The end of the second day of the sole Women's
Ashes
Test left those watching with a feeling of deja-vu, only in
reverse; a message went out, the tempo was upped followed by a
little session for the bowlers to get a couple of bonus wickets,
only this time England were on the receiving end, finishing on 18
for 3, only 12 runs ahead, having lost the wickets of Knight,
Greenway and Taylor, leaving the Brindle/Sciver partnership to drop
anchor yet again.
Australia pose for a team photo
England toiled well in 40+ heat, with the stands
mostly empty and the few spectators huddled in the air conditioned
bars. Brunt suffered in an unusual way, one assumes from the heat,
removed from the attack at the start of her tenth over, immediately
after lunch, after a second ball slipped out of her hand, resulting
in her second beamer no-ball. This left Shrubsole and Cross to pick
up more than their expected share of the afternoon's work, Cross in
particular seizing the mettle and bowling four overs from the other
end for zero runs whilst also including the vital and her third
wicket of Fields, Australia's captain.
England warm-up in the shade!
And 'huddle' there too!
Fields had rescued the
Aussies, along with Perry
their top-scorer, from an
Ashes familiar top order batting collapse,
in the face of some fierce quick bowling from Shrubsole, Cross and
Brunt, climbing back from 37-5 to 92-6 when Fields fell, and 177-7
when Perry became Gunn's only victim of the day, bowled, in the last
but one over of her day's work that had included 18 overs, umpteen
maidens and only 14 runs, a spell of 6 in a row and captaining for
much of the last part of the day, plus a fantastic catch.
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England bowlers Nat Sciver (left) and
Anya Shrubsole |
Shrubsole ended with four wickets and the chance of
a five-for from what was her last ball of the day, the final wicket
falling into her hands at fine leg, off a top edge from Farrell's
bat, ending the Australian innings with a lead of just six runs and
giving Sciver a wicket on debut, having bowled 10 overs.
Kate Cross bowls and the slips hover
Lottie left the field after skidding on the ground,
inspected by the pyhsio at one of the longer and more frequent
drinks breaks due to the weather, and therefore could not bat in the
start of the second innings. The only communication was that it was
knee related, but how serious will be seen with time. Tomorrow
promises more heat, maybe a couple of degrees down, but still
substantially hotter than many of the England players will have
seen.
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