15th over: England 105-3 (Sciver 34, Brunt 6)
JJ Jonassen gets some control back. She’s usually the one she does, with left-arm spinners that nag like an unpaid landlord. Four singles from the over is all, great at this stage of the innings. Some hitting ahead, buckle up.
14th over: England 101-3 (Sciver 32, Brunt 4)
Sciver steps up, as Strano steps back. Sciver reverse-sweeps, nails it, and gets four through backward to start the over. Strano tightens up for a couple of singles off the next three, but then goes too far down leg and Sciver can employ the conventional sweep with rare power for four through square leg. A real swat, but placed as well.
Here’s the Taylor self-roast.
Australian Women’s Cricket Team 🏏
(@SouthernStars)GOT HER! Delissa Kimmince that is simply brilliant! A big wicket with Taylor run out #WomensAshes pic.twitter.com/8FCQcVtJMW
13th over: England 90-3 (Sciver 22, Brunt 3)
Brunt out ahead of Knight. Interesting. The pinch-hitter was out for a golden goose on Friday night, but she clouts a couple off Jonassen to get off the mark here.
Waste. What a waste. A wastrel. Solid waste. Waste high. Wasted. I said that earlier, but this is throwing plates of fresh oysters out a hotel window. Sarah Taylor, in any event, is freshly shucked. And by her own volition. Hits the ball to backward point, straight and Kimmince, and runs anyway. Never had a chance, if the throw hit. And it did, at the non-striker’s end, as Kimmince steadied and let fly. Taylor was on one here, she was batting beautifully, and now she’s put a letter-opener through the masterpiece.
12th over: England 85-2 (Taylor 30, Sciver 20)
Beamer! It’s all happening here. Sarah Aley sends down the pie flaoter, and Sciver, bizarrely, clubs it to deep square and turns down the single. What? Turn down runs in a T20? Sciver has dead-set alpha-dogged Sarah Taylor, saying “I’m a better chance to hit a six from the free hit than you, you fancy strokemaker.” In the event, Sciver only gets a single to deep midwicket. What. The. Effluent. Later in the over, Aley goes way down leg, and Healy does magnificently to dive across, get some kind of deflection on it, and keep five wides to three. The Queen of Control is losing it with the ball though.
11th over: England 75-2 (Taylor 29, Sciver 14)
England are flying! Delissa Kimmince on with her mediums, and Taylor goes the conventional ramp this time. There’s such a thing as a conventional ramp? Yes, there is, grandad. This is beautifully timed, she moves across to outside her off stump to send that ball leaping towards fine leg. Then flays the next over cover point, inside out and lofted, for four more!
10th over: England 63-2 (Taylor 19, Sciver 12)
Gardner to continue, Off-Spin City. They work a couple of singles out to midwicket, then there’s another boundary from a fielding mishap. This time Gardner the victim as bowler, having made the blunder earlier. Sciver sweeps hard, Strano runs around the boundary and doesn’t anticipate the back-spin from the sliced shot. Should have, you have to in that position. Strano then tracks back toward the rope, slips as she tries to field, and jams her foot into the rope while her wrist is resting on the ball. Sciver gets in the book for a four, however it came.
9th over: England 53-2 (Taylor 17, Sciver 4)
Strano back on around the wicket, and bowls flat and straight. It’s not the most exciting way to proceed, but at least it works. Three singles only from the over, including a very tight one off the last ball. Just beats the throw from cover.
8th over: England 50-2 (Taylor 16, Sciver 2)
Gardner on for a trundle with her off-breaks. Highly effective in the World Cup this year. Taylor greets her beautifully, coming down the wicket to manufacture a full toss, then whipping it through wide long-on to beat the sweeper. Four of the best. Tries it again later in the over, but only gets a single that time.
7th over: England 42-2 (Taylor 10, Sciver 1)
Honours even. England going well on the run rate, but lost their openers.
Bizarre! Beaumont kneels to sweep, misses, and is hit in the ribcage. Maybe just a bit high, but she’s very small, and the ball may have been dropping enough to hit the bails. The umpire pulls the trigger.
6th over: England 38-1 (Beaumont 8, Taylor 8)
Taylor! What a stroke. What do you call that? A reverse ramp shot, I’d say. From the seamer Schutt. Taylor reverses the bat, angles it toward the leg side, and ramps the ball through about second slip for four. Outrageous.
5th over: England 31-1 (Beaumont 7, Taylor 3)
Jonassen on, and Beaumont is dropped second ball! Drilled at mid-off, Gardner dived across but couldn’t hang on once she hit the ground. Taylor is into the act with positivity, striking to mid-off and sprinting with the stroke. England could use a big innings from her today on this tailor-made deck. Taylor rather wastes a full toss by reversing it straight to the field. Going to play her full range, it seems.
4th over: England 26-1 (Beaumont 5, Taylor 0)
Australia claw back thanks to their white-ball saviour. Schutt has taken a bag of wickets this series, here and in the ODIs.
What a waste. Schutt holds back the length, Wyatt goes on the up, and drills it straight at Australia’s captain at cover.
3rd over: England 23-0 (Wyatt 18, Beaumont 4)
Danni Wyatt! “Ok, corral these bowlers for me,” said Knight, and her new opener is doing it. Wyatt has a point and a backward point, but gets some width from Perry, waits for the ball, and times perfectly the slash that splits those fielders for four! Utter class. She nearly gets another with a slash over the empty cordon area, but it’s saved at third man. Beaumont finally gets to face a second ball, and there’s the difference in timing, as she finds the point field twice. Perry bowls a wide bouncer well over her head, and eventually Beaumont gets one out of the screws, slapping in front of point. It’s a diving save from Aussie skipper Haynes to keep four to three.
2nd over: England 13-0 (Wyatt 13, Beaumont 0)
Schutt starts with the second over, and Wyatt is a gunslinger! Drops to one knee and slams Shooter over her head down to the long-on rope. This is a great move so far.
1st over: England 9-0 (Wyatt 9, Beaumont 0)
Well, hello! Cat, meet pigeons. Things have changed since last game. Danni Wyatt, who was England’s shining light in clubbing 50 off 35 balls last match, has been promoted to open. Heather Knight quite keen to relinquish that job after a second-ball duck the other day. And Australia makes a change too, with Strano opening the bowling. She doesn’t do too badly, Wyatt uncontrolled and aerial as she goes over cover, but… this is weird. Ash Gardner has just forgotten what the rope means. She runs after the ball, picks it up, then puts one foot down over the rope to stop her momentum. Immediately she yanks the foot back with a look of horror – the floor is lava, after all. But it’s too late! One of the weirdest fours you’ve ever seen.
Wyatt is beaten next ball by a corker that goes on straight with the arm and beats the edge, then produces a more classical boundary by skipping down the wicket and cover-driving through the gap. Lovely start.
Sighs of relief in the touring dressing room, I am quite sure.
Changes – Shrubsole in for Hartley, pace for spin for England. In the Australian camp, Amanda Wellington swaps out for Molly Strano, leg-spin for off.
Australia
Mooney
Healy
Villani
Perry
Haynes
Gardner
Kimmince
Jonassen
Aley
Strano
Schutt
England
Knight
Beaumont
Taylor
Sciver
Brunt
Wyatt
Wilson
Gunn
Hazell
Shrubsole
Ecclestone
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The pitch looks like an absolute road, as it tends to be at Manuka Oval in our nation’s capital, so whoever wins the toss will bat, bat, bat.
Righto, here we go. The big question today is, who can bounce back harder, better, faster, stronger? The Aussies may be dusty after their celebrations at retaining the Ashes, or England may be flat at their failure to regain them. But the series result is not yet over. It could still be a drawn series 8-8 if England wins today, and that would see them leave our shores in a far happier state than a series loss. Do they have it in them to pull back into contention?
Geoff will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s a reminder of where we’re at in the series:
One-day internationals (two points for a win)
- 22 October, Brisbane – Australia won by two wickets
- 26 October, Coffs Harbour – Australia won by 75 runs (DLS method)
- 29 October, Coffs Harbour – England won by 20 runs
Four-day Test match (four points for the win)
- 9 November, North Sydney – match drawn, points shared
Twenty20 matches (two points for a win)
- 17 November, North Sydney – Australia won by six wickets
- 19 November, Canberra
- 21 November, Canberra