Only Test – Australia v England
Melbourne Cricket Ground, 30 January
Day 1 – Australia 56/1 trail England 170 by runs
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1949 – After a dominant performance on day one of the Melbourne Test, Australia put themselves in a strong position to complete an unprecedented multi-format Ashes whitewash. This was the first women’s Test match played at the MCG since the second game of the 1948/49 Ashes.
151 – The match was the 151st Test played in the ninety year history of women’s international cricket. Ashes Tests account for 53 of the 151 games played since 1934 (35%). This was the third day-night Test in women’s cricket, after the Ashes match at North Sydney in 2017, and the Australia-India game at Carrara Oval in 2021.
3 – Alyssa Healy’s decision at the toss made this just the third time that Australia have elected to bowl first in a Women’s Ashes Test. The other instances were under the leadership of Belinda Clark, at Headingley in 2001 and Brisbane in 2003. Australia went on to win both previous games.
2 – Healy’s choice paid immediate dividends, as Maia Bouchier became the second English woman to be dismissed in the first over of an Ashes Test. The other was the all-time highest run-scorer in women’s Test cricket, Jan Brittin:
- 0.3 Brittin 0 (3) b Griffiths at Worcester, 1987
- 0.4 Bouchier 2 (3) c Mooney b Garth at Melbourne, 2025
Or to express the stat in the other direction, Kim Garth became the second Australia women’s bowler to take a wicket in the first over of an Ashes Test, after Sally Griffiths.
6.83 – This was Bouchier’s fourth single digit dismissal in six innings during a series in which she has now scored a total of just 41 runs at an average of 6.83.
4 – Having only taken four wickets in four Tests before this game, Alana King doubled her Test career wicket tally, as she bamboozled England once more with a terrific display of legspin bowling. King became the third Australian women’s legspinner, and the first in forty years, to take four or more wickets in the 1st innings of a home Test:
- Peggy Antonio 6-49 v ENG at The MCG, 1935
- Lyn Larsen 4-33 v ENG at The Gabba, 1985
- Alana King 4-45 v ENG at The MCG, 2025
18 – King now has eighteen wickets in the series as a whole, at a remarkable average of 11.33. This is the joint third most wickets taken in a multi-format Women’s Ashes series, beaten only by Ash Gardner (23) and Sophie Ecclestone’s (20) efforts in 2023.
22.5% – Sixteen of the 71.4 overs Australia bowled on day one were maidens. Both King (23-6-45-4) and pace bowler Darcie Brown (18-4-47-2) delivered their personal best tallies of maidens in the format.
6 – England’s lone bright spot on a subdued day was Nat Sciver-Brunt. An innings of 51 made Sciver-Brunt the first woman in Test history to score at least one fifty in six consecutive matches:
- 6 Nat Sciver-Brunt (ENG) v AUS, SA, AUS IND, SA, AUS in 2022-25
- 5 Peta Verco (AUS) v NZ, IND, IND, IND, IND in 1979-84
- 5 Hemlata Kala (IND) v ENG, SA, ENG, NZ, ENG in 2002-06
7 – Sciver-Brunt’s seven career scores of 50+ runs are the most made by any woman when batting at #4 or lower in Test cricket, breaking the record of India legend Shantha Rangaswamy (6).
170 – England’s eventual total was their lowest when batting first in an Ashes Test since being bowled out for 124 at The Gabba in 2003. England have now been bowled out for under 180 in four of their last six Test innings.
71.4 – The last time England women were bowled out in fewer overs in the 1st innings of an Ashes Test was in being skittled for 91 in 67.4 overs at Adelaide Oval in 1984 (a game which saw England stage perhaps the greatest comeback victory in women’s Test history – it already seems likely they will need a turnaround of similar proportions to get anything from this match).
21 – Rising star Georgia Voll (21y 178d) became Australia women’s 185th Test cap. Alongside her Sydney Thunder team-mate Phoebe Litchfield (21y 287d), Voll was part of Australia women’s youngest opening partnership in the format since 20 year-olds Peggy Antonio and Patricia Holmes played against England at Blackpool in 1937.
Stats derived from ESPNcricinfo statsguru, Cricket Archive, Women’s Cricket History and womenscricket.net
