Australia v England Second T20 Report Card

Featuring tweaking the Ashes, Westeros batting, Bethlessness, DLS flaws and frustrating Heather Knight

Tweaking The Ashes
Grade: B

In the aftermath of the first T20 of the series, questions arose about the positioning of the Test match in this multi-format series. “Why oh why oh why,” hindsight-benefited people were saying. “Would you put the Test match last and run the risk of it being a dead rubber?”

A fine question, and a delightful contrast to the big question being asked in the previous series in 2023: “Why oh why oh why would you put the Test match first and give one team an opportunity to take such an enormous early points advantage?”

To be fair, these are both good questions that highlight the difficulty of scheduling the lone Test in the multi-format series.

My solution? Why not make it two Tests? Put one at the start of the series, and one at the end, with all the white ball stuff in the middle.

Maybe even break up the T20s and ODIs with another Test between them so it doesn’t get so samey?

And, heck, if you’re going to play three ODIs, probably squeezing them into less than a week anyway, why not simply play a Test instead of that?

And, at that stage, you’ve got four Tests and three T20s, which feels silly. Scrap the T20s and play another Test.

I guess what I’m saying is, let’s play a five Test Ashes series, with white ball formats played for separate trophies, as nature intended.

Westeros Batting
Grade: C

For now, however, the much-agreed upon solution for maximising crowd interest in the Test match next week, given that the Ashes have already been decided, was to set up the prospect of a whitewash instead.

Which meant Australia needed to win the last two T20s. Here at Manuka Oval, they decided the best way to do that was for Beth Mooney - the outstanding batter in the first T20 - to take all the strike.

Which is precisely what she did in the Power Play, to such an extent that Georgia Voll was eventually run out for 5 (5), struggling to come back for a third run off the last ball of an over. (Mooney, at that point, was 38* (26), which suggested the partnership had executed the plan perfectly.)

Still, to paraphrase lower middle order Westeros batter, Cersei Lannister: “When you play the game of giving Beth Mooney the strike, you run or you die.”

Bethlessness
Grade: D-

Australia’s ‘let Mooney do it’ plan seemed to come unstuck, however, when Sophie Ecclestone took the crowd's Beth away, having Mooney stumped off a leg side wide, one of the most aesthetically satisfying dismissals of them all.

The Bethless Australians lost a couple more quick wickets to be 4/75. Annabel Sutherland followed not too long after, and Tahlia McGrath seemed determined to do the same, repeatedly attempting to dink fraught reverse sweeps for no clear reason.

Luckily, Grace Harris popped into the middle and talked her usual brand of common sense into her captain.

“Hey, skip. Let’s just start thumpin’ it, eh?”

Which is what they did, clobbering 48 off the last three overs to help Australia to 5/185.

DLS Flaws
Grade: D+

England’s run chase was more a rain chase, with both sides forced to keep a wary eye on the DLS par score throughout.