This was published 1 year ago
That’ll be the end of our live coverage of… well, two Test matches at once. What a finish. I won’t be forgetting that in a while. And like I said earlier, I don’t think we’ll ever see it again. Terrific results for the Aussie men’s and women’s teams.
It’s been a pleasure to take you through the action tonight. Thanks for joining us, and keep an eye out for plenty more from our journos at the ground(s).
Catch you soon.
Australian captain Alyssa Healy admits she refused to deny one of her spinners the chance to get five wickets despite the chase for the final wicket dragging on.
Healy had Ash Gardner and Alana King both on four wickets with England nine down, so she stuck with the pair so one of them could get a fifth wicket and a place on the MCG honour board.
“I was one minute away from bowling myself,” Healy joked on Fox Cricket.
“I could not, in my heart, take it out of one of their hands. To have your name on the honour board at the MCG is a really special thing and, you never know, we might not get to play back here in a Test match so I couldn’t for the life of me hand the ball to someone else when one of them could have got a five-fa.”
Galle: Spin twins Matt Kuhnemann and Nathan Lyon have obliterated Sri Lanka, with a little help from Mitchell Starc and Todd Murphy, to deliver the home side’s heaviest-ever defeat and ensure retention of the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy.
Only Johannesburg in 2002, Brisbane in 1946 and Port Elizabeth in 1950 have delivered bigger margins for Australia than the innings and 242-run chasm between the tourists and Sri Lanka here.
If at times it looked almost too easy for the Australians, they had plenty among their number to remember humiliations on these shores in 2016 and 2022 as a reminder that no victories in south Asia should ever be taken for granted.
Read Daniel Brettig’s full match report here.
Australian captain Alyysa Healy has made a point about her side having to make way for their male counterparts after the side completed a 16-0 Ashes whitewash.
She added she was jokingly making that point although it was a bugbear for some viewers that the women’s match would be shifted across channels at times after Seven made a late deal to secure the rights to screen the men’s tour of Sri Lanka.
“As a whole, I couldn’t be prouder,” Healy said during presentations.
“Whenever England looked to be making their way back, we shut the door on them.
We’ve just heard from Steve Smith, the stand-in Australian captain, too, at the post-match presentation on Seven:
I thought we started the Test match beautifully. Usman and Travis [Head] up top really set the tone and Usman’s innings was outstanding to get his first double hundred. The way he went about it, the shots he played and the pressure he put on the bowlers was outstanding.
And throughout that innings, obviously, we had plenty of good partnerships and to get 650 allowed us an option to bowl twice. And yes, I thought Starcy did a tremendous job with the new ball and the spinners did a great job throughout as well.
I thought the bowlers bowled really well in tandem. The beauty of having three front-line spinners is we could just rotate and keep guys as fresh as possible. Whenever they looked like they were getting a little bit tired, I just gave them a rest and said, next guy, come in and they all did a wonderful job.
Alana King has been named player of the series after taking 23 wickets in the Ashes.
“Sixteen nil has a really nice ring to it,” King said.
“I love bowling for this teams and contributing to wins and I’m just stoked to have such a great win.
“We love winning and we are not going to stop here.”
No shocks there, after his career-best total of 232, which set this whole thing up. He just spoke on stage, via Seven:
Alhamdulillah, praise be to God, I’m very grateful that I get to play cricket for Australia. It’s just very nice to score some runs and contribute to a winning team. Galle’s always a tough place to play for us, so it’s nice to get a good start.
Cricket is a team game and you want to score all the time, but it’s not always possible. So hopefully when you don’t score, someone else does. And when someone else doesn’t score, you score.
That’s the point of being a great team.
I’m 38 years old now, so this is my fifth trip to Sri Lanka. I’ve played in Sri Lanka a lot, so I think I’ve made all the mistakes that I know that I can make. And then I know that there are certain ways I’m happy to get out and certain ways I’m not. And I just work around that. So for me, that’s the most important thing.
Annabel Sutherland’s 163 has helped her win the player of the match award for this MCG Test.
“It was really special to have the opportunity to play at the MCG, a ground I grew up spending a lot of time at and to contribute to this win was special,” Sutherland said.
“As a Victorian, there is nothing better than getting a win at the MCG.”
“I’m really proud of the girls.”
Australian women’s coach Shelley Nitschke says her side has done something special to earn a whitewash in this year’s Ashes series following a win in the Test match.
“We had a pretty tough Ashes over there a couple of years ago so to play like that and finish like that has been awesome,” Nitschke told Seven.
“We spoke about playing our own way and not put too much focus on the scoreline.
“The application across the series, it has been pretty hectic with the travel and the amount of games. It makes you feel pretty proud.”