England’s eight dropped Ashes catches enough to make anyone feel sick

We may as well start with a positive. Annabel Sutherland has for some time appeared to be a next-generation Ellyse Perry, similar not just in stature but in output and style. The resemblance comes most notably when batting in Tests, with the concentration and appetite to put away short-form games and take up the tempo of the longest format, hour after hour of focus in the middle.

Perry was unavailable through injury on the second day of the Women’s Ashes Test at the MCG, and Sutherland made sure that she wasn’t missed. Batting into the third session for 163, she was the biggest factor in pushing Australia to 422 for fiive, a lead of 249 by stumps. This made three centuries in her past four Tests, after 137 not out at Trent Bridge and 210 against South Africa at the Waca. Unflustered, for a long while Sutherland looked on track to become the first women’s player to make two double centuries. In the more expansive history of men’s Tests, doubles in consecutive innings is something only six players have achieved.

She didn’t get there, bowled off the inside edge by seamer Ryana MacDonald-Gay, looking to force the rate, finally fatigued after a long day of work. The mixture of focused defence with consistent attack is her calling card, lacing 21 boundaries plus a six during her stay, so crisp when cutting or pulling the short ball, assured when driving the full. Her last 116 runs were faultless, but the fault for her still being there to make them was entirely the opposition’s.

How to describe England’s fielding? Let’s say that while walking through the Betty Cuthbert Bar in the third session, witnessing a small, tired girl abruptly coat both her parents and the floor with a sluice of vomit formed from chips and lemonade, that was only the second-most noxious display at the MCG that day.

Sophie Ecclestone was dropped four times off her bowling, and responded with two of her own. It started with Phoebe Litchfield lofting down the ground, where Sophia Dunkley ran in circles underneath it, frolicking into the air and flinging out one arm in an airborne school-dance-recital move, her vaguely gesturing hand less an attempted catch than an alibi.

Sutherland then cut Ecclestone to backward point, where Danni Wyatt-Hodge lost it hitting the ground. There were two tougher chances for the wicketkeeper Amy Jones, an edge into her knee that she might have had some hope of reaching had her gloves not already come up too high, and a missed stumping from MacDonald-Gay down the leg side as Sutherland overbalanced and had to swap feet.

View image in fullscreen Lauren Filer is unable to bring in a catch on day two at the MCG, one of many missed opportunities by England. Photograph: James Ross/EPA

Three lives for Sutherland before reaching 50, and after Ecclestone went solo to trap Alyssa Healy for 34, there were three to come for Beth Mooney in four overs. McDonald-Gay at short cover off Ecclestone, missing a drive; Ecclestone returning the favour with a simple one at slip, then off MacDonald-Gay’s bowling again; Maia Bouchier at gully with the simplest of the lot, a catching-practice steer that somehow still surprised the fielder so much that she was jumping and falling backwards while forcing hard hands at the ball.

By then England looked done, shrugging at each miss and trudging on. Tired and cranky, Ecclestone added a seventh drop at slip when Ash Gardner played a forcing shot on 12, MacDonald-Gay again the bowler. Late in the evening, Lauren Filer gave Gardner another, leaping well but spilling the return chance. When Filer finally held Gardner close to stumps, the simplest lob still seeing her fall over at square leg and clasp the catch to her clavicle, it drew less a cheer than a groan of relief.

Then the misfields – after a while, who could even keep counting? There is a period for the spectator at which even the spirit grows spongy and bruised. Half a dozen went through hands for boundaries, maybe another 15 escaped for smaller quantities of runs. A litany of errors that went far past the comedy stage, to the point that Tammy Beaumont got an unironic cheer of support when she tumbled and stopped a ball cleanly.

skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to The Spin Free weekly newsletter Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week’s action Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion

You can say that great opponents force bad play, and that may be so when it’s hard to score or hard to break through. The same can’t be said for the basics in the field, the skills that these professional cricketers are paid £100,000 a year to hone. England played without any apparent plan beyond sticking on Ecclestone at one end all day, the spinner bowling 17 overs through the first session and 39 by stumps, with more yet to come.

It was the display of a team that is mentally halfway to Dubai on the flight home, or for some of them to India for the Women’s Premier League, where another lucrative contract demands that they remember how to play. Perhaps they are tired from the tour treadmill; there will be all sorts of theories once this is done as to how things got this bad.

Not so for Australia, another happy three sessions with Litchfield batting well for 45, Gardner 44, and Mooney to return for day three on 98 not out. As far as a competitive spectacle though, that was best illustrated by another kid on a day out. A crowd nearing 12,000 combined with day one’s attendance to form the biggest turnout ever for a women’s Test, but their loudest cheer of the last session was when the big screen zoomed in to a small boy holding an ice-cream cone. Rapt with the attention but beaming even more widely at his treat, he hung on to it cleanly, both hands on the prize.

Click here to read article