The

Australian women's cricket team The Australian women's national cricket team (formerly also known as the Southern Stars) represent Australia in international women's cricket. Currently captained by Meg Lanning and coached by Shelley Nitschke, they are the top team in all worl ...

toured England between 25 June and 13 July 2009, playing one

Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

, five One Day Internationals and a

Twenty20 International A Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of cricket, played between two of the international members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), in which each team faces a maximum of twenty overs. The matches have top-class status and are the ...

. Australia won the Twenty20 International, while England won the One Day International series 4–0. The Test match, which was for

the Women's Ashes The Women's Ashes is the perpetual trophy in women's international cricket series between England and Australia. The name derives from the historic precedent of the Ashes in male cricket and, until 2013, was similarly decided exclusively on the ...

, was drawn; ensuring that England retained them.

Build-up

Prior to the series, both sides took part in the 2009 ICC Women's World Twenty20, which was also held in England in June. England won the tournament, in the process beating Australia by 8 wickets in the second semi-final. The semi-final defeat was Karen Rolton's final game as captain of the Australian side, having announced before the tournament she would be standing down.

Jodie Fields Jodie Maree Fields (, born 19 June 1984) is a sports administrator, coach, women's sport and physical activity advocate, and former Australian cricket player. Fields grew up in Queensland playing boy's and men's cricket before playing women's ...

was announced as the new captain for the tour of England, with

Alex Blackwell Alexandra Joy Blackwell (born 31 August 1983) is a former professional cricketer who played for New South Wales Breakers, New South Wales and Australia national women's cricket team, Australia as a specialist batter. In October 2017, she made h ...

as her deputy.

Squads

Matches

Twenty20 International

The

between the two sides was played as the first part of a doubleheader at

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...

; with

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

's match against

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

providing the second half of the entertainment. Australia batted first having won the toss, and recorded a "competitive" total of 151 for 3 from their allocation of 20 overs. Leah Poulton and Shelley Nitschke compiled 55 for the first wicket, a

partnership A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments ...

that was described as "momentum-seizing", before Karen Rolton contributed an unbeaten 43 and Lauren Ebsary a 13-ball 24. England, who had rested bowler

Katherine Brunt Katherine Helen Brunt (born 2 July 1985) is an English cricketer who currently plays for Yorkshire Women cricket team, Yorkshire, Northern Diamonds, Trent Rockets and England women's cricket team, England. She plays as a right-arm Fast bowling, ...

and

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

Caroline Atkins from the side that had won the World Twenty20 tournament, found their response stifled by Australia's opening bowlers Sarah Andrews and

Rene Farrell Rene Farrell (born 13 January 1987) is an Australian cricketer. A fast-medium pace bowler, she is a current member of the Australian team. On 1 December 2019, Farrell announced her retirement from Women's Big Bash League. Although Farrell ...

. The pair accounted for both openers while maintaining an

economy rate In cricket, a bowler's economy rate is the average number of runs they have conceded per over bowled. In most circumstances, the lower the economy rate is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare b ...

no higher than five. Claire Taylor, Beth Morgan and Lydia Greenway all briefly threatened, before England's innings closed on 117 for 6. Shelley Nitschke was awarded the player of the match award, having scored 32 while opening the batting and taking the wicket of Morgan in her economical four-over spell of bowling.

One Day Internationals

England began the One Day International series the strongest, defeating Australia by nine wickets in the first of two ODIs at the County Ground in

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It ...

. Led by

vice-captain Vice-captain, alternate captain (ice hockey) or vice-skip (curling) may refer to a role in a number of sports immediately below the role of captain. The vice-captain may have a number of different roles, including substituting as captain when the r ...

Nicki Shaw after

Charlotte Edwards Charlotte Marie Edwards (born 17 December 1979) is an English former cricketer and current cricket coach and commentator. She played primarily as a right-handed batter. She appeared in 23 Test matches, 191 One Day Internationals and 95 Twenty ...

had fallen ill, England took two quick wickets after being made to

field Field may refer to: Expanses of open ground * Field (agriculture), an area of land used for agricultural purposes * Airfield, an aerodrome that lacks the infrastructure of an airport * Battlefield * Lawn, an area of mowed grass * Meadow, a grass ...

first.

, returning to the side after missing the Twenty20 International, had Shelley Nitschke caught off of the first delivery of the match, before making Lisa Sthalekar

edge Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed ...

the ball to

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. ...

Sarah Taylor to leave Australia 4 for 2 after the first over. England's bowlers were rotated regularly, with the introduction of

Holly Colvin Holly Louise Colvin (born 7 September 1989) is an English former cricketer who played as a slow left-arm orthodox bowler and right-handed batter. She appeared in five Test matches, 72 One Day Internationals and 50 Twenty20 Internationals for ...

into the attack proving key. Colvin removed Leah Poulton with a flighted delivery lofted to

long on Fielding in the sport of cricket is the action of fielders in collecting the ball after it is struck by the striking batter, to limit the number of runs that the striker scores and/or to get a batter out by either catching a hit ball before ...

and

Ellyse Perry Ellyse Alexandra Perry (born 3 November 1990) is an Australian sportswoman who has represented her country in cricket and association football. Having debuted for both the national cricket team and the national soccer team at the age of 16, s ...

, who was

stumped Stumped is a method of dismissing a batsman in cricket, which involves the wicket-keeper putting down the wicket while the batsman is out of his ground. (The batsman leaves his ground when he has moved down the pitch beyond the popping creas ...

by Taylor to leave Australia 42 for 6. Lauren Ebsary and

helped Australia avoid their lowest-ever total in ODIs by adding 30 for the eighth wicket, before Farrell and Sarah Andrews added a national–record 36 for the final wicket to get Australia to an all out total of 133. England, by contrast, batted more competently than the Australians, with Taylor and Caroline Atkins barely offering a chance as they moved towards the target of 134.

rotated her bowlers, but the Australian spin bowlers were comfortably played by England. Taylor brought up a half-century in exactly an hour, having faced 55 balls and hit 6 fours, before she was dismissed playing "a loose

slog Slog is an unorthodox cricket shot where the batsman attempts to hit the ball as far as possible with the aim to hit a six or at the least a four. It is an extremely dangerous shot to play since the ball is almost certainly going to be in the air f ...

" with England still requiring 15 to win. Her namesake, Claire Taylor, helped Atkins to reach the victory target off the last ball of the 27th over. ---- ---- ---- ----

Test match

Day 1: Australia won the toss and elected to bat first, quickly lost 5 wickets for 28 runs (Brunt took 4 of these wickets), but

scored 139 runs (her first century) and together with

Rachael Haynes Rachael Louise Haynes (born 26 December, 1986) is an Australian former international cricketer who has won six world championships as a member of the national women's team. A left-handed batter, Haynes was vice-captain of Australia from 2017 to ...

broke the record by the sixth partnership with 199 runs. Australia closed the day with 271 for 7, and Katherine Brunt took 5 for 55.
Day 2: Australia only added 38 runs and closed the Innings in 309 runs. England lost their first 4 wickets for 28 runs, and closed the day with 116 runs for 5 wickets, trail by 203 runs.
Day 3: England fell with 268 runs, and Beth Morgan scored 58 runs (her first half century). Australia scored 128 for 1, with

scored 59 runs (her second half-century), and leading by 169 runs. Karen Rolton scored her run 1,000th (1st Australian, and 10th All-time)
Day 4: With England need a draw, Australia fell with 231 runs (272 ahead) on the second session. England only scored 103 runs, but survived the day and secured the draw, retaining the Ashes. Charlotte Edwards scored 53 runs unbeaten (her 8th half century).

References

External links

Australia Women tour of England 2009
from

Cricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

{{International cricket in 2009 2009 in women's cricket 2009–10 Australian women's cricket season 2009 in English women's cricket England 2009 Australia 2009 June 2009 sports events in the United Kingdom July 2009 sports events in the United Kingdom The Women's Ashes