All-round Gardner finds her groove in 'tricky' NSO conditions

Ashleigh Gardner says a shift in focus back to the 50-over format has driven her return to form with the bat, following her all-round heroics in Australia's opening Ashes win over England.

Gardner steered Australia to their target of 205 with an unbeaten 42 from 44 at North Sydney Oval on Sunday, following up her superb 6.1 overs with the ball that piled pressure on England and secured the wickets of England's two best batters.

It continued Gardner's upwards trajectory with the bat, after she hit 74 against New Zealand and 50 against India last month – snapping a lean run with the bat in the 20-over format across the T20 World Cup and the WBBL.

"Coming off the back of the Big Bash, T20 is such a funny one, because it's so fickle when you play one bad shot or you've got to go really quickly," Gardner told reporters after Australia's four-wicket win. 

"I find batting in the middle-order in this team in ODI cricket, I've got more time. 

"I think that's something that I'm just trying to remember when I'm out in the middle, I do have more time than sometimes I think. 

"For me, it's always knowing that I can catch up if needed and I guess today, the conditions were pretty tricky, I never felt like I was fully in. 

"(But) just being able to score frequently was probably something that I really tried to focus on to keep my scoring rate high, because as soon as you get bogged down, it seems like it's even tougher to get off strike. 

"I think to my credit, that's what I do well and feel like when I'm doing that, that's when the innings flows – whereas if I'm a bit of a sitting duck, I'm always chasing the game."

Gardner had earlier stalled England's progress with the bat when she had Heather Knight and Nat Sciver-Brunt dismissed in near identical fashion, looking to slog sweep wider deliveries towards the short square boundary but instead caught by Ellyse Perry.

In doing so, she became the equal-second fastest allrounder to take 1000 runs and 100 wickets in the format. 

"(They) probably weren't my two best balls, but sometimes that's what pressure does, and players play shots that sometimes aren't there … so I have to keep that in the back of my mind that they weren't great balls," Gardner said. 

"But I think moving forward, I can still take a lot of confidence out of the other balls.

"They're the type of batting unit that like to put me under a lot of pressure, and they would see off-spin bowling as part of their strength, and they're a really good sweeping team. 

"For us it's probably limiting boundaries against this group, because we know that they want to (go for their) shots, we know that they want to score quickly."

Australia will take a 2-0 lead into Tuesday's second ODI at the CitiPower Centre in Melbourne, and Gardner said she expected England to respond strongly to Sunday's defeat.

The fast-paced nature of the multi-format series means there is little time for teams to reflect or correct, with all six white-ball games to be played across 14 days before the day-night Test starting January 30.

"In England last time, we were six-nil up, and then that got chased down pretty quickly – England are such a good team, and they always find a way," Gardner said.

Commbank Women's Ashes 2025

Australia lead the multi-format series 2-0

First ODI: Australia won by six wickets

Second ODI: January 14: CitiPower Centre, Melbourne, 10.05am AEDT

Third ODI: January 17: Bellerive Oval, Hobart, 10.05am AEDT

First T20I: January 20: SCG, Sydney, 7.15pm AEDT

Second T20I: January 23: Manuka Oval, Canberra, 7.15pm AEDT

Third T20I: January 25: Adelaide Oval, Adelaide, 6.45pm ACDT (7.15pm AEDT)

Australia squad (ODI/T20Is): Alyssa Healy (c), Darcie Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Grace Harris+, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Tahlia McGrath (vc), Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Voll, Georgia Wareham

England squad (ODI/T20Is): Heather Knight (c), Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier, Alice Capsey, Kate Cross*, Charlie Dean, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Danielle Gibson+, Sarah Glenn, Bess Heath+, Amy Jones, Freya Kemp+, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Linsey Smith+, Danni Wyatt-Hodge

* ODIs only; + T20Is only

Day-night Test: January 30 - February 2: MCG, Melbourne, 2.30pm AEDT

Australia Test squad: TBC

England Test squad: Heather Knight (c), Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Bell, Maia Bouchier, Kate Cross, Charlie Dean, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Bess Heath, Amy Jones, Ryana MacDonald-Gay, Nat Sciver-Brunt, Danni Wyatt-Hodge

The rivalry resumes with a blockbuster series in Australia from Jan 12 - Feb 2. Learn about the remarkable 90-year history at the Women's Ashes Hub