What did Sophia Dunkley say after the 1st T20I loss to Australia?

The England women’s team led by skipper Heather Knight is in Australia for the ongoing 8th edition of the multi-format Women’s Ashes from 12th January 2025.

The visitors came with the intent to regain the multi-format Women’s Ashes and were quite upbeat about their chances, with a squad that contained a good blend of promising youngsters and experience in their set-up to push the formidable Australians on the edge in their backyard, down under. However, things haven’t gone according to their plans, courtesy of a bit too many errors for the Heather Knight-led side in the field.

What did Sophia Dunkley say after the 1st T20I loss to Australia?
What did Sophia Dunkley say after the 1st T20I loss to Australia?

England is yet to get their first victory in the ongoing 8th edition of the multi-format Women’s Ashes, down under. As a result, the visitors have gifted away, yet another chance to reclaim the Women’s Ashes Trophy, as the scoreline stands at 8-0, courtesy of a whitewash in the ODI series and a 57-run defeat in the 1st T20I at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).

“We are obviously very disappointed with the result. We came here with a really open mindset of a new format, fresh format, and we just couldn’t put them under pressure for long enough,” said Sophia Dunkley about the crucial point that has put them in a position they are in the ongoing edition of the multi-format series.

The bowling department led by the likes of Sophie Ecclestone and Lauren Bell has been brilliant, but it has been a failure from their batting department that has ended up costing them most of the games on this tour. Sophie Ecclestone with 9 wickets at an impressive average of 19.44 and an economy of 5.14 has been the leading wicket-taker with the ball for England, and currently the 2nd highest wicket-taker in the 2025 Women’s Ashes.

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Her best performance with the ball for her side in the series so far came on 14th January 2025, in the 2nd ODI of the One-Day leg of the series when she returned with her best figures of 10-2-35-4 in her spell against Australia at the Junction Oval, Melbourne. However, unfortunately, it ended up on the losing side for her.

The 24-year-old pacer Lauren Bell is leading the pace attack well and is the 2nd highest wicket-taker for her side and the 3rd highest wicket-taker of the ongoing Women’s Ashes 2025, with 7 wickets to her name at an average of 23 and an economy of 5.11 in four innings till now. Her best performance with the ball for her side so far in the series came on 14th January 2025, in the 2nd ODI of the One-Day leg of the series, when she returned with impressive match figures of 8.3-0-25-2 in her spell at the Junction Oval, Melbourne.

As far as the batting department is concerned, the England vice-captain Nat Sciver-Brunt has been the top run-scorer for her side and the 3rd highest run-scorer of the series with 135 runs at a strike rate of 81.81 and a decent average of 33.75 with the bat in the series so far. Her best performance with the bat for her side in the series to date came on 17th January 2025 in the 3rd ODI of the multi-format series, when she scored a brilliant half-century (61 off 68 balls) at the Bellerive Oval, Hobart.

However, she wasn’t able to guide her side over the line, as the visitors eventually fell 86 runs short of the target. She is closely followed by the wicket-keeper batter Amy Jones with 120 runs at a strike rate of 70.58 and an average of 40 in four innings so far.

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The 26-year-old batting all-rounder Sophia Dunkley became only the 2nd England batter after Nat Sciver-Brunt to score a half-century in the ongoing Ashes so far. She made an impressive return to the T20I set-up with a brisk half-century (59 off 30 balls), a knock filled with 6 boundaries and 4 maximums. She kept the run chase of 199 alive, till the time she was there at the crease and soon after her departure in the 12th over of the chase, the visitors crumbled to get folded for 141 in the 1st T20I at SCG.

“We’ve not come away winning those big moments. There are definitely things we’ve reflected on there and now it’s just for us to look forward to the next three games that we’ve got, and just to give it our all, and try and fight for those eight points as much as we can,” said Sophia Dunkley about winning those big moments in the game keeping the fight on and giving their best for the remaining points as they aim to level the Ashes scoreline with an improved show in the remaining games of the multi-format series.

The 2nd T20I of the series will be played on 23rd January 2025 (Thursday) at the Manuka Oval, Canberra from 1:45 PM Indian Standard Time (IST).

(Quotes sourced from Espn Cricinfo)

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