Australian Women Retain Ashes Trophy as Series Ends in a Draw

Australia and England finish tied 8-8 on points as the Aussies retain the Women’s Ashes trophy for the fifth straight series. 

After a surprising and eventful series that finished with a dominant showing from the English in the final ODI match, the 2023 women’s Ashes ended in a draw of 8-8. Although this result means the Aussies retain the Ashes trophy, it is not the result the country was hoping for going in. 

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Aussie Women Retain Ashes Trophy

After finishing the 2023 Ashes series tied 8-8 on points, the women’s Ashes trophy will return to Australia. As the winners of the last iteration of the series the draw was all that was needed for the Aussies to keep the trophy which has now resided with them since 2015. 

The four points that they claimed by way of winning the opening Test match proved integral as the Australians would go on to lose four of the next six matches to stumble to the 8-8 result. 

Australia had dominated the series in recent memory having won 12-4 in both 2019 and 2021-22 and were heavy favourites coming in. Thus, this year’s result was not what the Australian team or public had hoped for. 

However, after having lost their superstar captain Meg Lanning due to medical reasons less than a month before the series’ opening Test match, keeping the Ashes trophy in Australian hands can still be seen as a positive outcome. 

England Dominates T20s and ODIs

Yes, Australia retained the Ashes. No, they did not perform as the better squad in this year’s proceedings. 

After winning the opening Test match by a dominant 89 runs, both the T20 and ODI series were controlled by the English. 

The Australians were able to win the first T20 match by four wickets in large part due to Beth Mooney’s player of the match performance as she went for 61 not out.

It was nearly all England from there on out. 

Behind Danni Wyatt’s 76 run performance the English narrowly won the second T20 match by just 3 runs and were now behind 6-2 on points in the series. 

They would follow that up with a five-wicket victory at Lord’s to inch closer in the series, now behind 6-4. 

The English would claim their third straight match victory in the series in the first ODI match. They ended up winning by two wickets after a successful chase of a daunting 264. 

Now tied 6-6, the series was anyone’s for the taking. 

The Australians ended up retaining the Ashes thanks to a three-run victory in the second ODI match. 

The English would bounce right back though destroying the Australians by 69 runs in the final match to level the series at 8-8. Nat Sciver-Brunt scored a brilliant 129 as England handed the Aussies their worst loss by a runs perspective since 2008. 

The English took four of the six T20 and ODI matches, a feat which had not happened since 2013 when England won five. 

Australian Women Displeased with Their Performance

The result left mixed emotions throughout the country and within the team with many players expressing a sort of bitterness with the result, though still happy to have kept hold of the trophy. 

Alyssa Healy, who filled in for Meg Lanning as skipper, stated she was “slightly excited and slightly disappointed at the same time…”

Ash Gardner, who was named Australia’s player of the series somewhat echoed that sentiment saying “Of course we came here to win the Ashes, retaining it is great… [We] didn’t show fight where we needed to. Plenty of things to work on.”

In the end, through the ups and downs of the series, ultimately the Australian women were able to come up with just enough class to retain the Ashes trophy. Although it would have been more enjoyable to have won the series, the Aussies are still on top.