‘No Meg no party’ – Fans react as Australia women lose their first ODI match in 22 months, get defeated by England in 1st match of their series

England women and Australia women clashed against each other in the 1st match of the 3-match ODI series at the County Ground in Bristol on Wednesday, July 12. England needed to clean-sweep the Australian team in the ODI series in order to win the Women’s Ashes series. The host got a brilliant start to the series with a thrilling 2-wicket win in the 1st ODI.

Talking about the match, Australia won the toss and opted to bat first. However, the decision proved wrong initially as the skipper Alyssa Healy got out after scoring just 8 runs by Kate Cross. However, later, Phoebe Litchfield and Ellyse Perry steadied the ship and stitched a 61-run stand for the 2nd wicket. 

With the decent contribution from the middle-order batters, Australia put up a fighting total of 263 runs. Beth Mooney played an unbeaten knock of 81 runs, which included 6 fours. In reply, England also had a bad start as they lost one of their opener Sophia Dunkley with a score of just 8 runs.

We couldn’t get going with the bat: Alyssa Healy

Tammy Beaumont was later joined by Alice Capsey and both stitched a 74-run partnership for the 2nd wicket and set the foundation for the upcoming batters to make the chase successful. Georgia Wareham dismissed Beaumont in the 13th over and provided a much-needed breakthrough to the team.

England’s middle-order batters started losing their wickets at the crucial stage but skipper Heather Knight lead from the front and took her team to victory while remaining unbeaten on the score of 75 runs which included 6 fours and 1 six. Australian skipper Healy talked about the loss in the post-match conference. 

“Fought really well to keep ourselves in the game. We were 20 runs short with the bat. The bowlers did an outstanding job. We couldn’t get going with the bat, the change of pace in the wicket and spin towards the end as well. The Ashes is on the line now, we will see it as an opportunity to learn and grow. We just gotta be better and sharp in certain areas and that’s what we will try to find in the next few days,” Healy was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

Here’s how fans reacted:

https://twitter.com/screwgauge77/status/1679207531363831808?s=20

https://twitter.com/Rajmeet45619594/status/1679210921716232192?s=20