DAY one of the historic 2025 Women’s Ashes test saw Australia in a pretty comfortable position for just about the entire day.  

Australia won the toss and decided to have a bowl, and was rewarded almost instantly when Maia Bouchier nicked one behind to Beth Mooney, and she was back in the pavilion and Kim Garth had her first wicket after only four balls.

England lost its second wicket just over five overs later after Darcie Brown trapped Tammy Beaumont in front.

Perhaps a sign of the beauty of test match cricket, a high strike rate was not front of mind for the English batters, who were not racking up the boundaries particularly quickly but were patient in waiting for the right ball to capitalise on.

Brown continued to keep the English batters on their toes, creating plenty of wicket taking chances.

Annabel Sutherland eventually replaced Garth at the Shane Warne Stand End, and she too was generating some pretty close chances.

Eventually England made it to the first drinks break at 2/44.

Beaumont’s dismissal had brought Natalie Sciver-Brunt to the crease, who alongside her captain Heather Knight put together a really composed partnership, putting their experience to good use.

However the partnership was broken not long after drinks, when Knight was trapped in front by Garth and her innings was done.

Australia continued with the pace trio of Garth, Brown and Sutherland for almost the whole first session, until Ash Gardner came on in the final over of the session.

England ultimately ended the first session at 3/64, with Sciver-Brunt and Sophia Dunkley at the crease.

The beginning of the second session saw a bit of a change up from the Australians, with the spin of Alana King up one end and the pace of Brown up the other.

However, as they had been doing before the tea break, Sciver-Brunt and Dunkley continued to live by the slow and steady method, playing very risk free cricket. It was not boring cricket, but the two batters certainly have enough experience to not risk anything stupid, and that was well and truly on show.

But, something that was not helping the English was the strong fielding of the Australians, with a number of boundaries saved thanks to strong running in the field from the home side in combination with a well placed field.

King eventually broke the partnership, after she caught Dunkley off her own bowling.

England eventually made it to the second drinks break at 4/102.

The second hour of the second session saw a change up of the bowling again, with Gardner coming on to partner King up the other end.

After some almost chances, King finally got her second wicket for the session after Danni Wyatt-Hodge nicked one straight into the hands of Phoebe Litchfield who was fielding in close.

Gardner joined in on the wicket taking fun a couple of overs later when she clean bowled Amy Jones, and it was truly time for the tail.

Sophie Ecclestone did not last long, caught by Garth to become King’s third victim of the day, and the question then become out much longer would this English innings last.

Sciver-Brunt did eventually reach her half century a couple of minutes before the dinner break, and had been a real backbone of the English innings. As the dinner break approached, it was starting to feel like if she got dismissed, the end of the English innings would not be too far behind.

The English did end up making it to dinner without further loss of wicket, but found themselves at 7/142.

The final session of the day saw a return to a combination of the spin of King up one end, and the pace of Brown up the other end.

Unfortunately for the English, Sciver-Brunt lasted only an over more after the dinner break, and was then bowled by King to be dismissed for 51.

Georgia Voll picked up a test debut moment to remember when she caught a skied ball off the bat of Lauren Filer, and Brown had her second wicket and the end of the English innings was nigh.

Things eventually moved to a double trouble of spin, with Gardner replacing Brown up the Members’ End.

That 10th wicket finally came when Lauren Bell misjudged the throwing capabilities of Brown, and England was all out or 170.  

This left the Aussies about an hour and a half to get started on the chase. With plenty of options to open the batting with, Australia ultimately went with the youth of Litchfield and Voll.

If either of the Australian openers were feeling any nerves they were not showing it as they calmly and confidently went about their business.

With about an hour left in the day’s play, Voll nicked a ball behind that was caught by Jones and she was on her way and Bell had her first wicket of the day.

England decided to persist with pace for quite a while, rotating between their front line quicks of Bell, Filer and Sciver-Brunt. They did eventually change things up with 10 overs left in the day, bringing in Ecclestone to partner the pace of Macdonald-Gay.

As the overs to go started to tick down and stumps drew nearer, the Aussie pair at the crease Litchfield and Sutherland really started to get into their groove, with the pair finding the boundary at a fairly regular pace.

Australia ultimately only lost the one wicket for the day, and ended the day at 1/56, only 114 runs behind England’s first innings total.

SCORECARD – END OF DAY ONE

England 10/170

Sciver-Brunt 51
Knight 25
King 4/45
Garth 2/13
Brown 2/47

Australia 1/56

Sutherland 24 not out
Litchfield 20 not out
Voll 12
Bell 1/21

SQUADS

Australia: Phoebe Litchfield, Georgia Voll, Ellyse Perry, Alyssa Healy (c), Annabel Sutherland, Beth Mooney (wk), Ashleigh Gardner, Tahlia McGrath, Kim Garth, Alana King, Darcie Brown. 12th: Georgia Wareham

England: Tammy Beaumont, Maia Bouchier, Heather Knight (c), Natalie Sciver-Brunt, Sophia Dunkley, Danielle Wyatt-Hodge, Amy Jones (wk), Sophie Ecclestone, Ryana MacDonald-Gay, Lauren Filer, Lauren Bell. 12th: Charlie Dean