sciver and enticed her to nick to Alyssa Healy.
Picked ahead of superstar tweaker Amanda-Jade Wellington, the uncapped King repaid the faith by cleaning Katherine Brunt up LBW.
“I thought Annabel Sutherland was outstanding and it was really nice to see Alana King get a wicket on debut. She bowled exceptionally well,” said Perry.
No moment excited the crowd more than Sutherland’s second wicket.
The quick’s shorter ball proved too difficult for Amy Jones to resist, but her strike didn’t go the distance and was caught by Brown on the run at mid-wicket.
Ellyse Perry wasn’t about to let the Test rookies hog all the fun, though.
She was on the board within the hour of the innings’ commencement and had her second before lunch in a strong return to national colours, having been dropped for the Ashes T20s.
Only captain Heather Knight (127 not out) was immune to the Aussie onslaught. Like her counterpart Meg Lanning the day before, she finished the innings as her side’s highest scorer, eventually knocking her way to a second Test century.
Sophie Ecclestone pitched in an unbeaten 27 runs late in the day to make the score a little more respectable.
But too many others did too little as the Aussies kept their feet on the visitors’ throats.
Diving Darcie Brown!
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) January 28, 2022
Sensational catch from the young fast bowler! #Ashes | @CommBankpic.twitter.com/ycRPEavnrT
Short wait after short leg miss
When English debutant Charlie Dean played Ash Gardner’s delivery straight to Rachel Haynes at short leg, the Aussie all-rounder very nearly had her first wicket of the Test.
Vice-captain Haynes fell to the turf and did her best Mark Taylor impression, juggling the ball on her back as she attempted to seize control.
She was ultimately unable to pull the catch off at point-blank range, but Gardner didn’t need to wait long to get on the scoring sheet.
Perhaps emboldened by the close shave, Dean slogged into the deep on the very next delivery and was caught by Tahlia McGrath.
Knight in shining armour
Joe Root must know something of Heather Knight’s pain.
Both skippers were shining lights amid hapless English batting displays in Ashes Tests this summer.
Knight’s heroism was such that she comfortably outscored her teammates’ combined total, and where her rivals Rachael Haynes and Meg Lanning came up just short on day one, the English captain cracked triple figures just as long shadows began falling over Manuka Oval.
With carnage and chaos all around her, Knight kept a steady hand.
LANNING AND HAYNES SAVE THE DAY
A pair of captain’s knocks from Meg Lanning and her deputy Rachael Haynes have pulled Australia from the brink of despair and into the box seat at stumps on day one of the women’s Ashes Test.
Lanning, 29, became just the fourth Aussie in history to captain the country in 150 matches and celebrated in style at Manuka Oval.
Just as an Aussie collapse threatened, the skipper stood her ground, cruising past her previous Test high-score of 57 and onto an impressive knock of 93.
Haynes (86) proved more than willing as her co-conspirator in what the 35-year-old admitted would likely be her last Ashes Test.
The pair turned the contest on its head by recording the 17th largest partnership in the history of women’s Test cricket (169 runs) and the 10th largest in Australian women’s Test history.
“We‘ve played alongside each other for a very long time now and we know each other’s games quite well,” Haynes said at stumps.
“I think it probably will be my last Ashes Test so I just want to enjoy it for what it is.”
Latecomers had barely taken their seats in the nation’s capital when Australia wobbled its way to dismal figures of 2-4.
Alyssa Healy went without scoring and was straight back in the nets to practice, while Beth Mooney couldn’t complete her fairytale return from a broken jaw, managing only three runs.
Ellyse Perry, dropped for the Ashes T20s, had the chance to be the hero in her return to national colours, but went cheaply after lobbing up for wicketkeeper Amy Jones.
“It wasn‘t the ideal start but I think we rallied really well,” Haynes said.
And it wouldn’t be the summer of 2021/22 without a few good, old-fashioned English brain fades.
The women kept up the woeful precedent their male colleagues set in the men’s Ashes by coming up with the sorts of errors that just don’t belong on the biggest stage.
Lanning and Haynes were dropped in the slips by their English counterparts, skipper Heather Knight and vice-captain Nat Sciver.
Elsewhere, Haynes mistimed a pull shot that looked certain to be caught in the covers, but incredibly, the ball was permitted to bounce at the feet of not one, but two English fielders.
The Aussies were keen to make their most bitter of rivals pay.
Given rain is predicted to put a dampener on the contest, Lanning and Haynes got their skates on, especially in the second session, to finish with 23 boundaries between them.
Lanning finally went in the nervous 90s, with Knight redeeming herself by snaring the crucial catch in the cordon.
Haynes fell just three balls later, the fourth of Jones’ catches.
Despite coming agonisingly close to posting triple figures, Haynes said thoughts of a maiden Test ton hadn‘t been weighing on her at the crease.
“I wasn‘t thinking about it to be perfectly honest, I was more disappointed to lose two wickets in a row,” she said.
The quick dismissals left Tahlia McGrath and Ash Gardner to steer the ship and both proved destructive in their own right, notching half centuries as the Aussies piled on more pain.
They’ll head into day two playing the game on their own terms with figures of 7-327.
Another one put down 😩
— Cricket on BT Sport (@btsportcricket) January 27, 2022
Haynes and Lanning have now both been dropped... #Ashespic.twitter.com/Atwi8Nfngw
Schutt shot down
Superstar Aussie quick Megan Schutt was overlooked for selection in the women’s Ashes Test, even though Australia’s bowling stocks have been severely depleted by injury.
Without Tayla Vlaeminck, Sophie Molineux and Georgia Wareham, Australia had been forced to call replacements into the squad for the Test, so Schutt’s experience was tipped to be vital.
At the toss on day one, though, Australia revealed the 29-year-old had been omitted, with Perry, Darcie Brown, Tahlia McGrath and Annabel Sutherland set to share pace-bowling duties.
Sources within the team explained that because Schutt had recently recovered from Covid-19, she had yet to return to peak physical condition.
Selectors were also reluctant to risk burning her out ahead of the women’s World Cup – on Wednesday, Schutt was selected in Australia’s squad for the World Cup, which begins in New Zealand in March.
Even so, Schutt admitted she was disappointed not to be playing.
“I’d love to be out there, but it is what it is,” she told Seven.
“I was putting my hand up but at the end of the day, I guess we’ve got a World Cup after this and you’ve got to think of the long game sometimes.”
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