Women’s Ashes: Alyssa Healy back in runs as Australia win first ODI against England

Alyssa Healy has bounced back to form with a statement half-century as Australia claimed a four-wicket win over England to start the Ashes.

After Ashleigh Gardner took three wickets to have England all out for 204 at a sold-out North Sydney Oval, Healy starred with the bat in the series-opening ODI.

Australia’s captain hit 70 from 78 balls, peppering the square boundaries to help the hosts chase down the target with 67 balls to spare.

Australia were far from perfect, and it could have been a different story had Sophie Ecclestone not dropped a sitter off Gardner with 22 runs still required and the hosts six down.

But ultimately Australia were not only the most polished of the two teams, but also the more ominous.

While England’s big guns threw their wickets away and spilled chances, Healy produced her best innings in eight months and Gardner wasn’t far behind with an unbeaten 42.

The end result was a 2-0 lead for Australia in the multi-format series, with each of the three ODIs and T20s worth two points and the Test worth four.

“Today will just give our team a lot of confidence. People stood up in the right moments, be it with bat or ball,” Gardner said.

No one will take more out of it than Healy.

Battling persistent foot and knee issues, the opener built a knock which marked the first time she had passed 50 at any level since 16 innings ago last March.

And after getting through her longest workout behind the stumps in months, she looked back to her best with the bat on Sunday.

Five of Healy’s 11 boundaries came through the pull shot, and she was back to old ways in punishing any width outside off stump.

Four more boundaries came on the cover and square drive, with the pick of the lot being an inside-out shot that went for four off spinner Ecclestone.

“Hopefully it’s signs of what’s to come and she can score a heap more runs,” Gardner said.

“Just watching the way she was batting through the (recent) New Zealand series, she was striking the ball really well and got some starts.

“But today, scoring 70 in front of the home crowd probably spurs you on as captain.

“She’s leading from the front, but I know from a body point of view she will take a lot of confidence out of it too, keeping and being able to back it up.”

In comparison, England were as generous with the bat as they were in the field.

While Gardner’s 3-19 from 6.1 overs built pressure and fellow spinner King took 2-35, England’s batters contributed to their own demise.

The tourists’ two most experienced players in Heather Knight (39) and Nat Sciver-Brunt (19) threw away a platform of 2-91, both caught trying to slog-sweep Gardner into the wind at cow corner.

The ball Knight swept was a long way outside off, while Sciver-Brunt’s shot was equally poor given she’d just seen her captain go in the same way two overs earlier.

Amy Jones then looked the most likely to get away for England, reaching 31 from 30 balls.

But when she hit a drive straight back at King, the collapse was on for England, who lost their last six wickets for 58 runs.

“There are a few things we can definitely work on,” quick Lauren Bell said.

“Australia obviously caught very well and we dropped a few at crucial moments.”