‘They can’t get any worse’; Ashes farce as England’s slippery fingers dash hopes of avoiding whitewash

After another abysmal day at the MCG in a lamentable Ashes series for England, 2017 World Cup winner Alex Hartley was succinct when assessing the deeds of her former teammates.

Watch every ball of The 2025 Women’s Ashes Series LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on Kayo | New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited time offer.

“One positive thing to come from this tour is that things can only get better (because) they can’t get any worse,” Hartley told the BBC’s Test Match Special.

Starting the day with a lead of 114 runs, England dropped eight catches, missed a stumping and conceded dozens of runs through shoddy fielding on another horror day down under.

After being bowled out for 170, England trail by 252 runs with two days remaining, with their hopes of avoiding a whitewash in the series effectively dashed barring a miracle of some sort.

Centurion Annabel Sutherland and wicketkeeper Beth Mooney, who finished unbeaten on 98, were among the Australians to benefit from England’s hapless largesse in the field.

English captain Heather Knight removed off-spinner Sophie Ecclestone from the slips cordon late in the day as the number of catches dropped by the visitors mounted.

Australian great Mike Hussey was among the many bemused by England’s woes and said it was among the facets of their performances in Australia that required further investigation.

“It’s been, well, really disappointing,” he told foxsports.com.au

“I think they’ll have to do a lot of thinking about this, this sort of tour, and have a bit of a think about the areas that they need to improve on. Fielding is going to have to be one area, without doubt.

“I think it’s been a bit of a theme throughout the whole series, so that’s one area I think they’ll have to look at to really make sure they improve moving forward.”

Despite the hole England found themselves in, it was debutante Ryana MacDonald-Gay who was tasked with fronting press duties after a torrid day where Australia scored 356 runs for the loss of just four wickets.

MacDonald-Gay snared the wicket of Sutherland, who became the first woman to score a century in a Test at the MCG and has now scored three hundreds in just six matches.

The 20-year-old, who also had three catches dropped off her bowling though she also split an opportunity, did her best to shield her older teammates from criticism post stumps.

“Obviously it’s disappointing, but you just (have to) sort of move past it, because it’s not going to help anyone, or the whole team try to progress through the match,” MacDonald-Gay said.

“It would probably just do more harm than good. (It is) just sort of keeping a level head and just moving on to the next ball, knowing that you’ve done it once, you can do it again, taking that mindset rather than living in the past.”

MacDonald-Gay, who also finished unbeaten on 15 in England’s first innings tally of 170 on Thursday, was sure that her nation’s preparation for the tour was “really on point” when it came to fielding, but conceded it was a “frustrating” day for the tourists.

“I think we field pretty much most training sessions. We do a lot of competitive fielding,” she said.

“I feel like we’re always on it, in fielding, in training. I feel like we are 100 percent prepared, getting into every game, for any skills that we might need to use.”

Sutherland, who received a life on 29 before scoring a superb 163, said there were positives for the Australian bowlers in the fact England created so many chances.

Trying to be diplomatic, she noted Australia dropped a few chances on Thursday but that she was not necessarily surprised by the gifts offered by England.

“I think it’s part of the game. You always need a bit of luck on your side,” she said.

“I think it’s probably more, I guess, promising for us as bowlers to know that England created chances all throughout today. (It is) good signs for us to be able to take 10 wickets.

“But I think (England) probably showed signs of it throughout the series (and were) potentially a bit tired at different points today. I think you expect, I guess, high quality. But having said that, we dropped a few too. So, yeah, I’m not unsurprised.”

With Mooney needing only a couple of runs to join Sutherland as a centurion, the Australians are expected to continue with the bat on Saturday as they seek a clean sweep of the series.

While the lopsided series derailed Cricket Australia’s optimistic hopes the match would draw 100,000 fans, a new record attendance for women’s Test crowd has already been set.

Heading into the weekend, 23,561 fans have attended the first two days at the MCG and with the Australians in a dominant position, another good crowd is expected on Saturday.