31st over: England 148-5 (Wyatt-Hodge 17, Capsey 0) Capsey somewhat at sea against King.

30th over: England 147-5 (Wyatt-Hodge 15, Capsey 0) Capsey is watchful through a Garth over.

29th over: England 146-5 (Wyatt-Hodge 15, Capsey 0) King, in long sleeves, plucks at her cuffs. Jones picks up four as McGrath dives over the ball at mid-on, but is undone next ball. Capsey, as they note on the telly, is rather out of position here. A woman who likes to blast holes, is going to have to rebuild.

28th over: England 140-4 (Wyatt-Hodge 14, Jones 26) Garth’s over starts with five wides, then Jones, who is looking the most fluent batter out there, gets going. Four down the pitch, four more pulled, with a cheroot between her teeth, over midwicket. When Wyatt-Hodge gets a thick edge for four off the final delivery, there have been , 18 from the over.

27th over: England 122-4 (Wyatt-Hodge 10, Jones 17) A neat way to finish the over as Wyatt-Hodge picks up Sutherland and flicks her, quite without effort, for four. Off the pitch, Heather Knight has been persuaded out of her slough of despond and says the pitch isn’t that easy to bat on – a little two-paced.

26th over: England 116-4 (Wyatt-Hodge 5, Jones 16) At just over the half way stage, England are knocking along at 4.46 an over. If you’re at the ground, do drop me a line and tell me just how delightful it is.

25th over: England 114-4 (Wyatt-Hodge 4, Jones 15) Sutherland replaces Brown. A smart smack for six by Jones is caught by a man in a black shirt with a beer in one hand. He tumbles backwards in the process but doesn’t spill a drop. The kids line up to high five him.

24th over: England 106-4 (Wyatt-Hodge 3, Jones 8) And another chance for Jones who leans back and steers the ball between Healy and Mooney at first slip. I think Mooney must have got a finger on it as the physio runs on with some plasters. Gardner continues, giving it lots of air. Some smart fielding on the rope by King cuts off a boundary.

23rd over: England 100-4 (Wyatt-Hodge 3, Jones 2) Ooof – could have been four but Perry can’t hold on in the deep as she dives and tumbles – tricky chance. Jones had swatted at a bouncer from Brown.

22nd over: England 97-4 (Wyatt-Hodge 2, Jones 1) Feels like England could be in trouble now with NSB and Knight back to chew the fat in the dugout. Shrewd bowling by Gardner, uncharacteristically rash shot by NSB.

20th over: England 94-3 (Sciver-Brunt 18, Wyatt-Hodge 1) A big blow that for England, Knight had looked busy and on form. In the dugout, Amy Jones fiddles, and fiddles, with her gloves.

19th over: England 92-2 (Knight 39, Sciver-Brunt 17) “The trouble with North Sydney,” says one of the commentators, “is it is so fast, short boundaries” And with that, England break the shackles and NSB picks up a boundary with a delicate glance.

18th over: England 86-2 (Knight 38, Sciver-Brunt 12) Gardner whirls through another over.

17th over: England 82-2 (Knight 36, Sciver-Brunt 10) Brown again. NSB kept caged for a few balls until the last hits her on the back pad. The umpire says no, but Healy marches over to her bowler to chat things over – and indeed calls for the review. It looks pretty tasty on replay, and the impact was in line but it is umpire’s call! Australia shake their heads.

16th over: England 78-2 (Knight 33, Sciver-Brunt 9) Just an over for King as it turns out, at this end at least, as Gardner is unleashed. England are watchful as a breeze picks up and blows at shirts and stray hairs.

15th over: England 78-2 (Knight 33, Sciver-Brunt 9) The kids bounce around the picket fence showing off their autographs, on the grass suncream is being rubbed in and hampers unpacked. A double change as Darcie Brown joins the attack, and she starts with a wide. A handful of singles keeps the score ticking along.

14th over: England 74-2 (Knight 31, Sciver-Brunt 8) The first over of spin, as Alana King is thrown the ball. She whistles through her over, without too much incident, until NSB decides to throw kitchen sink and various pots and pans at the last ball, slog-sweeping for SIX. And with that, they take DRINKS.

13th over: England 66-2 (Knight 30, Sciver-Brunt 1) Beaumont looked slightly nervy today, as if she was itching for boundaries. Her wicket brings in Sciver-Brunt, who has been rather deified in the Australian press in the build up to this series. As she should be, obviously. A four for Knight, off her ankles.

12th over: England 60-1 (Beaumont 13, Knight 25) Beaumont looks slightly at sea against Garth here.

“Hey Tanya,” Hello there Cressida Evans!

“Just checking in from a sweaty night in Bahia, summer rain all day yesterday and today, so staying in with a beer and following the match.

“Whatever anyone says these Ozzies look a bit sharp and so many of them look like scary prefects, yikes!”

Yes. If not quite on the Belinda Clark terrifying scale.

11th over: England 51-1 (Beaumont 12, Knight 23) You heard it here first, as predicted by Raf, Mitchell Starc has arrived in the Australian commentary box, suited and smiling to commentate on his wife’s work. There’s a lot of marriages where this wouldn’t be a wise choice. Dib and dab, and six runs off Sutherland’s over.

10th over: England 45-1 (Beaumont 12, Knight 19) A beauty of an over from Garth who has Beaumont poking and prodding all over the place. Picks up a four from the final ball but it has a sense of desperation about it.

9th over: England 41-1 (Beaumont 8 Knight 19) The first change of bowling – as Annabel Sutherland replaces Schutt. She livens things up a full toss exoceted towards Beaumont’s head. Knight picks up another boundary with a square drive.

8th over: England 33-1 (Beaumont 78 Knight 13) Just a single and a wide off Garth’s over, though Knight was lucky not to pick up a boundary from the final ball, beautifully fielded by Garth off her own bowling.

And many thanks to Carmen Lockwood in sunny Hobart for pointing out that I might have got my fixtures in a twist earlier on. “Hi Tanya, I think you have got some of your times mixed up.Eg you say that the Tasmanian ODI (in Hobart) is on 15^th January at 11:05pm GMT. Seeing as the match is on 17^th January here in Tasmania it will be the 16^th January in the UK not the15th.I think you might have quite a few of the other matches on the wrong day too.”

I haven’t got time to double check right now but this might be more reliable source – from the ECB website.

11 Jan - 1st ODI - 11.30pm UK - Sydney

13 Jan - 2nd ODI - 11.05pm - Melbourne

16 Jan - 3rd ODI - 11.05pm - Hobart

20 Jan - 1st IT20 - 8.40am - Sydney

23 Jan - 2nd IT20 - 8.40am - Canberra

25 Jan - 3rd IT20 - 8.10am - Adelaide

30 Jan - 3 Feb - Test Match - 3.30am - Melbourne

7th over: England 31-1 (Beaumont 7, Knight 13) Schutt misses here length and Beaumont whisks her wrists and posts her through the covers for four. And another as Knight takes on an over-pitched delivery, only to be beaten next ball. There’s a lovely buzz and chatter from the crowd who are spread out on their rugs on the grass.

6th over: England 22-1 (Beaumont 2, Knight 9) Garth runs towards the giant fig tree, spreading its arms behind Healy. She starts with a wide and finishes a ball that Knight plays and misses at. In between, Knight picks up four with a thick edge that flies through where third slip might have hovered.

5th over: England 17-1 (Beaumont 2, Knight 5) Knight eyes up a loose delivery from Schutt and says thanks very much, off the mark with a boundary cut with precision. An inside edge to finish the over has slightly less conviction.

4th over: England 11-1 (Beaumont 1) Time for Bouchier to hit another striking boundary, before Garth got her reward for keeping the pressure on.

3rd over: England 7-0 (Beaumont 1, Bouchier 5) A maiden from Schutt as well – both Beaumont and Bouchier look very eager to get going but can’t quite lay bat on ball.

2nd aover: England 7-0 (Beaumont 1, Bouchier 5): Kim Garth flies in, pony tail following. Bouchier plays and misses at her fourth ball, flaps unconvincingly at her fifth, is beaten by her late-swinging sixth. An on-song maiden

“A dramatic version of God save the Queen”? asks Mark Bendall. “I think the Queen died a couple of years ago.” Arghg – apologies Mark, Charles if you’re reading. After 50 years of GSTQ, I’ve got a bit of a mental block on that one.

1st over: England 7-0 (Beaumont 1, Bouchier 5): Just a wicket with the third delivery – overturned because of a no-ball. What drama! Maia Bouchier gets a life after dragging an inswinger from Schutt into the stumps on 0, Schutt’s boot the culprit (just). Bouchier immediately lofts the next ball up and into the shade for four.

The players line up for the anthems, England in royal blue tops and navy trousers, Australia in their usual custard. After the Welcome to Country, a dramatic version of God Save the Queen which provokes a stifled fit of the giggles in some of England’s players. Advance Australia Fair is much more straight down the line.

Ebony Rainford-Brent says she thinks the Aussies have lost their mojo. “The Australia of the past would hold every single trophy. They’ve lost that ruthless edge they had up Meg Lanning.” Ebony isn’t often wrong…

And we catch a glimpse of the first shots of the gorgeous North Sydney Oval, home of rugby league team the North Sydney Bears, and famous for its huge Moreton Bay Fig tree, 22 metres tall and 45 metres across. The sky is outrageously blue.

Raf reports that there is a huge choir warming up on the outfield and that the word on the street is that tickets have sold very well and they’re expecting a near-capacity crowd (six thousand).

The television coverage doesn’t start for 20 minutes so I’m just going to make a quick coffee. Do send me any thoughts/resolutions/nightime rumination. And bring your left-over double gloucester with cranberries, we can work through it together.

Lauren Filer, who has had pulses racing around the world, and even roughed up the phlegmatic Laura Wolvaardt in the recent Test, spoke to Raf yesterday.

“Gorgeous sunshine this morning. Forecast the best it has been all week (thundery rain hasn’t materialised) although possibility of showers later on this afternoon. That’ll be good for England who are likely to play Filer - she slipped over about four times while bowling here on Thursday during the abandoned Gov General’s XI match.

Not been confirmed yet but Kate Cross unlikely to feature for England - only joined in the warm up yesterday very minimally.”

Our star reporter Raf Nicholson is at the ground, and she has already spotted Mitchell Starc who she thinks may be sitting in the commentary box for the match. She did mention it was gloriously sunny too.