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Cricket world in disbelief over Aussie teen's never-before-seen act

sam goodwin
Sports Editor
·5-min read
Darcie Brown, pictured here taking four wickets as Australia retained the women's Ashes.
Darcie Brown took four wickets as Australia retained the women's Ashes. Image: Channel 7/Getty

Australia appear to have unearthed a superstar in the making after 18-year-old Darcie Brown helped the Aussies retain the women's Ashes on Thursday night.

The teenage phenom could hardly have impressed more in Canberra, taking 4-34 as Australia earned a 27-run victory in the first ODI to take an unassailable 8-4 points lead in the series.

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Brown was hooping the ball around early and had Tammy Beaumont caught in the slips before dismissing England captain Heather Knight lbw with her very next ball.

While she couldn't complete the hat-trick, she got rid of Nat Sciver with a brilliant diving caught-and-bowled not long after.

Her fourth wicket of the night made her the first Australian cricketer (male or female) to take two four-wicket hauls in one-day internationals before their 19th birthday.

The 18-year-old said she'd entered the series fearing she might not play, but showed she'd learned lessons from last year's series against India.

"I was just thinking I was going to run drinks. It's a credit to the coaches and my teammates who backed me in and had full belief," she said.

"Just bowling full, in that India series I bowled a bit short. I can swing it sometimes if I pitch it up, so that's one of my weapons and if I bowl short then I'm sort of taking that away.

"Hopefully, I just keep pitching up and be a bit more consistent."

Darcie Brown, pictured here after dismissing Nat Sciver in the first ODI between Australia and England.
Darcie Brown celebrates after dismissing Nat Sciver in the first ODI between Australia and England. (Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)

Brown already has the impressive career ODI record of nine wickets at 15.1 through her first four contests.

She credited the entire bowling corps for helping her progress while saving special praise for Tayla Vlaeminck, who remains sidelined with stress fractures.

"Early on, she was really, really helpful to me, especially in the India series as well," Brown said.

"Before the first ODI, she let me come into her room and we looked at a few plans ... she's been a real help."

Aussies retain women's Ashes after ODI victory

A gutsy 73 from Beth Mooney proved vital on Thursday before Brown's heroics and 2-34 from Tahlia McGrath saw the hosts defend their middling total of 9-205.

Reeling at both 4-67 and 7-152, Mooney steered Australia to a defendable total after tidy bowling saw star batters Meg Lanning (28) and Alyssa Healy (27) fail to push on.

An absolute jaffa from Kate Cross (3-33) that jagged back off the seam and knocked over Lanning was the ball of the afternoon, coming after the Australia captain brought up 4000 career one-day international runs.

Mooney's sensational knock included eight fours and a six, and saw her stick fat as wickets tumbled around her.

She was taken from the field with quad tightness during the run chase and did not return.

"You come out here and obviously the goal is to try and get the Ashes back and there's bound to be a bit of disappointment losing it," England skipper Knight said after another failed attempt to reclaim the trophy.

"We can be proud of some of the stuff we've done but ultimately we need to start winning games.

"We'll be disappointed and try and reassess and go again for the next game and turn things around pretty quickly, obviously with the World Cup coming up."

with AAP

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