Australia inflicted another crushing defeat over England in the firstCricinfo One-Day International at Derby today, winning by 99 runs with morethan three overs remaining

Kate Laven29-Jun-2001Australia inflicted another crushing defeat over England in the firstCricinfo One-Day International at Derby today, winning by 99 runs with morethan three overs remaining.Set 239 to win after an entertaining batting performance from Australia’sKaren Rolton (79) and Lisa Keightley (75), England’s early overs were full ofpromise as debutante Hannah Lloyd and Arran Thompson set off confidentlyagainst Australia’s experienced opening attack.Lloyd survived an appeal to the third umpire for a run out in the fifth overafter the athletic Lisa Sthalekar produced a forward dive at square leg toget the ball in sharply to the stumps.The 21-year-old University student took her time to settle, while at theother end Thompson quickly got down to business striking three boundaries insix overs.But in the eighth over of the innings, Lloyd was leg before pushing forwardto pace bowler Therese McGregor and Australia had made their firstbreakthrough with the total on 22.The next three wickets all fell in quick succession as McGregor, anothermember of the Waugh twins cricket club in Bankstown, capitalised on theEnglish women’s fragile confidence and tentative stroke play.Thompson was brilliantly caught at cover for 17, having faced 37 balls, andcaptain Clare Connor was another lbw victim playing across the line toMcGregor.A drinks break rapidly turned into a 50-minute interval as the cloudslowered and the heavens opened, forcing scorers to bring out their sheets ofDuckworth-Lewis calculations but play resumed at 5.00pm making the full 50overs permissible.With the score on 48 for five, after Jackie Hawker was caught behind offLisa Sthalekar, the chances of England pulling things back looked unlikelyand while Sarah Collyer and Clare Taylor kept hopes alive with a seventhwicket partnership of 41, the requirement for 109 runs to be scored off thelast ten overs was too much for England’s young side.Taylor was bowled by a full toss from Sthalekar for 39 after hitting sixboundaries from 89 balls and Collyer was adjudged run out by the thirdumpire having made an impressive 20, with runs all round the wicket.”We are disappointed to lose by 100 runs, give or take a couple,” saidTaylor, who was voted Vodafone’s Man of the Match for England.”There are key areas to tighten up on. We bowled too many loose balls todayallowing them to get off to a quick start. We have to attack their top orderbatsmen and get them out as cheaply as possible and we need to startstriking the ball more cleanly.”We need to work out where our strongest scoring opportunities are and makethe most of them before the next match. Losing is always a disappointingexperience but we need to take as many positives away from this as possibleand learn as much as we can from the way Australia play their cricket.Exposure to this standard of cricket is the only way to toughen us up.”