Australia 206 for 6 wickets (Healy 70, Gardner 42*) defeated England 204 (Knight 39, Wyatt-Hodge 38, Gardner 3-19) by four wickets
Gardner, whose three wickets were crucial in the collapse of England’s batting line-up, which was also guilty of easy dismissals, led Australia to a four-wicket win with his unbeaten 42, also taking two catches.
Healy had been struggling with a knee injury since mid-November, which ruled him out of their home series against India and forced him to play only as a batsman in New Zealand last month, while keeping wicketkeeping duties. The withdrawal could be confirmed only on its eve. match.
On Sunday, he picked up the difference to perfection and hit 11 fours to take his team to within 41 runs of victory.
She set up the England defense with a promise when she removed Phoebe Litchfield with her fifth delivery – her 11th of the innings – with an excellent wobbly-seam ball that touched the left-hander, Amy Jones behind the stumps. gathered and touched the outer edge.
Healy overturned a LBW decision off Bell at height and England had a review overturned for a caught behind wicket off Ellyse Perry, with replays showing that Fyler’s ball had hit the thigh pad and He had no bat or glove. Filer would have had a second if Alice Capsey had not dropped a sitter at fine leg off Perry.
The Australian pair made things better in Filer’s 19-run over, Perry’s flick evading Capsey and finding the rope at fine leg, followed by three fours off Healy, an inside edge missing leg stump, before point. And two more solid shots were fired through cover. But England successfully reviewed and dismissed Perry LBW off Bell and Australia’s score became 43 runs for 2 wickets.
Wyatt-Hodge took another quiet catch in the deep off Annabel Sutherland’s top-edge pull off Filer, but this brought Garder to the crease and he braced himself for a six off Ecclestone.
Gardner and Healy added 40 runs for the fifth wicket, before Healy advanced and was bowled by a fuller ball from offspinner Charlie Dean.
Maia Bouchier took an excellent diving catch at point to dismiss Tahlia McGrath, before Gardner made the most of her relief and King hit a fine run down the ground for a four.
Earlier, despite England’s poor batting performance, Gardner and King shared five wickets each, while Sutherland and Kim Garth took two wickets each.
Boucher clipped the third ball of the match onto her stumps, but was saved when it was discovered that Megan Scutt had overstepped by a slight margin, while Tammy Beaumont had bowled dangerously outside the off stump in the third over. Had gone.
Boucher broke the streak of 16 dot balls between the opening pair when he lofted Garth over midwicket for four, but Garth responded by pushing one behind a length to draw an outside edge, which Healy edged behind the stumps. Collected.
Knight hit his fourth four in 20 balls, facing Sutherland’s yorker cleverly through point and Beaumont broke the shackles of a slow start when he made eight runs in 22 balls, off Garth. But his lofted drive crossed the boundary. The England pair put on a 50-run partnership for the second wicket, but two balls later Beaumont had Sutherland caught straight to Garth at mid-on and was out after scoring 13 runs in 31 balls.
Due to this, Nat Sciver-Brunt came to the crease and she hit King for a six on the seventh ball. But Gardner took the crucial wickets of Knight and Sciver-Brunt in successive overs – both dismissing Perry at deep midwicket.
When Perry had to come rocketing through the deep square leg boundary and dive forward to get a pull off Amy Jones, Perry could not control herself and ended up with just one run.
Jones launched Sutherland over deep midwicket for six and looked to be in good form by hitting four consecutive fours off Garth, who conceded 18 runs in the 28th over. But as soon as Jones drove King to mid-on to form a fifty-run partnership with Wyatt-Hodge, he spooned the ball on the very next ball to reach 31 off 30 balls.
Capsey never got going and while Australia had no recourse when King hit Dean on zero, reassuringly on the pads with DRS down, the system was back up and running and when King hit 1 straight in front of him When he ran, he could not save Dean.
When Wyatt-Hodge dismissed Brown at long leg off Sutherland, the onus fell on the tailenders to save a defendable total. Ecclestone took full advantage of being dropped by Healy when he was still yet to score, hitting two fours in his 16 runs from 17 balls, and Filer opened his account with consecutive fours off Sutherland.
But Ecclestone followed England’s blueprint for easy wickets when he sent Darcy Brown straight to Gardner, who bowled Bell to end the England innings and take his 100th ODI wicket.
Valkyrie Baynes is general editor, women’s cricket, at ESPNcricinfo
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