Somehow, despite MCC’s historical antipathy to women’s cricket, Lord’s always seems to be a ground where female cricketers make history. England Women have three times won a World Cup here, in 1993, 2009 and 2017. In 1998, the Harris Garden was their site of choice when, after 64 years of England-Australia contests, the women finally created some “ashes” of their own, in a unique and slightly bizarre ceremony involving the burning of a miniature bat in a wok (handily provided by the MCC kitchen).
Fitting, then, that as the Women’s Ashes series finally returned on Saturday evening for the first time in 10 years, and on a day when the MCC president, Stephen Fry, unveiled a plaque to commemorate the trophy’s creation, it was Lord’s that bore witness to an English victory in front of an historic crowd of 21,610 – smashing the record for a bilateral women’s international in England.
Rain may have foreshortened the match, but England supplied a thrilling spectacle nonetheless, chasing down their 119-run DLS target with just four balls to spare (of the 14 overs available). For the second time in four days, the previously all-conquering Australians proved beatable – just about. After a mad scramble in which England lost three wickets in the space of 11 balls, Dani Gibson’s reverse sweep finally took them safely to their first T20 series win against Australia since 2017.
England’s Ashes hopes still hang in the balance – they remain 6pts to 4pts down and need to win all three one-day internationals to regain the trophy – but after Saturday at Lord’s, it no longer feels impossible that the remnants of that wok-burned bat might at last be returning to English hands.
“Everyone’s buzzing,” Lauren Bell said. “We know they’re the best team in the world but the last two games have shown that we’re closing the gap. Now we can push onto the ODIs with a lot of confidence.”
For a time, England made it look easy, as Alice Capsey smashed her way to 46 off 23 balls, including two effortless slog-sweeps for six, which landed way back into the Tavern Stand. But Capsey was caught at midwicket trying to hit a third maximum and Georgia Wareham then took out the stumps of Nat Sciver-Brunt for 25 off 25 balls.
With just two runs needed from the final over, Jess Jonassen trapped Heather Knight lbw; the England skipper’s appeal to DRS was in vain, and Gibson was left to finish the job.
“They out-braved us, they played a few shots and took their chances,” Alyssa Healy, the Australia captain, admitted. “They played some really fearless cricket.”
Earlier, the tourists had struggled to get going, despite Beth Mooney and Ash Gardner adding 32 runs apiece. Mooney was bowled after recklessly trying to ramp Sciver-Brunt, while Gardner wildly swung at one, failed to properly connect, and promptly fell victim to a brilliant piece of glovework by Amy Jones, standing up to the stumps.
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The visitors seemed to benefit from a 10-minute rain delay between the 15th and 16th overs of their innings, striking 49 runs off the final five to leave them with a total of 155 for seven, courtesy of Ellyse Perry (34 off 25) and Grace Harris (25 off 15).
Sciver-Brunt finished with two for 31 but her fourth over cost England 17 runs, all coming off the bat of Perry; while Sophie Ecclestone’s final over saw England add two further dropped chances to a match tally of five, as the now-slippery ball eluded Bell at short third and Gibson at long-on.
But Gibson ultimately held her nerve when it mattered most, to hand Australia a first series defeat in six years.
