Confidence can go a long way, but it can quickly be exceeded and Australia knows both dimensions well as they take their first point of the Women’s Ashes into the second ODI in Melbourne on Tuesday.
Gardner and King also combined for 3-for-19 and 2-for-35. That was after Kim Garth and Megan Schutt put a stop to a shaky start for England.
For Gardner, after a slim performance with the bat, he continued his good form against India and New Zealand last month. Against India, she scored 50 runs and took five wickets in the third ODI. It was his first international half-century in white-ball cricket since July 2023, and he scored 49 for the Sixers against crosstown rivals Thunder, his only notable innings in the most recent WBBL season. , she did more damage with the ball. She scored 74 in the third ODI against New Zealand just before this series.
“It gave me a lot of confidence in what I was able to do in the New Zealand series,” Gardner said. “Contributing with both bat and ball was something we wanted to do to start the series well and feel confident going into the second half of this series. “We know we have a long way to go in this Ashes series.
“We were 6-1 in England last time but we realized very quickly that we were trailed pretty quickly. “We could have played some amazing cricket, but England are a really good team and they always find a way.
“They obviously fought really hard in that series and we know they’re going to look at this game today and see what they didn’t do very well and what they did well. We expect them to come out firing again next game.”
Gardner has been dealing with an elbow problem for several months but insists it is not a problem.
Meanwhile, Healy completed his comeback from a knee injury with 70 runs off 78 balls after returning to wicket-taking duties in England’s innings for the first time since mid-November.
“She’s going to have a lot of confidence starting today,” Gardner said. “Just looking at the way she batted in the New Zealand series, she hit the ball really well and made a few starts, but I think scoring 70-plus in front of her home crowd today will probably spur you on as well, skipper, her. is leading from the front.
“But I know from a physical point of view she will have a lot of confidence because she can back it up to the top order after what she has maintained so far. So I am really happy for her and I hope it gives her a sign that she can score more runs. I hope so.
“Sometimes you can get caught up in chasing low totals. You’re just chasing totals rather than actually trying to bat properly. And we say that if you’re chasing small totals, sometimes that’s the hardest thing to actually chase. Today gave a lot of confidence to our team. “People stood up at various moments, whether with the bat or the ball, and we can take a lot from today.”
In fact, it was Australia’s bowling and successive dismissals that restricted England to a below-par score and gave them more work to do.
A record crowd for a women’s international at North Sydney Oval in 6236 was a good start to a series with high ambitions for attendance. This was especially true in the day-night Test at the MCG, which concludes the competition from January 30.
“This is my home ground. I’m from Sydney. I’ve played a lot of cricket here and I’ve had a lot of success playing cricket for the Sixers and for Australia,” Gardner said. “So I think starting the series in front of that crowd will hopefully lead to bigger crowds for the rest of the series.
“We’re playing in a really great venue, so we’ll do our best to provide some entertaining cricket throughout the series to encourage people to come and watch us and hopefully we’ll have more success.”
Valkerie Baynes is the executive editor of women’s cricket at ESPNcricinfo.
