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Why Ash Gardner believes Australia has a point to prove in this year's women’s Ashes series
Isabella Bianchi • January 16th, 2025 1:35 pm
Australian all-rounder Ash Gardner believes the Aussies won’t stop until the job is done in this year's Ashes series.
After winning the 2023 Ashes in England by just three runs, Gardner says Australia is determined to play some more convincing cricket this time around.
“I think the last ashes in England we played some good cricket, but we also played some average cricket and lost both white ball series, so we definitely have a point to prove,” Gardner said on SEN’s The Run Home with Andy & Gazey.
“In the past maybe our bowling has got us out of trouble, so in the past, we haven’t gelled our batting and bowling together.
“But I think if we look at what we’ve done recently through the ODI format, we’ve played really convincing and ruthless cricket, we’ve batted the house down and then our bowlers have backed us up.
“We are getting to that point now where both skills are really dominating in a game and for us, we’ve been really confident in that.
“Certainly what we’ll try and do is not let them back in at any stage.”
While the Junction Oval presented a challenging wicket to face – keeping Australia to defend its 15-year low of 180 runs – Gardner praised Australia’s perseverance, which dragged them across the line on Monday.
“If you told me at the start of the day, we would be defending 180 at the Junction Oval I would’ve laughed,” she said.
“It was a different wicket than I’ve played on before, you usually don’t get a lot of turn there. It was quite uncharacteristic for the Junction.
“But we bowled extremely well to take ten wickets. We took a lot of confidence out of that and we knew that would be what would win us the game.
“But of course, with the batting we certainly haven’t nailed that yet, but I think it's an exciting prospect. Hopefully, the group is excited by what we can get to.
“Coming down to Hobart we know it will likely be a better batting wicket, so I think our batters are excited for that.”
Australia now sits 2-0 up ahead of the third and final ODI in Hobart on Friday 16 January.
