1st ODI – Australia v England
North Sydney Oval, 12 January
Australia 206/6 (38.5) beat England 204 (43.1) by 4 wickets
video scorecard | video highlights
26 – Australia and England began the twenty-sixth edition of the Women’s Ashes with an ODI at North Sydney Oval. This series marks the 90th anniversary of the contest – as well as women’s international cricket as a whole – which began with a series of three Tests between the sides in Australia in the 1934/35 season.
Australia have held the trophy since 2015, and England will require an outright points victory to regain it.
10 – Starting with their strongest format, Australia got the first points on the board. The reigning World Champions have now won eighteen of the nineteen ODIs they have played since the end of the 2023 Ashes, including the last ten in a row.
This is the eleventh time that Australia women have won ten or more consecutive ODIs, by far the most such runs in the history of the format:
- 11 Australia
- 2 England, India
- 1 Sri Lanka
1987 – Having gone one match down, England face a daunting task in coming back into contention in the ODI series and the multi-format overall, given that Australia have lost just one bilateral ODI series on home soil (against New Zealand in 1987).
38.5 – Completing their victory with 67 balls to spare, this was the fewest overs Australia women have required to chase down a 200+ run target in a home ODI.
4 – Following up meagre totals of 178, 129 and 163 respectively on their previous tour in 2022 with a sub-par 204 all out at North Sydney in 2025, England women have now been bowled out in each of the last four Ashes ODIs they have played in Australia.
0 – England women have lost all three ODIs they have played against Australia a North Sydney Oval, and have also never beaten Australia in the format at the venues for the upcoming 2nd and 3rd matches in the series – Junction Oval and Bellerive Oval.
42* & 3-19, ct2 – Player of the match, Ash Gardner, finished with both her highest score and best bowling figures against England in the format. In a stellar all-round display, Gardner became just the second Australian women to score 40+ runs, take three or more wickets and take two or more catches in the same ODI. The other was her head coach, Shelley Nitschke:
- Shelley Nitschke 43 & 4-24, ct2 v NZ at Junction Oval, 2010
- Ash Gardner 42* & 3-19, ct2 v ENG at North Sydney, 2025
100 – Gardner’s wickets saw her become the sixth Australian woman, and the first from an Indigenous background, to take 100 wickets in the format.
75 – This also meant that Gardner completed the all-round ODI career double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets. In taking just 75 matches to get there, Gardner was the second fastest woman to reach that dual milestone:
- 70 Ellyse Perry (AUS)
- 75 Dane van Niekerk (SA); Ash Gardner (AUS)
- 78 Stafanie Taylor (WI)
- 82 Suné Luus (SA)
- 83 Hayley Matthews (WI)
- 85 Shashikala Siriwardene (SL)
70 – Alyssa Healy made her first ODI half-century since February 2024, and her first 50+ score in the format against England since her spectacular 170 in the 2022 World Cup final.
Bat 2nd – This was also the first time that Healy reached fifty in an ODI run chase after keeping wicket in the 1st innings, since making 72 against India at Auckland during the group stage of the 2022 World Cup.
The last time before this match that Healy made a half-century after having kept wicket in an ODI against England, was at Grace Road during the 2019 Ashes.
The only previous Australian keeper-captain to make a half-century in a women’s ODI run chase was Marg Jennings, who scored 57* against England at Hyderabad during the 1978 World Cup.
4,000 – Heather Knight became the fifth English woman to bring up 4,000 career runs in ODIs:
- 5,992 Charlotte Edwards
- 4,217 Tammy Beaumont
- 4,101 Claire Taylor
- 4,056 Sarah Taylor
- 4,005 Heather Knight
3 – Knight (39) was one of three England players at North Sydney to be dismissed in the 30s, alongside Danni Wyatt-Hodge (38) and Amy Jones (31). This was the fourth time that England women have had three players dismissed between 30-39 in the same ODI innings.
10.80 – While Australia fared better than England with all forms of bowling at North Sydney, keeping things tighter with both pace and spin, it was the wicket-taking ability of their slow bowlers that particularly stood out compared with the visitors.
Australia’s spin attack took five wickets in just 13.1 overs, at an average of 10.80 and a strike rate of 15.8. Meanwhile, England’s spinners managed three wickets from 19.0 overs in the match, at an average of 28.33 and a strike rate of one wicket for every 38 balls bowled.
| Team | Australia | England |
| Pace overs | 30.0 | 19.5 |
| Pace wickets | 5 | 3 |
| Pace average | 29.40 | 35.66 |
| Pace strike rate | 36.0 | 39.6 |
| Pace economy | 4.90 rpo | 5.39 rpo |
| Spin overs | 13.1 | 19.0 |
| Spin wickets | 5 | 3 |
| Spin average | 10.80 | 28.33 |
| Spin strike rate | 15.8 | 38.0 |
| Spin economy | 4.10 rpo | 4.47 rpo |
While the two pace attacks took wickets at a similar rate, Australia’s quicks built far more pressure, and so left England’s batters needing to be more attacking once Australia’s spinners came on. Australia’s pace bowlers delivered 64.4% dot balls and conceded a boundary once every 10.0 balls bowled, whereas England’s pace attack bowled 60.5% dot balls and gave away a boundary once every 7.4 balls.
14 – Alana King (7-0-35-2), who debuted during the 2022 Ashes, has now taken 14 wickets in ODIs against England at an average of 23.35. This is the most wickets taken by an Australian women’s legspinner against England in the format.
3.00 – Darcie Brown’s innings (7-0-21-1) was the most economical of her ODI career
8.47 – At the other end of the spectrum in the chase, Nat Sciver-Brunt (2.5-0-24-0) finished with her second worst innings economy rate in the format.
20.00 – Alice Capsey’s innings strike rate for her 4 off 20 balls was the second lowest of her ODI career.
41.93 – Tammy Beaumont (13 off 31) finished with her lowest strike rate for an ODI innings of 30+ balls since October 2016.
102 – Beaumont has now featured in every ODI England women have played since June 2016. This 102 match run is the second longest unbroken sequence of games played for a team in women’s ODI history:
- 109 Mithali Raj IND (2004-13)
- 102* Tammy Beaumont ENG (2016-25)
- 101 Mignon du Preez (2009-18)
11 – Ellyse Perry was appearing in her eleventh Ashes series, the most by any woman. The only player across men’s or women’s cricket to feature in more was Syd Gregory, who played in fifteen Men’s Ashes series for Australia between 1890-1912.
50 – Perry also became the first woman to play fifty Ashes matches in all formats. England’s Heather Knight and Nat Sciver-Brunt have played the next most (47 apiece).
Perry holds both the records for most career runs (2,038) and most career wickets (75) in Women’s Ashes contests.
Stats derived from ESPNcricinfo statsguru.
