The second ODI between England women and Australia women in the ongoing white-ball leg of the Women’s Ashes 2023 will take place at The Rose Bowl Cricket Ground in Southampton tomorrow (Sunday). The penultimate match of multi-format series between the arch-rivals could not have had a more spicier build-up.
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Not used to the sour taste of defeat across formats, world champions Australia have rarely found themselves on the back foot after losing the first of the three ODIs at Bristol last Wednesday. Such has been their consistency, that the defeat was only their first in 16 ODIs.
Just the previous week, they had also lost the T20I series 1-2, which was their first loss in any series since 2017-18. Moreover, for the first time since February 2017 have the Aussies women lost three consecutive international matches. What this massive turnaround from the English women has meant, is that from trailing by 0-6 post the only Test and the first T20I, they are now level at 6-6, with only a couple of matches left.
However, only a win during the second and third ODI (at Taunton) will help England regain The Ashes.
Rose Bowl Cricket Ground Pitch Report For ENG W vs AUS W 2nd Ashes ODI
The Last Women’s ODI Match At the Rose Bowl Was Played Way Back in August 2006 between the hosts and India. In fact, the last international match at Southampton was the third T20I of South Africa’s tour of England in July 2022.
Having said that, it not that the ground has not had any cricketing action since then. Across the eight matches at this venue in the ongoing Vitality T20 Blast 2023, the average score posted by nine teams in the competition has been 168 runs.
Run-scoring would not be a walk in the park while playing on the Southampton pitch. The surface has a tendency to play slow with the ball gripping off it, thereby bringing the spinners into play relatively earlier. Having said that, once the batters have their eye in and get used the pace of the surface, the bowlers can be taken to the cleaners.
All in all, the pitch is likely to be a fairly balanced one for both batters and the bowlers, with the fate of the match likely to be decided by how well the spinners from either sides bowl.
