1st T20I – Australia v England
Sydney Cricket Ground, 20 January
Australia 198/7 (20.0) beat England 141 (16.0) by 57 runs
video scorecard | video highlights
4 – Australia retained the Women’s Ashes trophy at the earliest opportunity after a dominant victory in the 1st T20I. This was the second time in the multi-format era that the holder of the trophy has been decided after the 4th match of the series:
- 2013 – 6th match (ENG)
- 2013/14 – 5th match (ENG)
- 2015 – 6th match (AUS)
- 2017/18 – 5th match (AUS)
- 2019 – 4th match (AUS)
- 2021/22 – 5th match (AUS)
- 2023 – 6th match (AUS)
- 2024/25 – 4th match (AUS)
Across all eight multi-format series, the 7th and final game has never been ‘live’ in terms of deciding the destination of the trophy. This will be the first edition in which the Test, scheduled as the last match for the first time in the multi-format era, is a dead rubber.
1949 – This match was England women’s first visit to the SCG since the washed out semi-final of the T20 World Cup against India in 2020. The last Women’s Ashes match played at the ground was the decisive 3rd Test in February 1949.
57 – Australia win was their joint second biggest in terms of runs in a T20I against England:
- 93 runs at Chelmsford, 2019
- 57 runs at Brabourne Stadium, 2018
- 57 runs at the SCG, 2025
- 52 runs at Manuka Oval, 2011
198 – Australia’s total was their third highest in T20Is against England, and their highest against England on home soil:
- 226/3 at Chelmsford, 2019
- 209/4 at Brabourne Stadium, 2018
- 198/7 at the SCG, 2025
- 183/8 at The Oval, 2023
- 178/2 at Manuka Oval, 2017
This was Australia women’s first T20I match since their disappointing semi-final exit against South Africa at the T20 World Cup in October. Putting those memories behind them against England at Sydney, Australia had passed their sub-par semi-final total (134/5) by the 15 over stage of this innings.
75 – Player of the match, Beth Mooney brought up the 26th score of fifty or more in her T20I career. Only Smriti Mandhana (30) and Suzie Bates (29) have made more in women’s T20Is. Mooney’s five 50+ scores in Women’s Ashes T20Is are the most by any player.
9 – Mooney’s nine scores of 75+ runs are the joint most by any woman in T20Is, alongside England’s Danni Wyatt-Hodge.
3.9 – Mooney’s rate of 3.9 innings batted per fifty is the best by any woman with eight or more 50+ scores in the format:
- 3.9 Beth Mooney (AUS)
- 4.6 Ni Putu Ayu Nanda Sakarini (INA)
- 4.7 Kathryn Bryce (SCO)
- 4.7 Smriti Mandhana (IND)
- 4.8 Sterre Kalis (NL)
50.75 – Mooney’s average of 50.75 in T20Is against England is the highest by any woman to have batted five or more times against them. Her strike rate (133.84) is the highest by any woman to have faced 150+ balls in the format against England.
288.88 – Tahlai McGrath’s 26 (9) was the highest strike rate innings of her career in all domestic and international formats, and the highest strike rate double figure score ever made by an Australian woman in a T20I.
190.90 – Georgia Voll’s 21 off 11 balls was the joint fifth highest strike rate score of 20+ runs by a woman on T20I debut.
2 – Freya Kemp 3-0-24-1 became the second left-arm pace bowler to take a T20I wicket for England women against Australia. The last was Tash Farrant, in the tri-series final at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai in 2018.
23 – Sophie Ecclestone became England women’s highest wicket-taker in T20Is against Australia, surpassing Katherine Sciver-Brunt’s 21. Ecclestone’s average of 19.56 against Australia is the best by any English woman to have taken five or more T20I wickets against them.
40 – Sarah Glenn (3-0-40-0) conceded the most runs in her T20I career.
0 & 0 – England’s chase got off to an ignominious start, as both Maia Bouchier and Danni Wyatt-Hodge fell without scoring inside the first two overs. This was the fourth time in all-formats that both of England women’s openers have made a duck in the same innings. Three of the four instances have occurred in Ashes matches:
- Ash & Taylor v Australia at The Oval, 1937 (Test)
- Wyatt-Hodge & Jones v Australia at Chelmsford, 2019 (T20I)
- Wyatt-Hodge & Jones v Thailand at Canberra, 2020 (T20I)
- Wyatt-Hodge & Bouchier v Australia at Sydney, 2025 (T20I)
24 – England brightest spot in a heavy defeat was Sophia Dunkley. Playing her first match of the tour, Dunkley (59 off 30) made the joint second fastest T20I fifty by an English woman:
- 21 Alice Capsey v IRE at Paarl, 2023
- 24 Danni Wyatt-Hodge v IND at Brabourne, 2018
- 24 Nat Sciver-Brunt v IND at Northampton, 2021
- 24 Bryony Smith v IRE at Dublin, 2024
- 24 Sophia Dunkley v AUS at Sydney, 2025
The only woman to score a faster fifty in the format against Australia was West Indies’ Deandra Dottin – off 22 balls at Taunton during the inaugural Women’s T20 World Cup in 2009.
The only faster fifty hit in a women’s T20I played in Australia was Phoebe Litchfield’s 18 ball effort against West Indies at North Sydney Oval in 2023.
4 – Dunkley’s four sixes were the most hit by an English woman during an international innings of any format against Australia.
3 – England soon succumbed in familiar fashion however. Georgia Wareham’s figures (3-0-25-3) were her best in all formats against England.
2023 – Alana King (3-1-14-2) was playing her first T20I since facing South Africa during the group stage of the 2023 T20 World Cup, an interval of 702 days. King delivered the second maiden of her T20I career. Her last was against Barbados at Edgbaston during the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Before this Ashes series, King had bowled 190 deliveries to Nat Sciver-Brunt in all international formats and never dismissed her. In this series, King has bowled 27 balls to Sciver-Brunt and taken her wicket twice, including with her first ball in this match.
18 – Australia’s legspin duo have now taken eighteen wickets at an average of 9.56 in this multi-format series.
Stats derived from ESPNcricinfo statsguru.
