Five quick hits: Spinners race for five and Mooney’s maiden Test ton

Australia World

Australia may have collapsed, but still completed a desperate thrashing of England inside three days at the MCG, thanks in no small part to a nine-wicket haul from spin queens Alana King and Ashleigh Gardner.

Here are five quick hits from day three of the MCG Test.

1. Perry bats

Ellyse Perry holds her bat

Ellyse Perry batted for nine minutes, and did not field. (AAP Image: James Ross)

For most of the past two days any vision of Ellyse Perry has been of her sat on the boundary in her training kit, an interested onlooker to the game unfolding.

The hip injury she sustained on day one looked like it would be enough to rule her out of the rest of the game, though Cricket Australia always left the door ajar for Perry to return at some point.

When Tahlia McGrath was first out on the third morning and Kim Garth came to the wicket though, it was fair to assume Perry would be sitting that one out. So imagine our surprise when, with Garth out for a duck, Perry strode to the crease as Australia’s number 10.

Why did Perry bat? Who knows.

Perhaps it was a result of her missing the last major moment Australia’s women played at the MCG, when they won the T20 World Cup in front of a capacity crowd.

She made two runs in nine minutes and then chipped a catch back to Sophie Ecclestone to end Australia’s innings. 

But the crowd, which rose as one to welcome her to the middle, was certainly pleased to see her.

And it was a good job she did bat, in hindsight. After all, she did not spend a single minute in the field during England’s second innings.

2. Australia collapses

As Australia stood on England’s throat, resuming on day three at 5-422, it seemed that it would be a question of when Australia would choose to end their assault on the tourists’ bowlers.

England, though, had other ideas.

Coming out with belated spirit that was entirely absent on day two, England tore into the Australian lower order as Australia collapsed to 440 all out, losing 5-18 in just 63 balls.

Australian collapses are pretty rare things, so England should take some heart.

However, trailing by 270 runs, you couldn’t help but think it was too little, too late. 

3. Mooney conquers the nerves

Beth Mooney holds up her bat and helmet

Beth Mooney scored her first Test century in her eighth match. (Getty Images: Cricket Australia/Morgan Hancock)

Beth Mooney wouldn’t have slept a whole lot between days two and three, due to the 98* sitting next to her name at the time.

Mooney had the strike for the first over of the third day only two runs short of her first ever Test century, and for five balls all of her nerves were on display.

Ecclestone beat Mooney’s edge twice, nearly got her to pop another to midwicket and then watched a jittery batter threaten to run herself out. Nobody watching was immune to the nerves.

And then, with the final ball of the over, Ecclestone dropped short and Mooney played a trademark slashing cut shot through point. At once the nerves dissipated entirely and a smile filled her face.

The MCG afforded her a spirited ovation as Mooney conquered her third and final format of the game, becoming the first Australian woman to score a Test, ODI and T20I century.

4. Spin to win and the race for five

Ashleigh Gardner celebrates

Ashleigh Gardner was superb in partnership with Alana King. (AAP Image: James Ross)

Australia’s early bowling efforts lacked a bit of something, with seamers Darcie Brown, Kim Garth and Annabel Sutherland largely unable to trouble England’s top order.

It took a while for the spinners to get a look, but when they did they changed the game.

Ash Gardner was the first into the attack, Alana King not far behind her. In tandem, the pair then bowled for the rest of the middle session, sharing six wickets between them.

England were sitting relatively comfortably at 2-100 as Gardner and King got going.

Oh, the fragility of hope — 67 balls later England had lost 5-17 and were facing humiliation.

It was partnership bowling at its best, pressure building at one end and wickets falling at the other as King and Gardner took turns picking off England’s middle and lower order.

Their battle as to who would take five wickets was one of the sub-plot highlights of Australia’s inevitable victory.

But King won that battle, her spellbinding effort ending with a maiden Test five-wicket haul and nine wickets for the match, putting a cherry on top of her quite phenomenal series.

5. England’s rearguard

Long before Sophie Ecclestone trudged off the field to leave England nine wickets down, this match was well and truly over.

But that didn’t stop Lauren Filer and Lauren Bell from doing their best to frustrate the Aussies.

As Gardner and King toiled away, beating the bat with alacrity, the gulls circled above the MCG as if ready to pick at the corpse of England’s battered hopes and dreams for this series.

But Filer and Bell prevailed.

And prevailed.

And prevailed.

For over 11 overs this pair fended and poked and prodded and survived by the width of a lick of paint as the ball flew past their bats and the stumps.

King started to look frazzled. Gardner bemused. Healy in shock.

But finally, 68 balls after they first came together — and with just 14 runs to show for it — Filer clipped the ball to Annabel Sutherland at mid on to send Australia into raptures.