Women's Ashes: Tons from Sutherland, Mooney; King's 9-wicket haul guide Australia to victory over England by innings and 122 runs
Feb 01, 2025
Melbourne [Australia], February 1 : Centuries from Annabel Sutherland and Beth Mooney in the first innings and Alana King's exceptional bowling performance across both innings stormed Australia to victory over England by an innings and 122 runs in the one-off Test match of the Women's Ashes 2025 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday.
Riding on knocks from Annabel Sutherland (163) and Beth Mooney (106), Australia posted an imposing 440 in their first innings on day three.
After having secured a 270-run lead over the tourists, Australia bowlers followed it up with a clinical bowling display and won the one-off Ashes Test in Melbourne by an innings and 122 runs to clean-sweep the Women's Ashes by a historic 16-0 margin.
Australia's win was marked by several spectacular individual performances, including Alana King's career-best figures of 9/98 (4/45 in the first innings and 5/53 in the second innings). Ash Gardner also shined with her impressive spell of 4/39 to bowl out the visitors in their second innings.
For Mooney, it was her first-ever Test ton. It also made her the only Australian women's player to score a ton across formats. Overall, she is just the fourth player in Women's cricket to score a ton in all three formats. The other players are England's Heather Knight and Tammy Beaumont, and the current South Africa captain Laura Wolvaardt.
She is also the fourth Australian player, Men's or Women's to achieve this feat, placing her on a list that includes Shane Watson, Glenn Maxwell and David Warner.
Australia's first innings total was 440, which was also their sixth-highest total in Women's Tests.
With this win, Australia has remained unbeaten throughout their home run of the Ashes, taking away all 16 points on offer.
The team had won their preceding engagements in ODIs and T20Is by a 3-0 margin.
This is the first-ever instance of an Ashes whitewash since the multi-format points system was introduced in 2013.
Brief Score: England Women 170 & 148 all out in 68.4 overs (Tammy Beaumont 47, Heather Knight 32, Alana King 5/53) vs Australia Women 440 all out in 130.3 overs (Annabel Sutherland 163, Beth Mooney 106, Sophie Ecclestone 5/143).
