In her latest exclusive blog for ecb.co.uk, Jenny Gunn reflects on England winning the first Women’s Ashes one-day international.
From Perth we moved on to Melbourne and there was no relief from the heat, with 44-degree temperatures accompanying us to our first training session.
In the evening we had a sponsor event, which was held on a rooftop terrace. We got to meet wine expert Olly Smith from ‘Saturday Kitchen’ - he gets to travel the world trying different foods and drinks, which is definitely up there as my dream job.
It was a really nice event, with the topic of conversation ultimately getting onto how Lottie (Charlotte Edwards) loves singing. Her favourite song on this tour so far is ‘Clown’ by Emeli Sandé. Trev (Heather Knight) had a bit of a shocker at this point, and started shouting at the DJ to put 'Cloud' on. Everyone was lost until she started singing: "I'll be your cloud, on your favourite channel". Everyone lost it at that point.
Our first ODI was at the MCG, which is an amazing stadium to play in, even if it is a bit big.
We lost the toss and were bowling first. The wicket was slow and we knew that every run we could save would be massive for us. We got an early breakthrough when Anya Shrubsole dismissed Elyse Villani, and things were pretty slow going after that until Alex Blackwell and Ellyse Perry upped the run-rate in the last 15 overs to register a competitive score of 209 for three.
Sitting and watching from the dugout was so cold! We would normally be happy with 20 degrees in England, but when the temperature drops 24 degrees in two days it does feel a bit chilly.
We got off to a solid start with Trev and Lottie putting on a fifty partnership before a few quick wickets brought Arran Brindle and Lydia Greenway to the crease. Batting was hard at the start but, once they got themselves in, they ran really well and started to dominate the bowling.
With a hundred partnership they saw us home, helping us to go eight points to nil up in the series with five games still to play (two ODIs and three T20s - each worth two points for a win).
After the match we were given a day off, and as we were leaving the hotel the next morning we bumped into Isa Guha. She hasn't changed - she still always carries plastic bags everywhere she goes! Thinking that she had come to see us, I was quickly proven wrong. She was actually coming to use our washing machine. Used and abused! It was nice to see her though.
We now have a few days before playing at the MCG again in the second ODI - a day/nighter on Thursday - and then on to Tasmania on Friday.