Women’s Ashes 2019 – T20 series – 2nd Game – Australia Women won by 7 Wickets vs England Women

Match 2 – County Ground, Hove, England

Toss – Won by England Women and elected to bat first

1^st Innings Summary – For the fourth time in the tournament, Amy Jones became the victim of Ellyse Perry when she was caught out by Georgia Wareham at cover-point on the second (legal) ball of the match. Danielle Wyatt was looking good but a brilliant catch by Beth Mooney on the fifth ball of fourth over put an early end to the opener’s innings as England reached 35/2 by the end of first power play.

Soon, Georgia Wareham tempted Natalile Sciver to hit a shot between the large vacant spaces on the leg-side and the batter threw away her wicket by going too far across her stumps only to miss the ball which went on to hit the leg-stump. England’s captain, Heather Knight struck a classic four on the last ball of ninth over to bring up fifty for her team.

Opener Tammy Beaumont survived a dropped catch by Mooney in the 11^th over but was bowled out by Jess Jonassen in 13^th over owing to a wrong shot selection. Knight gave one of the simplest return catches to Wareham in the very next over as half of the English batting line-up was back into the hut by 14^th over with just 80runs on-board.

Lauren Winfield smashed an excellent straight six right over the bowler’s head in 16^th over but was dismissed in the next over by a slower one from Megan Schutt. Two overs later, in an attempt to hit a big shot, Katherine Brunt went out so far from her crease that wicket-keeper Alyssa Healy successfully completed the stumping in her second attempt. Although, TV replays later showed that Brunt had also got an edge on it, thus, making it caught behind dismissal. England’s tail-enders added 18runs in the last two overs to give themselves some target to bowl at.

2^nd Innings Summary – Continuing with her aggressive approach, Alyssa Healy started playing shots straight away and hit Georgia Elwiss for three fours in the first over itself. Taking a fair call, England’s skipper brought Katherine Brunt into the attack and the bowler struck with her first ball. Dangerous Healy was back in the dressing room.

In-form batter Beth Mooney could not do much as Australia had lost both of its openers by the end of first power play. Ellyse Perry joined the Aussies skipper in the middle after the fall of third wicket in 7^th over. From there on, it seemed to be an easy road for these two as they made batting look so easy on “not so batting-friendly” pitch. The first and the only six of the Australian innings came off Perry’s bat in 16^th over.

The stylish batter took an easy single on the fifth ball of 18^th over to wrap up things as Meg Lanning also remained unbeaten at 43 on the other end. With this game, the Southern Stars have not only won the T20 series but have also maintained their unbeaten run in 2019 Women’s Ashes and they are just one win away from completing the Ashes whitewash for the first time in Women’s Ashes history.

Player of the match – Ellyse Perry for taking one wicket and her quick 47* in 39 balls which included 4 fours and a six.

Other Remarkable Performances –

1. Tammy Beaumont (England) – 43 (39) (4s-4)
2. Sophie Eccelstone (England) – 17(11)* (4s-1) (6s-1) and 4-0-18-1
3. Jess Jonassen (Australia) – 4-0-19-2
4. Meg Lanning (Australia) – 43(37)* (4s-5)

Brief scorecard:

England Women – 121/8 (20 overs)

Australia Women – 122/3 (17.5 overs)

Result – Australia Women won by seven wickets