Osborne unafraid of familiar Ashes foe

Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars off-spinner Erin Osborne says Australia knows exactly what to expect from their Ashes rivals, which made Tuesday’s loss that much harder to take.

England claimed the first of three one-day internationals by four wickets in Taunton two days ago to take a two-point lead in the multi-format Women’s Ashes series.

A 122-run stand between Natalie Sciver and Lydia Greenway thwarted the Stars’ hopes of a first-up win in enemy territory as the English pair guided the Ashes holders towards victory with 26 balls to spare.

Quick Single: England set benchmark with razor-sharp fielding

Osborne says Australia were aware of what England’s high-quality team would throw at them, but failed to break the telling century stand between Sciver and Greenway which turned the match in favour of the hosts in front of a vocal crowd in the south west of Britain.

“The disappointing thing is they did nothing different then to what we expected and we were still unable to break that partnership,” Osborne told cricket.com.au.

“We were one or two wickets away from really being on top of England and bringing that game home.

Image Id: ~/media/D44BFB53F7A2402089788EC1E47B06B4

Osborne celebrates a wicket with teammates // Getty Images

“Moving on from that we’ve learned a lot and minimising the error balls and change of pace will be effective, especially here tomorrow (Thursday).

“That (England) team hasn’t changed for quite a number of years now, neither has ours.

“Both teams know each other quite well and that was the disappointing thing about it.

“But in saying that I thought England fielded extremely well and the run-outs were quite costly and they’ve definitely improved in that area.”

England consign Stars to opening loss

England produced four run-outs in the latter half of Australia’s innings to halt the visitors’ charge in the final 10 overs and reduce them to a below-par score of 9-238.

In reply, the home side were 4-90 courtesy of two wickets by Osborne, but the reigning T20 and 50-over world champions were unable to sever the vital English partnership that proved to be a match-winning effort.

While Osborne wasn’t surprised by anything England threw at the tourists in Taunton, the same can’t be said for head coach Matthew Mott.

Mott says he wasn’t expecting the clean striking from player of the match Sciver, whose 66 from 75 balls wrestled the early momentum off his team and carried it right through to the final stages of the match.

“We haven’t seen a lot of her (Sciver) do that before,” Mott told cricket.com.au. “She certainly took the game away from us.

“We had four wickets down, the game was in the balance.

“If we had got another one or two wickets in that middle period we would have come out on top.

“They played a really good brand of cricket and counterattacked quite well and (we) never really recovered.

“We didn’t look like getting that breakthrough.

“Our spinners will be better for the run.

“England had a very positive approach towards our spinners and we’ll bowl a lot better against them here in Bristol.”

Tuesday’s defeat was Mott’s first match behind the wheel of the Southern Stars, who had not played a competitive international match since November against the West Indies.

The former Bulls and Bushrangers top-order batsman admits he was a “bit nervous” ahead of his debut as the Stars mentor, and promises a more attacking approach to the start of the match in Bristol.

“It’s a different type of game. The first game of an Ashes series there’s a lot of expectation,” Mott said.

“We’ve been training for a long time. I won’t lie, there were a few nerves there.

“I think England were pretty much the same.

“They got out of the blocks a little bit more aggressively than us.

“We want to match that aggression and up the ante in this game, that’s for sure.”

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