England toured Australia in 2021/22 for the Ashes, a series Australia Women won 12-4. Isabelle Westbury’s report originally appeared in the 2023 edition of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.

On recent Ashes tours, it’s not been unusual for England to start amid chaos and finish in exhaustion. But this was a particularly difficult trip for the women’s side. They were beset by off-field challenges long before facing the world’s strongest team; that they failed to win a match, in any format, was perhaps little surprise.

First came the rejigging of the fixtures, originally scheduled for January 27 to February 19, and beginning with the Test. To allow for a longer quarantine period in New Zealand, where the World Cup would begin in early March, the Twenty20 internationals were brought forward to the week before the Test, so the series could end on February 8. As the virus played havoc with the men’s Ashes, the women had to isolate before they even arrived. Next, rain washed out two of the T20 internationals, stripping England of perhaps their best opportunity to land a blow on Australia’s all-conquering side.

Then there was the emotional hit. The highlight, for England and for spectators looking for a contest, was the Test: chasing 257, they came within 12 runs of a highly implausible victory, though a late collapse left the last pair hanging on to save the game. As in the first T20 match, where Australia had chased down 170, their highest second-innings total, the thought of what might have been was hard to take for Heather Knight’s team.

The drawn Test left Australia 6-4 ahead on multi-format points; England needed to take all three one-day internationals to win the Ashes for the first time since 2013/14. Australia imposed an ODI whitewash. Their strength in depth, and ability to win even when not at their best, overwhelmed an England side seeking miracles, hanging on to cliche´s and hoping for the best.

Underlying it all was Australia’s stronger domestic infrastructure – and a fitter, focused team. They were confident enough to drop their biggest star, Ellyse Perry, for the T20 series: there was another all-rounder in town now, Tahlia McGrath. Perry was back to play a key role in the rest of the series, and captain Meg Lanning was the leading scorer, with 254 runs, one more than Knight. But the home side’s determination was embodied by Beth Mooney, whose jaw was broken just before the series began. Ten days later, she returned for the Test, titanium plates and all; she scored 63 in the second innings (and took a remarkable tumbling catch), followed by a match-winning 73 in the first ODI.

While Australia had plenty of players ready to take their turn in the limelight, England relied too heavily on too few. Knight scored the series’ only century, an unbeaten 168 in the Test, while stalwart seamer Katherine Brunt (like Perry, in her ninth Ashes series) took the only five-wicket haul; she and McGrath finished with 11 across all matches. But no other England player managed more than five, compared with five more Australians, and they had only four half-centuries, to Australia’s nine. It’s a team game, and the Ashes only reinforced how much better Australia were.

England touring party: HC Knight (c), TT Beaumont, ME. Bouchier, KH Brunt, KL Cross, FR Davies, CE Dean, SIR Dunkley, S Ecclestone, NE Farrant, S Glenn, AE Jones, NR Sciver, A Shrubsole, MK Villiers, L Winfield-Hill, DN Wyatt. Coach: LM Keightley. EL Lamb joined the party from the England A squad and played in the final one-day international.

First Twenty20 international At Adelaide, January 20, 2022 (floodlit). Australia won by nine wickets. England 169-4 (20 overs) (Beaumont 30, Wyatt 70, Sciver 32; McGrath 3-26); Australia 170-1 (17 overs) (Lanning 64*, McGrath 91*). Australia 2pts. PoM: TM McGrath. T20I debut: AM King (Australia).

England’s women started the Ashes better than the men: an 82-run opening stand, and the highest first-innings T20 total conceded by Australia. But that just led to Australia’s highest chase. They sauntered home with nine wickets and three overs left, against wayward bowling and rusty fielding. Danni Wyatt’s 54-ball 70 had been reassuring as well as entertaining; she and Tammy Beaumont hit 14 off Tayla Vlaeminck’s second over, picking off her 76mph deliveries with ease, then 15 off Jess Jonassen’s first. But Tahlia McGrath’s probing yorkers squeezed three wickets from eight balls, and her 91* from 49 included a thumping flat six over midwicket, the sound echoing around the cavernous stadium. Meg Lanning passed 3,000 T20I runs, while the daring decision to drop Ellyse Perry now looked sensible.

Second Twenty20 international At Adelaide, January 22, 2022. No result. England 25-0 (4.1 overs) v Australia. Australia 1pt, England 1pt. T20I debut: CE Dean (England).

After the highs and lows of the first T20, England wanted to prove their spirits were unbroken, but rain reduced the match to 14 overs a side. Still, Wyatt and Beaumont made another strong start, scoring 25 at a run a ball while Australia cycled through five different bowlers. But another deluge washed away any chance of England bouncing back.

Third Twenty20 international At Adelaide, January 23, 2022. Australia v England. Abandoned. Australia 1pt, England 1pt.

This was the first match of 38 since the multi-format Ashes began to be completely wiped out.

Only Test, Canberra, January 27-30, 2022. Drawn. Australia 2pts, England 2pts.
Toss: England. Test debuts: AM King; CE Dean.

A stunning century, a five-for and a tempting chase made it spectacle to remember – despite rain – and almost brought a thrilling England victory. Like nearly two-thirds of women’s Tests, this ended in a draw, though for most of the final session that seemed the unlikeliest result. While England came close to scoring 257 in 48 overs, Australia came close to bowling them out. A run-rate of 3.40 across four innings was easily a record in the format, beating 3.09 by England and West Indies at Trent Bridge in 1979.

On a pitch with something for everyone, Brunt’s skill and relative red-ball experience (this was her 14th Test, ahead even of Perry, who had played ten) earned eight wickets, half England’s total, including opener Healy for a pair. Brunt stuck to lines and lengths while toying with seam, swing and Australia’s outside edges, to collect five wickets in the first innings. Shrubsole and Sciver helped her reduce them to 43-3, but England were undermined by dropped catches and Australia’s never-ending supply of batters. Haynes put on 169 with Lanning, who narrowly missed a maiden Test hundred, before fifties from McGrath and Gardner allowed Lanning to spring a surprise declaration early on day two, at 337-9. Flustered, England’s openers fell cheaply, as Perry and her fellow seamers chiselled out a fragile line-up.

Only one woman resisted. Knight completed her second Test century late on the second evening, and was eventually stranded on 168 (behind only Perry’s 213 not out in women’s Tests on Australian soil). She batted more than seven hours and, when rain halted play at lunch on the third day, had been on the field for all but ten minutes of seven sessions. Until a defiant international-best 34 from No.10 Ecclestone, no other batter passed 15. Their century stand for the ninth wicket kept England in the match; they came together looking to save the follow-on, but when Knight finally walked off they were just 40 behind. Brunt removed the Australian openers in five overs before lunch – Haynes was her 50th Test wicket – and the game was on.

But rain washed out the rest of the third day, and the draw seemed inevitable as Australia extended their lead beyond 200, then 250. When Lanning declared, half an hour before tea, there seemed little time for England to contemplate a chase. The highest fourth-innings score in a women’s Test was their 229-5 against India in 1986. Undaunted, and reared on limited-overs cricket, they launched an assault. The top five scored 220 between them, including a 62-ball 58 from Sciver and an explosive 45 in 32 from Dunkley – after she reviewed an lbw verdict off her first delivery. Suddenly England were favourites, and Australia rattled.

Enter Sutherland. Dunkley had struck her for consecutive sixes, but she roared back with three wickets as England lost six in 33 balls. Only once the ninth had fallen did they switch from attack to survival: three weeks after Stuart Broad and James Anderson saved the Fourth Test at Sydney by blocking the last two overs, Ecclestone and Cross dramatically fended off the final 13 deliveries.

Player of the Match: HC Knight.

First one-day international At Canberra, February 3, 2022. Australia won by 27 runs. Australia 205-9 (50 overs) (Mooney 73; Brunt 3-40, Cross 3-33); England 178 (45 overs) (Sciver 45, Brunt 32*; Brown 4-34). Australia 2pts. PoM: BL Mooney. ODI debut: AM King (Australia).

England were now in knockout mode: only by winning all three one-day internationals could they claw back the Ashes. Their hopes rose when Australia were 67-4, with Perry caught and bowled by Ecclestone for her first golden duck in ODIs for eight years; Lanning, who fell two balls earlier to Cross, had become the third Australian to pass 4,000 runs. But England had not reckoned on Beth Mooney. As in the Test, she enjoyed batting at Manuka Oval, despite her broken jaw; her 73 was flawless, until she was caught in the deep trying to launch the innings’ last ball for six. Nevertheless, the seamers had restricted Australia to 205, with Cross’s 3-33 the pick of the bunch. Then 18-year-old Darcie Brown struck twice in England’s fourth over, with Knight trapped first ball, before Megan Schutt became the fifth Australian to 100 wickets. Sciver made 45, but had little support until Brunt’s 32*, which gave her the ODI double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets. England were bowled out for 178 with five overs to go, and Australia retained the Ashes.

Second one-day international At St Kilda, February 6, 2022. Australia won by five wickets. England 129 (45.2 overs) (Ecclestone 32*; Perry 3-12, McGrath 3-4); Australia 131-5 (35.2 overs) (Perry 40, Gardner 31*). Australia 2pts. PoM: EA Perry.

Winning the Ashes series outright was next on Australia’s agenda. England put up little fight: under the summer sun, on a pitch which traditionally favoured batting, they looked exhausted. Only three reached 20 as they succumbed to the brilliance of Perry and McGrath, who collected 6-16 between them. It took Ecclestone, scoring 32* after coming in at 68-7, to get her side into three figures. Even so, it was not plain sailing for Australia: they were 18-2 when Cross, in another encouraging spell, bowled Lanning for a duck. As usual, though, strength in depth prevailed. Perry dug in for 40, before Gardner’s 31* calmly guided them to victory with almost 15 overs in hand. It was Australia’s 20th successive bilateral ODI series win.

Third one-day international At St Kilda, February 8, 2022. Australia won by eight wickets. England 163 (49.3 overs) (Beaumont 50, Sciver 46; Sutherland 4-31); Australia 164-2 (36.2 overs) (Healy 42, Haynes 31, Lanning 57*, Perry 31*). Australia 2pts. PoM: AJ Sutherland. PoS: TM McGrath. ODI debut: EL Lamb (England).

The only question remaining was whether England could register a victory. They could not. Beaumont, recently named the ICC Women’s T20I Cricketer of the Year, scored her slowest ODI fifty – taking 98 balls – and fell next over; Sciver’s 46 from 95 was the only other  significant innings. Accurate and persistent bowling brought Sutherland a career-best 4-31 as England, who had made three changes, lost five middle-order wickets for 15 and were bundled out for under 200 for the fifth time in seven ODIs. Australia’s reply was a formality. After an opening stand of 74 between Healy and Haynes, Lanning brought up her fifty in 62 balls, then launched Tash Farrant over long-off for six. The tally of Ashes points was 12-4, as in 2019.

Twenty20 internationals (3): Australia 1, England 0
Test match (1): Australia 0, England 0
One-day internationals (3): Australia 3, England 0
Overall Ashes points: Australia 12, England 4