Key events
1st over: England 10-0 (Dunkley 9, Wyatt 1) Apologies all, my computer chose an importune moment to die. But half see a full-blooded outside edge go for four from Dunkley and another angled over the slips. Darcie Brown the bowler.
Just off to make a quick last-minute cuppa, back in five.
A reminder of what happened during the first T20:
England XI
England: Sophia Dunkley, Danni Wyatt, Alice Capsey, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Heather Knight (captain), Amy Jones (wk), Dani Gibson, Sophie Ecclestone, Sarah Glenn, Charlie Dean, Lauren Bell.
One change, Charlie Dean for Freya Davies. Nat Sciver is fit to bowl and England are hoping to squeeze a few overs out of her.
Australia XI
Australia: Alyssa Healy (captain/wk), Beth Mooney, Tahlia McGrath, Ash Gardner, Ellyse Perry, Grace Harris, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham, Jess Jonassen,Megan Schutt, Darcie Brown.
An unchanged team from the first T20.
A hundred T20 games for Heather Knight
She’s modest, of course: “I think T20 is the format I’ve had to keep evolving most. But tonight’s not about me, it’s about the team.”
Australia win the toss and will bowl!
Alyssa Healy says it looks like a good wicket and then… the mic cuts out….but over the last few days the team have chilled and watched “a pretty incredible” Test. Australia are unchanged from the last game.
Heather Knight would have bowled as well. “Losing three in a row thought I was due one. There’s a great crowd in, I hope we can put on a show.” England are making one change – Charlie Dean in for Freya Davies
Twenty-two thousand in at The Oval! A few empty seats at the moment but I guess they’ll fill up over the next half hour. Tammy Beaumont looks gorgeous in a vibrant pink shorts suit, like a strawberry souffle. She’s talking Nick Knight through her double century in the Test. Lydia Greenway thinks Beaumont should be in this squad. Me too.
Preamble
Roll up, roll up! Everyone in to see Australia retain the Ashes/England lose them, within forty overs. It might not happen, of course, but England must be at their very best to prevent the Ashes travelling over the southern oceans again. Balls polished, hair plaited, gloves fastened: this is it.
Australia already hold a 6-0 lead in the multi-format series, a Test and the first T20 under their belts – with ten points still up for grabs in the remaining two T20s and three ODIs. Oh and Australia haven’t lost a T20 game since March 2021.
Sophie Ecclestone still believes:
“We’ve seen weirder things happen than that in cricket. We’re up for the challenge, we know exactly what we need to do. We’re really not far away from them. They’re a great team and we compete with them a lot, but we have to go one better.”
“It’s obviously going to be a really hard task to beat the Aussies, five out of five, but we know what we need to do and the girls are up for it.”
The crowd do too. Let’s zip over to The Oval.
