Georgia Elwiss, Ashes Blog 2, 27.1.14
The weather for the Test match was scorching. It was nearing 50 degrees out in the middle and the girls put on a brilliant show. It was a rollercoaster of a game, but luckily we managed to win the crucial moments, ending with a narrow victory by 61 runs. The character and fight shown by all the girls was fantastic and something we really pride ourselves on. Having secured the six points form the Test win, the girls just about had enough energy left to play a game with Arran Brindle’s son, Harry, on the outfield. He took our bowling attack apart and reached his 100 inside ten overs. I’m sure there was some dubious umpiring here though…!
Next it was on to Melbourne for the start of the ODI series and the heat wave followed us! For our warm up game it was 50 degrees and humid! We swapped our team around for this game to give some players a rest and this allowed those who had not played yet the chance to get some time in the middle. It even gave our Media Manager Beth Wild the opportunity to fulfil her childhood dream of playing for England, as she fielded for 25 overs for us! She rocketed around the field, pulling out some great diving stops and declared that she would make herself available for selection for any further games!
We started the ODI series with a great win at Melbourne with Arran (64*) and Lydia (69*) seeing us home comfortably with 3 overs left. This meant we were 8-0 up I’m the Series needing just one win to clinch the Ashes.
We knew Australia would come hard at us in the next ODI as they had nothing to lose and unfortunately they came out on top despite a fantastic effort from Heather (55), Sarah (63) and Nat (57) to chase down their score. We didn’t field or bowl well enough in this game so it was vital that we would go on to Hobart and turn it around.
We looked at the final ODI as a “miniseries” final and the pitch at Hobart was an absolute road. Lottie won the toss and we decided to bat. We put on a great platform and ended up with 268. It took a fantastic innings from Ellyse Perry to deny us the win, and the score line for the series now stands 8-4 to us with three left to play (each worth two points).
Off the field we have had some fun and games. In one training session we played rounders using a stump for a bat. I was stood at first base to Lydia and much to my surprise I ended up catching the stump rather than the ball when she flung it my way. She’s going to buy me a drink for that as it actually rather hurt!
The girls are in good spirits as we go into the Twenty20 matches, which we play alongside the men. We are hoping this will bring in some good crowds and some English support. Shall we say that the Aussies love a good chat on the boundary?!
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