Despite some new faces and a surprise dismissal, Australia showed no pity, remorse or fear against England in Ashes TestCricket is an organic experience. Players wander around a green field, their day unfolding subject to the vagaries of sun and rain, time and tide. Before the Women’s Ashes Test here, the greenness of the pitch stood out, the freshness of the air, making the England captain, Heather Knight, want to bowl. Then into this pastoral scene came Australia: the rise of the machines.If you’re not up to date with your Terminator references, fair enough. But that describes their style and they followed it again. Win the toss. Bat first. Start piling up runs. Win everything in sight at all costs....
Bowler broke a national record and picked up the prize wicket of Elysse Perry on her first appearance for her countryIt was one of those moments where the needle scratches on the record; when the usual rhythms of red-ball cricket are suddenly altered by a disturbance, prompting backsides on to the edges of seats and eyes to laser in on the action.Things had seemed so sedate too. On a sunny morning at Trent Bridge, as Australia’s mighty women’s team began their multi-format Ashes defence in this one-off Test match, it did not take long for a sense of normal service having resumed. Continue reading...
Alyssa Healy will offer safe pair of hands as captain, plus batting prodigy Phoebe Litchfield has fans ready to tune inThere was a time in the recent history of cricket that the Australian women’s team without Meg Lanning was unthinkable. The idea of playing a pivotal series such as the Ashes without her would have been a major cause for concern. As one of the original awardees of a marketing contract, she has long been a face of women’s cricket in Australia. So, it is not only her incredible prowess on the field that would be missed, but also her ability to raise the sport’s profile by presenting viewers with a recognisable face.However, in the world of women’s sport, things...
The hosts are out to seize on rare glimpses of Australia appearing beatable and write themselves into historyThere have not been many times since Australia won the last T20 World Cup at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 2020 that the team has looked beatable. Since that memorable win in front of a record crowd, Australia has only lost three T20 internationals - two to New Zealand and one to India via a super over in late 2022. Australia have always been a dominant team, but that win seemed to set them on a course of becoming near-indestructible.There are also not many ways to beat Australia. Opposition teams must feel trapped in a horror movie at times - they manage to...
Australia’s battled-hardened army of impact players far outnumber those in any other team in South AfricaAshleigh Gardner picked up a career-best, player-of-the-atch 5-15 against New Zealand after making just three with the bat during the group-stage fixture of the ongoing T20 World Cup. Georgia Wareham hadn’t played any international cricket in nearly 16 months but dealt Bangladesh a body blow with her match-winning 3-20 upon slotting back into Australia’s XI.Alyssa Healy had been on the sidelines with a weeks-long calf injury but struck vital fifties in two of her first three innings after returning to the line-up. Grace Harris’s tone-setting 3-0-7-2 – her best T20I figures – against Sri Lanka was only the second instance she had bowled for Australia...