England batters walk off the field following Ashes loss

The scorecard at the SCG shows a typical Australia home-drubbing.

England, bowled out for 141, capitulated towards the end of what would have been a record chase leaving four overs un-bowled. Sophia Dunkley was alone in posting a score of more than 20, while dropped catches and misfields characterised the first half of their innings in the field. By contrast, even with Alyssa Healy and Ash Gardner out with injuries, Australia’s controlled excellence underlined why they haven’t lost a T20I series at home for seven years.

The extent of that dominance was underlined most clearly, however, on the big screen when the final wicket went down. As the ball nestled safely in Beth Mooney’s gloves, the series scoreline flashed up on the screen as 8-0, signalling Australia’s Ashes retention was secure at the earliest possible point. While England have at no stage been in the contest in points terms, the brief flashes which have broken up the flow of Australian superiority should weigh heavy on their mind.

There were several examples of those fleeting windows in Sydney. Australia scored just nine runs off the final three overs of the opening powerplay, Mooney was on 16 off 18 at the same stage. By that point, England had already dropped a catch and conceded extra runs off misfields twice. Mooney’s was a masterclass in how to build a match-winning innings in a T20I, but allowing Australia those runs at that point and letting up the pressure was significant.

By the time Tahlia McGrath came in during the 14th over, Australia were well on their way to a 180 plus total - a perfect platform for the shot-a-ball innings she played. With a few less runs on the board, or even mounting pressure on Mooney leading to a false shot, Australia could have been looking at a below-par total.

Beyond that, the point where England actually looked most likely to win the game was when Dunkley was at the crease. Before the Ashes, there were questions about whether Dunkley should even be in England’s squad. She’s been in and out of the T20I side over the last year, and did little to force her way back in when Alice Capsey was dropped in South Africa. The last time she crossed 50 in a T20I was in the last Ashes series, and she’s had eight single figures scores out of 14 innings since then.

The situation she came into, however, gave her the perfect conditions in which to excel. Chasing a huge target on a bouncy wicket, she had the freedom to score quickly rather than try to hang around. The first six she hit off Kim Garth set the tone for a different Dunkley than the one who’s been scratching around for the last couple of years. There was a clarity and decisiveness about her decision-making, which has been absent across formats in less demanding situations. While much of the criticism levelled at England over the last two weeks has centred around their aggressive mindset, this was a situation that demanded it.

Dunkley kept England up with the rate through a flurry of boundaries while Heather Knight rotated the strike at the other end. Her half-century, the joint second-fastest by an England player in the format, was also the second-fastest any player has ever scored against Australia in a T20I, and the fastest in the last 16 years. A key difference between the two sides wasn’t only that Dunkley’s innings came to an end at the end of the 12th over of the chase as opposed to Mooney batting through until the 18th, but in the support acts around her.

Alana King, playing her first T20I in almost two years, bowled Sciver-Brunt with her first ball of the match. She trapped Heather Knight in her third over to effectively seal Australia’s victory. That King hasn’t been able to get into Australia’s T20I side for the last two years epitomises the difference between England and Australia. Not only is the competition for places in Australia’s squad poles apart from where it is in England’s, but the readiness of their ‘backups’, like King and Georgia Voll to immediately perform feels so far away from achievable.

While Dunkley has shown flashes of brilliance in her career so far, and genuine reason as to why she should be a part of England’s plans going forward, those brief glimpses have to evolve into consistent performances if they are to become a world-beating side. There are numerous players under the same bracket in this squad. Maia Bouchier took her chance to come into the T20I set-up 12 months ago, but, in this format, she’s struggled over the winter in the most important games she’s played in.

Behind the headline of Australia’s dominance, England have had the clearest example yet of where ‘the gap’ is in this series, and how far away they are from bridging it.

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