Heather Knight had a plan.
The weather had scuppered England’s chances of winning any of the T20I’s, their strongest format, and a drawn Test would see Australia needing just one win in the ODI segment of the series to claim outright victory.
England needed to win a four-day Test (a travesty that these still exist in the women’s game) and there was rain scheduled for at least two of those days; it would take a fast-moving game to make it happen.
So, to the plan: win the toss, bowl first, take wickets with the new ball, get on top of Australia and put yourself in a position where you have a reachable target to chase in the fourth innings.
Tick, tick, tick; the first three items were checked.
Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole, the veteran double-act of the outswing-inswing new ball attack gave England the dream start.
Brunt’s late outswing tempted the right-handed Healy into chasing the ball as it left her and drew the edge before Shrubsole did the same with the left-handed Mooney; both played shots that could have been shelved and Australia were two down just 20 balls into the innings.
But once Meg Lanning joined Rachael Haynes at the crease the calm returned to Australia’s innings, the steadiest heads in the side joined in the middle, ready to steer Australia into calm waters.
This is not the first time this pair have been at the forefront of an Australian recovery; the captain and her deputy taking stock and knuckling down to do whatever hard yakka is required for the team.
Lanning usually grabs the headlines and has done since before she became Australia’s youngest captain; her aggressive and elegant nature is of the kind to draw the eye and focus attention.
She weathered the probing of Shrubsole in particular and, in conditions that favoured swing and seam, her driving was largely shelved in favour of shots square of the wicket.
This is manna for Lanning, of course; she can afford to wait for anything short or wide or heading down leg side because she cuts and pulls with a sublime combination of timing, power and precision.
Her pull shots and flicks find the square leg boundary with alarming ease and when she rocks back and flays through the offside with her deft range of cuts she may as well be holding a hot knife instead of a bat; it will slice through anything.
Haynes is the more deceptive destroyer; her cover drives and cuts and manipulations of the field are equally as effective, but somehow more unassuming.
She is a matter-of-fact batter, doing whatever the situation requires and the conditions dictate.
That Australia’s captain and vice-captain were dropped by England’s captain and vice-captain in the slips may be pivotal in how this Test unfolds; Knight shelled a Lanning edge as she pressed forward to defend a Sophie Eccleston ball and when Haynes swatted at one wide of off-stump it flew to Nat Sciver’s left and burst through her hands.
Earlier, Shrubsole was slow to react when Haynes top-edged a pull shot off Brunt and the ball fell harmless in front of mid-on; England’s most senior players falling short in the field when they could have had Australia reeling.
There were more streaky shots as Lanning rode her luck but the second session went all Australia’s way as the pair marked their half-centuries with low-key bat raises and kept the Jack Fingleton scoreboard ticking over.
35-year-old Haynes is almost certainly playing her last Ashes Test and possibly her last Test of any kind.
She recently became a mother for the first time and her partner, former Australian batter Leah Poulton, was in the crowd with their infant son.
Haynes wanted to stay out in the middle while baby Hugo was present; he was gone before lunch but his mother remained glued at the crease with Lanning, milking and attacking and rebuilding as required.
They had identified Ecclestone as a threat and, while treating her with respect, took the left-arm spinner on, using their feet to attack in between patient leaves and defensive prods.
It was the kind of mature partnership on the field that reflected what this pair have achieved off the field.
When Australia suffered their worst defeat in recent years, knocked out of the 2017 World Cup by India in the semi-final, Lanning and Haynes led the revival with coach Matthew Mott which has seen them rise to levels unseen in the women’s game.
Lanning relies heavily on Haynes, who has the knack of taking the pulse of the squad and identifying the players and areas that need attention.
Her deputy is also a vital sounding board when it comes to tactics and on-field decisions.
But on day one at Manuka Oval it was a pure and uncomplicated partnership; two batters coming together with their team under pressure and calmly working their way out of trouble.
They both fell frustratingly short of rare Test centuries, Lanning edging Sciver to first slip on 93 and Haynes surprised by a brute of a Brunt short ball that exploded off the pitch when she was on 86.
But personal milestones are not what drives these two professionals; they are here to win a Test match and their partnership has given Australia a red-hot chance of making it happen.
