By Chris Devine
England are determined to make a flying start in the one-day international section of the Women’s Ashes after the solitary Test was drawn.
Six points were on offer at Wormsley, but both sides had to settle for two apiece after England recovered superbly from a batting collapse in their first innings.
The teams will now do battle in three ODIs and three Twenty20 internationals, starting with the first 50-over match at Lord’s on Tuesday.
Speaking exclusively to ecb.co.uk ahead of that encounter, Lydia Greenway acknowledged the importance of striking first.
“It’s all even still, so everyone will be keen to get those first two points on the board,” said the middle-order batter.
“We came back really well in the Test and executed the plans we wanted to. Hopefully that can give us a bit of momentum going into the first one-dayer.
“I think that’s the beauty of the new format. We’ve both got two points now and the series is very much still alive.”
Greenway does not anticipate the change in formats to represent a problem to England or Australia, who are each used to playing many more limited-overs matches than Tests.
“We definitely play more one-day and Twenty20 cricket in women’s cricket, so the change from shorter forms to Tests is a bigger one than the other way round,” she added.
“Obviously you do have to change your mindset and you have to change the way you actually go out and play. We’ll make sure that we make those changes.
“It will be about bowlers maybe trying a few more variations and batters trying a few more shots. We’re just really looking forward to playing the ODIs.
“We had decent crowds at Wormsley every day and hopefully the people who were there will spread the word and come to our other games.”
Arguably the finest fielder in the women’s game, Greenway will be keen to follow up her spectacular run-out of Sarah Elliott on the final morning at Wormsley.
The 28-year-old showed tremendous agility in springing to her right and picking the ball up one-handed before effecting a direct hit at the non-striker’s end.
“I thought I probably should have contributed something because I didn’t get too many runs in the first innings,” she said with a smile.
“It was just nice to make a contribution and I guess that’s the sort of intensity we need going into the shorter formats.”