At lunchtime on the day before the first ODI of the women’s Ashes, Beth Mooney went for a walk around Manuka shops.
She was looking for a thickshake, still largely unable to chew on solid food with her broken jaw held together with various screws and plates.
Barely 24 hours later she was at the crease, shoring up Australia’s innings with mettle rather than metal as she calmly compiled 73 runs on a pitch that that was challenging and a bowling attack that was scything through Australia’s batting line-up.
She had done as much in the Test, scoring a valuable second innings half century, ever reliable in frustrating England and leading Australia’s resistance when under pressure.
Mooney’s repeat performance wasn’t the only familiar tune to be heard throughout this series so far.
Whenever England have performed well in one aspect of their game, Australia haver produced something just that bit better, enough to seal victory or - in the case of the Test - take it away from the opposition.
In the first T20I in Adelaide, the only one completed because of rain, England batted first and put on a record score against Australia, Tammy Beaumont and Dani Wyatt dominating the bowling; in response, Meg Lanning and Tahlia McGrath completed a record chase with three overs to spare.
Over the course of the four-day Test, England pulled themselves out of the mire and into a position from which victory seemed all but assured in the final chase; a combination of savvy Australian bowling and a crumbling batting line-up saw Heather Knight’s troops snatch a draw from the jaws of victory. Barely.
On that occasion, Meg Lanning had turned to two of her least experienced international bowlers in Annabel Sutherland and Alana King to bottle up the chase and prise out wickets and they took to the task with all the confidence of seasoned veterans.
In the first ODI, a game England had to win to have any chance of regaining the Ashes, it was another member of Australia’s generation next who caused key damage with the ball.
When Darcie Brown swings the new ball at considerable pace it’s easy to forget her age; it’s only when you hear her speak that it truly sinks in she is just 18.
Her range of outswingers, induckers and balls that are just bloody quick were all on display at Manuka Oval.
She drew the outside edge of Tammy Beaumont’s bat, then banged the next ball in fuller at the stumps to dismiss Heather Knight for a golden duck.
And, when she had the presence of mind and reflexes to claim a brilliant diving catch off her own bowling to remove a set Nat Sciver, the smiling teen had taken care of England’s best three batters.
Brown’s fourth scalp, another lbw to dismiss Sophie Ecclestone, was icing as England lost wickets at regular intervals.
The run rate was never the problem for England; it remained steady at between four and five an over, well within reach if they kept wickets in hand.
That Australia were defending a modest total of 205 was a result of a terrific all-round bowling display and, apart from one misfield and one dropped catch, a sharp performance in the field, led by the outstanding glove work of Amy Jones.
In the hands of Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole the ball hooped extravagantly and seamed perilously early on and Sciver and Kate Cross were miserly, restricting Australia to 22 runs off 11 overs in the middle period of the innings.
Cross, somewhat unlucky during the Test, was outstanding; she consistently threatened both the inside and outside edge of the bat or the top of off stump and the delivery that removed Lanning, a good length ball that jagged in off the seam and removed the bails, was an absolute peach.
There were no weak links in England’s bowling attack but in a mirror image of the first T20I, when they batted superbly and still lost by a significant margin, a brilliant bowling display was surpassed by Australia.
There may not be as big a gulf between the two sides as the margin of the defeats suggests but England have been unable to put a complete game together and Australia are simply too good, have too much depth and can land counterpunches from any direction.
There is always a Mooney to steady if Healy is out early, always a McGrath to stand up if Lanning and Perry fail to fire, a Brown to smash stumps when Tayla Vlaeminck is injured.
Lanning’s Australia is cricket’s Terminator; you use up all your ammunition but, just as you’re about to sigh with exhausted relief, they simply morph and reform and resume their relentless attack.
They just won’t die, dammit, and England is their Sarah Connor.
But it cannot be ignored that in the three completed matches of the series, England have worked themselves into a winning position only to lose or draw.
Whether it’s Australia being that little bit better, or England’s inability to close the deal against a team that has dominated world cricket since 2017, or a combination of the two, there is precious little time for England to find a way to win.
“We believe we're good enough to beat them and we've gone toe to toe with them in a lot of aspects,” said Knight, after the match. “We just haven't quite been able to sort of have the killer instinct and get over the line and I guess when when you let maybe a couple of things slip they're the sort of team that they're gonna make you pay for it.”
Australia will keep the Ashes for at least another 18 months but the World Cup is looming and that gives the remaining ODIs added significance.
England must somehow find that killer instinct against an Australian side confident of having the upper hand over their opponents when the chips are down.
If they don’t, that familiar tune will keep on playing, becoming a self-fulfilling earworm.
