Our lead up to the first Twenty/20 in Hobart was very similar to the games before it. We trained well and there was a good feeling in the team as the Ashes were still alive. Coming off the back of a fantastic ODI win, confidence was high and we felt we could get the job done.
A couple of strategic changes to the team for the reduced overs format meant that Nicole Bolton was replaced by Elyse Villani, and I made way for Sarah Coyte who was coming back from injury. While sitting on the bench isn't ideal, I was happy to do it in the best interests of the team. After all, we are there to win the Ashes. We all have that common goal and we all understand that certain demands in the series means ongoing changes to the team.
I honestly thought we batted well. We struggled, just as we have on this tour and previous tours, against English off-spinner Danielle Hazell. My team mate Erin Osborne described it perfectly as to why this is. She bowls like a man, in that the ball spins through the air quick. She doesn’t give it much flight which means that our batters can’t come out of the crease without a high possibility of being beaten by the flight and consequently stumped.
We scored 150 on the flat pitch, one that was a batters paradise; an absolute road, with nothing in it for the bowlers. The boundaries were quite small and despite getting a decent total, I think we all knew it was maybe 10 runs short of a par score. We had the bowling attack though to defend this total and we had full faith that we could win this match.
England came out firing with only 2 or 3 of the overs going for 6 runs. The rest of the overs were well and truly in excess of the run rate required. We were unable to pull them back after the start they had and England chased the runs down with plenty of overs to go. That was it. The Ashes were gone!
It is absolutely heartbreaking watching and not being able to do anything to help. I guess this is how all coaches feel when watching their team being defeated. I have been in this team for exactly 12 months now. I’m still the youngest and I’m the most inexperienced. Having said that, I know how much the Ashes means to this team, and to this country. I have been a part of 2 Ashes campaigns in the space of 4 months and I have watched England celebrate a series win twice. Deep down inside, it is one of the worst feelings. You train hard and work hard for so long, and all of a sudden what you want is taken away from you.
Our coach, Cathryn Fitzpatrick, brought us all into the changeroom and asked what we were feeling. The room was silent and I’m pretty sure that explained it. Slowly but surely words such as ‘disappointed’ and ‘gutted’ emerged. It was the feeling right across the group, including all our support staff. We couldn’t undo what had been done. Discussion then started about the rest of the series. There were still 2 more T20s to be played and we could still win the most amount of cricket (4-3) and also win the T20 series.
Our next big goal is the Twenty/20 World Cup in Bangladesh in March. Everything from now on was to be directed towards that tournament. We had to reinforce to England why we are the World T20 Champions and why they should be worried when they come to Bangladesh.
I was told on the morning of the game at the MCG that I was back in the side and I was to open the bowling. Talking to my family I gained some confidence. One particular message stuck with me. It was a really long paragraph but the general idea of it was that I had nothing to lose (and neither did the team) and I just had to go and do what I do best – run in and hit the deck as hard as I could and bowl fast. This was the only thing running through my head all day. I had one job to do and that was it.
I went to the game earlier than what the rest of the team did. A couple batters go early to get a bit of a hit in before the game. I went to bowl, to make sure that when I was to bowl ball 1, I was ready. After finding out that we won the toss and were going to field, I got excited. Not nervous, but excited. I was keen to get out there and play for my country once again.
For me, I also need to stay relaxed. I need to smile and joke and laugh. When I’m happy and smiley, that’s when I play my best cricket. My day couldn’t have got off to a better start when I ran out onto the field to see my profile on the big screen however there was one slight error… I seemed to have gained 10 years. My age was supposedly 28. Now, I know I’m fairly mature for my age, but seriously? 28? I had a good laugh with a few of the other girls about it.
From then on, everything just went to plan. As a bowler, you have those days where everything goes your way and that day was my day. Chance often plays into wickets. Many times have batters inside edged me and missed the stumps by a centimetre. That day however, the bottom edge went straight onto the stumps. I was lucky enough to pick up a second wicket as well and I was glad it was Sarah Taylor, a player that can change the game for England at the drop of a hat. Every bowler did their job, with pressure at both ends and England needing to pull out risky shots in order to try and increase the run rate.
As a bowling group, restricting a team to 120 runs is a job well done. However to restrict to under 100 runs is an absolute amazing effort. Our batters had peace of mind that they didn’t have to score at a large run rate, however, if we were to show England why we were World Cup champions, we had to go out there and dominate with the bat, just as we did with the ball.
I am glad to say that we did that. Our openers made an amazing to start and then Meg Lanning came out and scored in the 40s off only half that amount of balls. It was a great all round performance and was the closest we have got all series to performing with both the bat and ball in a game.
The last game is at Stadium Australia in Sydney. For us, it is an opportunity. We want to win this T20 series and we want to win the most amount of cricket in this Ashes series. The mentality will be the same. We want to go out there and be dominant. We want to make sure England go home on a low note – losing the most amount of games in the series including the last two. Its going to be tough but we are ready and we have more than proved what we can do.
Watch our game live today at 2.30pm AEST (1.30PM for my fellow Queenslanders) on GEM to catch all the action live.