England set benchmark with razor-sharp fielding

Prior to any series, every player is nervous and apprehensive about what lies ahead, but the Ashes really gets your stomach doing cartwheels. 

This is what every Australian cricketer dreams about – to play an Ashes series on English soil and win.

Quick Single: England Women take out Ashes opener

At the opening match, you could see just what this series means to both teams. The nervous energy and apprehension on players’ faces was evident as they tried to relax and have a laugh with their teammates prior to the toss.

To add to the atmosphere, close to 3,000 cricket-loving spectators filled the quaint Taunton ground.

The picture was set for a tight battle between the two strongest competitors in the women's game.

With such even sides, what are going to be the factors that separate these teams at the end of the series?

Quick Single: England quick puts heat on Perry

Both teams have their match winners at the top of the order and bowlers who can rip the heart out of any batting line-up.

However it is the middle order – from numbers five to seven – in both teams that aren’t quite there in terms of producing the sort of game-breaking innings we see from the top orders, and whoever stands up through the series in this area could swing things in their team’s favour.

And with the skill levels of bat and ball so evenly matched, there is another factor that could prove decisive – fielding.

Whilst consistency in completing the basics is a non-negotiable at this level, it is the attention to detail that allows the best fielders in the world to convert those half chances into dismissals.

Execution of those skills under pressure can turn a series.

And that’s exactly what we saw at Taunton.

England won the match largely thanks to a superb display in the field; their women effected four run-outs including the key wickets of Alex Blackwell (58) and Jess Cameron (23), just as both looked set to push the Southern Stars to a massive total.

Heather Knight’s direct hit to send Blackwell packing set the standard, though the Australian women continued testing out the English fielding – often to their detriment.

The result was a below-par score of 238 from 50 overs that England chased down relatively comfortably.

At 4-80 in the 20th over, the match hung in the balance.

But it was England’s No.5 Lydia Greenway (53) and No.6 Natalie Sciver (66) who turned the tide, demonstrating just how important those roles are going to be throughout what is set to be an extremely closely-contested series.

Greenway and Sciver put on 122, virtually replicating the fourth-wicket stand of 121 between Ellyse Perry and Blackwell that had earlier saved the Southern Stars from a sticky situation.

The pair rotated the strike brilliantly, making it difficult for the Australian bowlers to adjust to the right- and left-hand combination, and made life difficult for captain Meg Lanning by hitting the ball to very different parts of the ground.

Encouragingly for Australia, spinners Kristen Beams and Erin Osborne picked up the wickets of Greenway and Sciver respectively, but unfortunately by that point – and thanks to some quality late hitting by Georgia Elwiss – it was too little, too late.

The Southern Stars will no doubt be disappointed with their performances, but there is plenty of room to improve.

With a short turnaround to the next clash tomorrow (Thursday), they can't afford to sit back and play it safe.

They need to take the game by the scruff of the neck and I have no doubt that we’ll see that exciting style of play in their next match.

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