23rd over: Austria 102-3 ( Perry 36, Haynes 29) Haynes squints through the bars of her helmet at Laura Marsh, watches, watches, then takes two steps down the pitch and drives just to the side of the stumps for four. She smiles, pleased. And so she should be. Gorgeous.

22nd over: Austria 94-3 ( Perry 34, Haynes 23) Nat Sciver, hair in a bun, complete action, scampers in . Her second ball is a shorter ball and Haynes deposits it through midwicket for four. A few more scrambled runs and Australia are ticking over.

21st over: Austria 86-3 ( Perry 32, Haynes 17). And England keep it tight again, just one off Marsh’s over. Something will give soon, what will it be? And there is Katherine Brunt back on the field. Phew!

20th over: Austria 85-3 ( Perry 31, Haynes 17) Nat Sciver, who looks like the type of schoolgirl who was good at everything AND nice, takes the ball. Full of energy, but Perry’s eyes light up to her second ball and sends it spinning back through the covers for four.

And off the pitch, we see Katherine Brunt in a yellow bib, perhaps banana, galloping from side to side. The odd grimace, but it’s obviously not too bad. Perhaps a twisted ankle? (aside: don’t trust me, I’m not a doctor).

19th over: Austria 79-3 ( Perry 26, Haynes 16) Ah Rachael Haynes, that was gorgeous. A drive off Marsh through mid off for four. The sublime is nearly followed by the ridiculous as Perry and Haynes nearly combine to run each other out. But the England throw wasn’t accurate enough to milk their mistakes.

18th over: Austria 74-3 ( Perry 25, Haynes 10) Just two off Ecclestone’s over as Australia struggle to pin point the boundary. Patient? Impatient? We shall see.

17th over: Austria 72-3 ( Perry 25, Haynes 10) Laura Marsh, bowling in sunnies. Not Chris Gayle wide boy sunnies, just your bog standard sporty numbers. Haynes looks desperate to twinkle down the pitch but restrains herself. A good over apart from when she strays a little leg side. Tim Robinson, looking grizzled, signals wide.

16th over: Austria 71-3 ( Perry 25, Haynes 10) Long shadows stretching over the field as Ecclestone bowls her fourth over. She’s quick through these overs – have some compassion Sophie! Rachel Haynes jigs forward and lifts her high and handsome for six. And that’s drinks.

15th over: Austria 62-3 ( Perry 24, Haynes 2) Laura Marsh comes on where Brunt came off and Australia only scuttle through for a couple.

England will desperately miss Brunt, who bowled four overs, taking one for 16 before she went off. If she doesn’t come back, England will have to somehow muddle through, a bowler down.

14th over: Australia 61-3 ( Perry 24, Haynes 1) Just two from Ecclestone’s over. Lovely stuff.

13th over: Australia 59-3 ( Perry 23, Haynes o) Brunt limps off with the strength and conditioning coach on one arm and the physio on the other. Hope she’ll be ok. She was walking gingerly, but walking. A great wicket though, a super ball, and Lanning was done over by the speed – or lack of it. The average partnership between Perry and Lanning before today was a hundred. Not anymore!

A slower ball gets the gun! Lanning gets an edge and the bails go flying. But Brunt goes down flat on the ground. This doesn’t look good. An ankle? Hamstring?

12th over: Australia 56-2 ( Perry 21, Lanning 17) Ecclesstone bowls with a tangle of arms, as if she’s using one of those old fashioned hand-whisks with a turning circle. She flights it, tempting the bats, who are watchful. Just a couple of singles from the over

11th over: Australia 54-2 ( Perry 20, Lanning 16) Brunt and England keep it tight, frustrating Perry and Lanning who like to deal in boundaries. I just get the feeling they’re going to want to hit out soon.

10th over: Australia 51-2 ( Perry 19, Lanning 14) Perry is watchful as Knight turns to Ecclestone. She’s on her toes straight away, but is unable to get her away. Ecclestone in sunglasses, her long ponytail dancing down her back, has a maiden to start. End of the powerplay.

9th over: Australia 51-2 ( Perry 19, Lanning 14) A super over from Brunt. Dot to dot from one to four. Then a wide. Then Perry angles her bat and guides the ball into the offside and the Aussies scamper through for two quick and determined singles. That’s the fifty up at the close of the ninth over.

Abhijato Sensarma again:

“Of course we can! As a matter of fact, in my entire club cricket career, the strongest and most skilled all-rounder who attended our coaching was a girl (she was a classical runner between the wickets too!) I remain in awe of her till this day, and cite this song as a point of reference to the legendary she’s… Cheers gals, you rock!”

Thanks Abhijato!

8th over: Australia 48-2 ( Perry 19, Lanning 12) Perry swings at Cross’s first ball and misses. Point to Cross. Then she dollies up a half volley and Perry needs little temptation and it crosses the rope with a twang. Banana or gold, Perry is class.

7th over: Australia 44-2 ( Perry 15, Lanning 12) Heather Knight scratches her cap and throws the ball to Katherine Brunt who marches with military precision to her mark. But Perry doffs her cap to no-one, nudging the first ball down to the boundary where Laura Marsh just fails to cut it off.

OB Jato is in poetic mode: “Vague drives are the death of precision, yet the birth of simultaneous lazy excellence and frustration depending on whether the concerned individual pulls off the shot or not.”

A metaphor for life OB?

6th over: Australia 37-2 ( Perry 10, Lanning 10) England struggling to keep Australia from bubbling over here. Another four from Lanning screams “look at me”

5th over: Australia 32-2 ( Perry 6, Lanning 9) Now Lanning gets in on the act, a square drive, lovely, through the covers, brmmm, brmmm, for four.

Abhijato Sensarma writes in with An ode to all the batsmen I’ve ever batted with:

“I shouldn’t call you in this daze/ Yeah this flick’s made me brave/ The pitch is still the comfort, the chase/ I shouldn’t call you in this daze
‘Cause I know that this is not the only one/ Which is tryna be this partnership’s only one/ Don’t want you in the danger zone but out of sight/ If you let this be our only one/ There will never be a lonely run/ I can’t go on hoping the fielder doesn’t throw with his right
Stand by/ There’s a million other singles on offer tonight/ You know I could have a safe one if I like/ Yeah you ain’t gon’ run to save me/ That’s no lie/ I can’t stay on/ Stand By!

(The ‘oh’s featured in the original song’s chorus are to be replaced by the quintessential club cricketer’s “No! No! No!” while denying a single 🙂

We can change those he’s to she’s just for today?

4th over: Australia 26-2 ( Perry 8, Lanning 1) Perry knows how to turn disappointment into crushing disappointment in a single stroke, a drive through midwicket off Kate Cross sighs prettily over the rope the ball after the stumping review.

Perry’s foot seems to rest almost exactly on the white line at the crucial moment. A fine bit of work by Warwickshire’s Amy Jones, but Perry survives by a big toe.

England look confident as the umpires consider the review… We look at the replay from the side and the back…

3rd over: Australia 17-2 ( Perry 0, Lanning 0) Two big banana inswingers from Anya Shrubsole, but Healy drives the second straight down the ground for four. Then a wide. And another one. Yikes, Healy looking ominous. But Shrubsole has always possessed the ability to conjure important wickets from nothing. And does it again!

The danger woman goes! A vague drive to Danni Wyatt at backward point is well caught by Wyatt perching on her knees.

2nd over: Australia 11-1 (Healy 5, Lanning 0) Kate Cross on the money straight away. An energetic run up, long too. She bristles with the ball, and Bolton couldn’t resist. Lanning carefully plays back her first two deliveries.

A lovely tidy catch by Amy Jones as Bolton drives loosely at a wide one from Cross.

1st over: Australia 9-0 (Healy 4, Bolton 0) Not a great start with five wides from Shrubsole who is straying legside. Then Healy turns another wide one down past fine leg for four.

can England restrict this dangerous Australian batting line up? Anya Shrubsole to bowl the first over.

A reminder of the teams for those of you joining us late. Australia are unchanged, England are without Sarah Taylor, resting with an ankle niggle. Danni Wyatt replaces her.

England: Tammy Beaumont, Amy Jones (w), Heather Knight (c), Natalie Sciver, Danielle Wyatt, Fran Wilson, Katherine Brunt, Anya Shrubsole, Sophie Ecclestone, Laura Marsh, Kate Cross.

Australia: Nicole Bolton, Alyssa Healy (w), Meg Lanning (c), Ellyse Perry, Rachael Haynes, Beth Mooney, Ashleigh Gardner, Jess Jonassen, Delissa Kimmince, Georgia Wareham, Megan Schutt.

Not sure if they’re borrowing the World Cup win predictor for the women’s ashes. I’d guess: 60:40 Australia today?

But Raf Nicholson has watched a lot of women’s cricket and she points out that this would have been a winning total on Tuesday.

Graham is keen to nail the Australian colours:

“Australians seem very exercised when their uniform is called yellow and green, insisting it is gold and green. If you ever see a piece of jewellery that colour, keep walking. I wonder what would be the best moniker for the colour? Canary, buttercup, primrose, maize, chunder yellow? If you want to call it gold you have to change it to something like the San Francisco 49ers or New Orleans Saints. “

Chunder? Graham! I like buttercup. Banana is also good. Frank Keating once memorably called Wisden, “the annual primrose doorstep.” Personally, I prefer yellow to gold and was slightly disappointed ten years ago when my husband told me he had bought a yellow car and then arrived in a gold one. I never admitted it though.

Thanks Adam and hi everyone! Looks like a beautiful July afternoon at Grace Road, T-shirts and shadows, but England won’t be too pleased with that collapse of four for six at the end. Still, better than a collapse at the top of the order, which is what they conjured up for the first ODI.

Tammy Beaumont was chuffed to bits when interviewed at the break. Honest too: “The pitch was a little bit slow and we were a bit lucky with a few loose balls early on.”

Five for Kimmince! A superb shift by the seamer, claiming the third best figures for an Australian against England in ODIs. She leads Australia from the field with 5/26 from her 7.4 overs. In the process, she’s torn this England innings apart. The fifth was Kate Cross, picked up first ball giving catching practice to point. Great job.

Marsh tries to go long down the ground but doesn’t get much of it, caught at long off by Gardner. That’s four for Kimmince, who is deservedly cashing in.

47th over: England 216-8 (Ecclestone 3, Marsh 2) It was this pair who put on a decent stand of 38 in the final handful of overs on Tuesday, Ecclestone the far more likely of the two to find or clear the boundary. But with Schutt on, they are going to have to get resourceful or back their eye. They do neither in this over, Ecclestone looking to clear the front leg but not getting the ball she needs. Excellent from the Australian opening bowler, who has been faultless today.