by When you’re down, circumstances can conspire to make sure you’re out. Through the first four matches of the Women’s Ashes, England had no one to blame except Australia for being better than them. A total knock WAN first in the first ODI, a botch of the chase an even smaller one in the second, then conceding massive scores in the third ODI and the first T20 to be no chance in the chase. For the second T20, to chase another high total, England could shake a fist at the sky, losing the rain reckoning when he was dragged from the field with five balls to go.
Realistically, England were unlikely to score 18 from the last five to make 186. But it was possible. Annabel Sutherland was bowling, and Heather Knight had just bowled her for four, moving Knight’s score to a fierce 43 from 19. Sutherland had been banned from the attack earlier in the tour after two full pitches were called illegal. A six, a fumbled four, a set of five wides: a lot of things can increase pressure in a ball’s space.
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Knight therefore had every reason to be visibly and intentionally frustrated when the umpires ordered him onto the field, verbally protesting and throwing his bat. The rain was heavy, but no one else had to bowl on that pitch later, and surely the bowlers can handle a wet ball for a minute. Authorities will cite safety concerns, but it is a stretch to claim that players cannot safely get through a handful of deliveries to complete an international match.
Given that a previous delay had used up all the extra time, and with Australia coming on Duckworth’s Lewis Stern calculation, leaving also meant deciding the match. And in this same thing, Australia had been punished with a setting restriction for a slowing pace. The home team was therefore able to dodge the risk of losing the match by the last five balls and dodge the consequences of their penalty which would have otherwise given Knight a better chance of going home.
What this means is that England are yet to win a match in the final T20 and four in the Test. Australia already has ten. Not that England can blame the rain entirely for the result, given the simplicity of some of the catches their fielders left from the deep. The one before Annabel Sutherland’s reconstruction with Tahlia McGrath was particularly costly.
This repair work has established a foundation, and for Australia, there is always someone ready to step up. Any other team in the world would have opened Grace Harris, as a regular six batter with big centuries. Australia beats her at seven, because you screw, that’s why. From what looks like a substantial T20 career, having now reached 50 internationals, she has looked without batting in 16 of them. She faced fewer than ten balls 21 times, and only five times did she face 20 or more. A devastating strike rate of 157 barely gets him a hit.
This match was not one of them: 17 balls being all Harris needed for England’s spinners for three sixes, before the cover drive and four-seam pickup. McGrath started the series wooden and stiff, but found his groove and aggression during his last three hits. Taking four boundaries from an Ecclestone Sophie Over is an achievement, even if he was late in the innings with the help of terrible fielding.
Apart from that, it was the usual suspects: Beth Mooney opening the batting for a quick 44, Megan Schutt opening the bowling for four runs in her first over. It was a crucial denial in the chase, as Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Sophia Dunkley then began to score heavily. It ended with Schutt having them both in the 13th over, denying Wyatt-Hodge the room to cover, hitting the top of Dunkley’s stump.
This was the turning point, as well as the next Sutherland on this cost only three. Knight was able to do his part in the recovery, Nat Sciver-Brunt was not. As things stand, England can point to luck and point to chance and claim injustice. Australia remains the team that increases the odds; The team that shows up and wins.
