King dictates proceedings once again as Australia take control
England have little to show aside from Nat Sciver-Brunt’s fifty on day one of pink-ball Test
Alex Malcolm30-Jan-2025
Alana King was outstanding on the opening day•Cricket Australia/Getty Images
Not for the first time in this series, Alana King put on a masterclass of legspin bowling in front of the Shane Warne Stand to bamboozle England and hand Australia full control on the opening day of the pink-ball Test at the MCG.Just as she did across town at the Junction Oval during the ODI series, where a smaller, quainter Shane Warne Stand casts a shadow at the southern end, King put on a clinic bowling 23 overs unchanged from the start of the second session to claim career-best Test figures of 4 for 45 and help bowl England out for 170. Nat Sciver-Brunt’s 51 was the lone shining light for England on another bleak afternoon, but she should have been out twice to King whose spell even outshone the bizarre pop-up rock concert Australian artist G-Flip performed during the dinner break.The bowling performance was soured however by a hip injury to Ellyse Perry. She landed heavily after diving to knock back a ball on the rope during the middle session. She left the field shortly after and did not return for the last two hours of Australia’s bowling innings. Australia’s team management confirmed she would not bat on the first evening and would be reassessed in the morning.Annabel Sutherland instead walked in at No. 3 and saw Australia through to stumps alongside Phoebe Litchfield, cruising to 56 for 1 after the loss of Georgia Voll who opened on Test debut.Australia would have been delighted with the bowling performance after winning the toss and electing to field on an MCG surface featuring 9mm of grass. But they could have bowled England out even sooner.King should have had more, with four chances missed off her bowling alone as Australia were uncharacteristically sloppy in the field. Beth Mooney missed a stumping and a caught behind off King and dropped another off Annabel Sutherland diving to her right. Alyssa Healy failed to take a simple catch cleanly at slip, again off King, clutching at the ball awkwardly and grounding it while it was in the end of her fingers. King dropped a caught-and-bowled chance, while Voll grassed a straightforward chance at slip off Darcie Brown.None of the misses were costly though as England capitulated again. King’s hard-spun legbreaks were the stuff of dreams for a legspinner but will only create further nightmares for England’s batters after haunting them all tour.England were getting a foothold in the day at 97 for 3 when King deceived Sophia Dunkley with late drop to force a simple chipped return catch after Mooney had early missed a difficult stumping chance.King then went to work on Danni Wyatt-Hodge, fizzing three huge legbreaks past her outside edge in one over. Sciver-Brunt, who had held England’s innings together, was also beaten multiple times in similar fashion.King finally kissed Sciver-Brunt’s outside edge with another perfect legbreak only for a poorly set-up Healy at slip to grass the rare catch without gloves on. Her injured foot meant she was not keeping and posting up at slip to limit her running. But she was set up too high, with her hands on her knees, and was unable to pouch the ankle-high chance cleanly.Litchfield had no such problems at silly mid-off, taking at outstanding catch diving low to her right after Wyatt-Hodge presented the leading edge to another fizzing legbreak.England may have regretted leaving out Charlie Dean and selecting three seamers as their lone spinner Sophie Ecclestone chipped King to cover to hand her a third scalp.Sciver-Brunt was then bowled for the fifth consecutive innings in the series, and for the third time against legspin, trying to a pull a good-length legbreak that hit the stumps well under bail height.Amongst King’s carnage, Amy Jones was bowled playing back to spin for the second time in the series, missing a full delivery from Ash Gardner and losing her off stump.King missed out on a maiden Test five-for as Mooney dropped an edge off Ryana MacDonald-Gay and then clanged a sharp return catch offered by Lauren Filer. Brown claimed Filer instead before Lauren Bell was run out tamely to end the innings.Brown and Kim Garth had earlier laid the groundwork for King’s wizardry with an excellent opening burst that saw England slump to 47 for 3. Maia Bouchier’s miserable tour continued, nicking Garth behind for 2 to go with scores of 13, 0, 0, 17 and 9 in the white-ball series.Tammy Beaumont was trapped plumb lbw for 8 by an excellent delivery from Brown that nipped back off the seam to leave England 23 for 2.Skipper Heather Knight’s innings was anything but assured. She survived a similar lbw shout off Brown and a subsequent review that showed it was umpire’s call on clipping leg stump. She edged Sutherland behind but Mooney could not take the one-handed offer. Garth then followed Brown and nipped another back into Knight’s front pad and the appeal was rewarded with a raised finger.