Alyssa Healy’s stated ambition on the eve of this Women’s Ashes was to “throw the first punch”. Mission very much accomplished. England limped away from North Sydney on Sunday evening with a bloody nose, whimpering to 204 all out in 43.1 overs – a total that, despite their best efforts, proved impossible to defend.
England undoubtedly missed the parsimonious bowling of Kate Cross, whose back injury continues to plague her; her fitness for the remainder of the series remains in doubt. But the real blame lay with the England batters, who played in classic “Jonball” fashion (the aggressive style to which coach Jon Lewis lends his name), lacking the patience required to see off Australia’s world-class attack. The hosts’ eventual margin of victory was just four wickets. Imagine what alternative outcome we might now be contemplating had England scored even 30 more runs.
Heather Knight and Danni Wyatt-Hodge tried their best, with scores of 39 and 38 respectively, but picked out fielders in the deep before turning their starts into anything substantial. So did England’s Great Ashes Hope Nat Sciver-Brunt, who mindlessly holed out to deep midwicket for 19, handing Ash Gardner a second wicket in as many overs. Alice Capsey smacked one straight to point; Amy Jones batted beautifully for 29 balls and then drove one back to Alana King as if she’d only just arrived at the crease. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
Fixtures
ODIs: 12 January (Sydney), 14 January (Melbourne), 17 January (Hobart)
T20s: 20 January (Sydney), 23 January (Canberra), 25 January (Adelaide)
Test: 30 January to 2 February (Melbourne)
Points system
Two points are awarded for a win in white-ball games and four in the Test, with the points shared if a game is drawn, tied or abandoned. Whichever team has most points at the end wins. If the teams are level on points after the Test match Australia, as holders, retain the Ashes – as they did after an 8-8 stalemate in 2023.
How can I follow it?
The series will be broadcast in the UK by TNT Sports and Discovery+, with radio commentary on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra, or on the BBC website and BBC Sounds app, with the first match starting at 11.30pm GMT on 11 January. In Australia it will be broadcast on Seven and 7plus as well as Fox Cricket and Kayo, with radio coverage on Fox Cricket and ABC Radio, starting on 12 January at 10.30am AEDT. Willow TV will show the Ashes in the US, starting on Saturday at 6.30pm EST or 3.30pm PST.
What’s new this year?
This is the eighth time the Women’s Ashes will be decided using a points system, and like the preceding seven series there will be three ODIs, three T20s and a single Test. But there has been a significant change in the schedule: for the first time the Test will end the series. Previously it has either been scheduled at the start, or it has come between the ODIs and the T20s. Because the winners of the Test get twice as many points as the winners of any other game it can have a huge effect on deciding the series – no team has ever lost the Test and won the Ashes, though four of the seven Tests have been drawn – so placing it last makes it more likely that the outcome of the series will remain unknown until the end. On the eve of this series players from both sides have called for a further change to the schedule for the next series in 2027, demanding three Tests to match the number of ODIs and T20s. In 2023 the ECB announced venues for England’s next two home Ashes Tests, with Headingley pencilled in for 2027 and the Ageas Bowl for 2031.
Isn't it all a bit rushed?
Jon Lewis, England's head coach, has criticised the schedule, which on two occasions has games being played in different cities with only one day between them. "My preference would be that there's more space between the games, and the players' preference would be as well," he said. If the Test match goes the distance the series will last 22 days, with play on 10 of them, in which time the squads will fly at least 2,635 miles between host cities. When the Ashes was last played, in England in 2023, the series took 27 days and the total distance between the venues was 490 miles. The last series in Australia was the shortest of the seven using this format, taking only 20 days, but minimised travel time by using only three venues.
Will the women use the same venues as the men?
Some of the time. The opening game will be played at the 10,000-capacity North Sydney Oval rather than the SCG, which will be used for the first T20, and the first of two games in Melbourne will be played at the 7,000-capacity Junction Oval. But three of the venues being used in next winter’s men’s Ashes, and one that was used in the last men’s series, are on the schedule, culminating in the return of women’s Test cricket to the MCG in Melbourne for the first time since 1948-49, for what will be the first day-night Test at the ground. Simon Burnton
At least the 6,236 spectators at North Sydney Oval got what they came to see: England humbled in an Ashes match (gender of the participants presumably irrelevant). The 25C sunshine was merely a nice bonus, as was local hero Healy’s match-winning 70 (78 balls) – her first half-century since March 2024, and a pleasing return to form after recent injury travails. Charlie Dean eventually snuck one under Healy’s bat and into her stumps in the 32nd over, but by then just 41 runs were needed, and Gardner and King finished the job with 67 balls to spare.
“Coming to a home Ashes with a sell-out crowd spurs you on to do well for your team and for your country,” Gardner said. “It was an awesome atmosphere today.”
The day had started with drama, after Megan Schutt bowled Maia Bouchier for a first-ball duck in the first over, only for it to be ruled a no-ball. But Bouchier continued to look overwhelmed by the occasion of her first Ashes match, repeatedly playing and missing to Kim Garth. Had there been any remaining doubts about Healy’s decision to keep wicket in this match (she was only ruled fit to do so 24 hours previously), they were quickly put to bed when she moved swiftly to her right to snaffle Bouchier’s edge, and hand Garth the first wicket of the Ashes.
“From a body point of view she [Healy] is going to take a lot of confidence out of keeping for as long as she did and then being able to back that up at the top of the order,” Gardner said.
A 50-run partnership between Beaumont and Knight helped take England to 92-2 in the first 19, but after Gardner’s double-strike in overs 20 and 22, the innings gradually ran out of steam, leaving the two Laurens Bell and Filer very little to bowl at. Filer’s opening spell did yield the wicket of Phoebe Litchfield, after she moved the ball across the left-hander and took her edge; it would have produced a second, had Capsey not embarrassingly shelled Ellyse Perry at deep backward square.
Fortunately Perry added just seven more runs before Bell rapped her on the pad and correctly convinced her captain to send the on-field not-out decision upstairs. “I’m really glad I stood my ground,” Bell said afterwards. England’s second drop of the day was more costly. Ecclestone had helped stall the Australian run-chase with her own bowling, but was left kicking herself when she put down Gardner at mid-off with 22 runs still needed. The catch looked such a sure thing that Bell admitted she was already celebrating when Ecclestone got up from the ground and revealed that the ball had actually popped out of her outstretched hands. “Sophie doesn’t drop many catches,” Bell said. “It could have changed the game – we’ll never know.” On such errors are Ashes victories forged.
Bell stressed that England would take confidence from the fact they had almost defended their below-par score, but a “reset” was required before the next match on Tuesday in Melbourne. “We’re one game into a pretty long series,” she said. “We’re 2-0 down but we’re going to have to start the next game and imagine it’s 0-0 and go again.”
