Key events
It is a glorious day in Melbourne. The sky is cloudless, temperatures are nudging 30C, and there’s a whiff of southerly breeze to stop everything getting too oppressive.
Speaking of experts, here’s Geoff Lemon who was at the MCG yesterday.
How to describe England’s fielding? Let’s say that while walking through the Betty Cuthbert Bar in the third session, witnessing a small, tired girl abruptly coat both her parents and the floor with a sluice of vomit formed from chips and lemonade, that was only the second-most noxious display at the MCG that day.
“Good morning from chilly Yorkshire,” emails John Starbuck. (John, I hope you’re up this early by choice.) “Whoever is the best fielding coach in England is going to have a long career by the looks of it. I don’t think I’ve ever known such a sorry state of affairs. Something Must Be Done, if women’s cricket is to thrive.”
It has been a disastrous tour for England, showcased most spectacularly in their fielding. I’ll leave it for experts better qualified than me to determine whether this is an aberration or a trend, and to workshop necessary solutions.
My overwhelming feeling is just one of sadness. With the men’s summer ending early, this Ashes series getting excellent broadcast coverage here in Australia, and both teams at the top of the game, this could have been a seismic moment for women’s cricket, but England’s displays have never allowed that to happen.
Preamble
Jonathan Howcroft
Hello everybody and welcome to live OBO coverage of Australia v England in the women’s Ashes. Day three of the only Test match begins at 2:30pm local time (3:30am GMT).
It is scheduled to be the penultimate day of the series, but considering England’s wretched form it may yet turn out to be the curtain call. Australia will resume at 422/5, a lead of 252, already 30 runs greater than England’s highest total this lopsided summer.
Let’s begin with the positives: Australia’s appetite and conviction; Annabel Sutherland’s ton; Beth Mooney’s likely century; and the record aggregate crowd for a women’s Test. Ordinarily each would be cause for glowing headlines. But England have barely provided any opposition to the challenge offered by their hosts: the two big knocks benefited from multiple dropped catches, and the crowd would doubtless have been greater had this Test carried any jeopardy, instead of the Ashes been done and dusted with only white balls.
Raf Nicholson’s report from day two is superb, if at times harrowing reading, encapsulating England’s collective ineptitude.
Ecclestone, Filer and Ryana MacDonald-Gay beginning a competitive game of “who can produce the most tired misfield?” MacDonald-Gay put down a catch at cover off Ecclestone’s bowling; Ecclestone returned the favour by letting one slide through her hands at slip; Filer reached down to pick up the ball, let it through her legs, and back-kicked it halfway across the field. The winner of the competition? A late entrant, Maia Bouchier, who put down an absolute sitter at gully.
‘It’s not been the tour we wanted,’ Lauren Filer told the BBC. ‘We all know we’re better than this, we don’t need reminding.’
