Were Australia really 16-0 better than England?

When England is at their worst, Australian cricket never misses a chance to kick them.

After the Ashes clean sweep of 16-0 was sealed, journalist Gideon Haigh argued that they were the “worst team to play a Test match at the MCG.”

Harsh? Yes. Fair? Let’s find out.

England’s failure to chase down 181 in 50 overs in the second one-day international has been singled out in the grisly post-mortem.

Both teams acknowledged that it soaring and falling, respectively. It certainly summed up England’s deficiencies with the bat.

Only one player, Heather Knight, had a maximum of 30 points in all games, and they only passed 200 twice in the series. Compare that to Australia, who had five batters average 30 or more, with two – Beth Mooney and Ash Gardner – averaging 60-plus.

England’s openers averaged 10 compared to Australia’s 33, with England’s top two scoring a combined 80 runs.

Oh, and England batters registered 10 ducks (dismissed without scoring) to Australia’s two.

England being bamboozled by Australian leg-spinners? Yep, we’ve seen that movie one too many times.

Before the winter tours, England were tempted to spend some time in the United Arab Emirates practicing turning wickets.

It didn’t work.

Given that she entered the series uncertain of her place, King took three or more wickets in four innings, which was remarkable. In total, the 29-year-old took a Women’s Ashes joint record-high 23 wickets at 11.

Perhaps King’s most significant intervention, though, was to dominate England’s best batter, Nat Sciver-Brunt.

Before the series, Sciver-Brunt had the better of battles between the pair – she had scored 178 runs against her without being dismissed.

King turned that record on its head by reversing Sciver-Brunt four times on average at just 15.

This winter, we’ve heard it frequently that England could be fitter than their rivals and not as athletic.

The series’ average age was 28 when Australia was age 28, compared to England’s 27. This is the first thing to say: it’s not related to age or youth.

And despite being widely touted for their catching prowess, England only managed to catch seven passes in one day of the Test with a 63% catch rate, which was only slightly below that of Australia, who caught 68. In fact, the Aussies dropped more chances in the series – 20 to 19.

Yellow and green butterfingers? Nah…

A drop is only recorded when a fielder goes for the catch, which the raw numbers don’t reveal.

So England were squandering easy chances while Australia were pulling outrageous grabs from the sky and displaying athleticism never before seen in women’s cricket.

England would not have attempted many of those Australian drops because they posed challenging chances.

And while there’s no data for runs saved in the field, the naked eye would suggest Australia saved 20-30 more per game than England.

Another indication of fitness is ability to bat time and run more singles than the opposing team, convert twos, etc.

Across the series, England soaked up almost 200 dot balls more than Australia (some probably down to the afore-mentioned exceptional fielding), while Alyssa Healy’s side scored 111 more singles and 17 more twos.

England are no longer the second-best team in the world and are confident in their position as the leader of the world.

While they are pretty good at dominating teams like West Indies, Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka, the gap appears to be closing with India and South Africa.

Since the last Ashes, England has only a 50% win record against India, and South Africa was the one who sent them out of the 2023 T20 World Cup.

England’s batters actually average less runs per wicket against India (16) than they did in the 16-0 Ashes clean sweep (17).

The only caveat is that while those matches were played at home, England’s poor spin performance is repeated.

The fact India are the growing power in the women’s game, having set up the lucrative Women’s Premier League and winning the last two Under-19 World Cups, where they beat South Africa in the latest iteration, should be a warning to England.