Australia 180 (Perry 60, Ecclestone 4-35, Capsey 3-22) against England
Heather Knight’s decision to bowl first on a green pitch appeared to have backfired as the gray skies of the toss were replaced by crystal blue as Australia cruised to 131 for 2 with Perry looking imperious after having passed 50 for the 38th time in his ODI career. , delivering barely a false move in the process.
Ecclestone, the world’s No. 1 bowler, had made an indifferent start with the ball after being strangely kept out of the attack until the 18th over, having only been brought on in the 15th over in the first ODI at Sydney.
She hit the second ball, trapping Phoebe Litchfield lbw for 29 as the left-hander launched herself trying to make a reverse sweep.
Ecclestone then over-attacked Perry and Mooney for three overs, at times playing with only two fielders outside the circle. Perry smashed a boundary through cover and bowled a six down the ground with a mid on and an up middle. Mooney also threw unprotected coverage deep offside.
Ecclestone eventually sent back a few sweepers and it paid immediate dividends. Mooney was trapped in weight, hit in the back leg by one that turned sharply. England needed a review to overturn the initial decision not to exit.
Capsey then mowed down the middle order with his part-time offspin after replacing Charlie Dean at the pavilion end. She passed up a relatively simple catch-and-play chance provided by Sutherland. But it didn’t cost much as Sutherland failed to sustain another drive, picking Knight out of cover.
Perry then got bogged down. She had raced to 51 off 52 balls, hitting five fours and two sixes. She never went more than 14 balls without finding the rope and hit a six and two fours in the space of five balls to reach the milestone.
But after reaching 51, she scored just nine runs from her next 22 balls, with Ecclestone and Capsey putting pressure on two wickets at the other end.
In the 29th over, Capsey delivered four consecutive runs to Perry, never leaving the stumps and almost trapping his weight with the fourth ball. She sneaked in with the fifth as Perry jammed her bat against her pad but missed the ball. It was not initially distributed, but England succeeded with another revision.
Capsey added to his haul when Gardner left a huge gap between bat and pad while attempting an ambitious drive upfield and lost it outside the off stump.
Knight seized the opportunity and brought back Lauren Filer on the out-of-form Tahlia McGrath. Filer had looked like Bambi on the ice in her first two spells, slipping and falling on deck during her delivery stride almost half a dozen times as she conceded 34 in five overs.
But she beat McGrath for pace, hitting the top of exposed leg stump as McGrath stayed on the leg side.
Ecclestone returned to clean up the tail alongside Lauren Bell who also finished with 2 for 25, having taken the first wicket of Alyssa Healy for 29 off 19 after Australia raced to 43 for 0 in the ninth.