Were Australia really 16-0 better than England?

Australia completed a 16-0 clean sweep for the first time in Ashes history

Australian cricket never misses a chance to kick England while they're down.

After a 16-0 Ashes clean sweep was sealed, journalist Gideon Haigh said they were the "worst team to play a Test match at the MCG".

Harsh? Yes. Fair? Let's find out.

But first this illustrates how far England have fallen behind Australia in the points-based era of the Women's Ashes...

England's ducks in a row

England's failure to chase down 181 in 50 overs in the second one-day international has been singled out in the grisly post-mortem.

Both teams admitted it sent confidence soaring and plummeting respectively. It certainly summed up England's deficiencies with the bat.

They passed 200 just twice in the series and only one player - Heather Knight - averaged more than 30 across all matches. Compare that to Australia, who had five batters average 30 or more, with two - Beth Mooney and Ash Gardner - averaging 60-plus.

England's openers averaged 10 compared to Australia's 33, with England's top two scoring a combined 80 runs.

Oh, and England batters registered 10 ducks (dismissed without scoring) to Australia's two.

If we're scrambling around for positives, Sophia Dunkley returned to form and bought into the style of play England want - scoring 121 runs at close to a run a ball. She hit five of England's 12 sixes but did fall victim to perhaps the ball of the series from Alana King...

King dethrones England's queen

England being bamboozled by Australian leg-spinners? Yep, we've seen that movie one too many times.

England tend to struggle against spin, hence the desire before the winter tours to spend time in the United Arab Emirates where they practised on turning wickets.

It didn't work.

King took three wickets or more in an innings four times which, considering she went into the series unsure of her place, was remarkable. In total, the 29-year-old took a Women's Ashes joint record-high 23 wickets at 11.

Perhaps King's most significant intervention, though, was to dominate England's best batter, Nat Sciver-Brunt.

Before the series, Sciver-Brunt had the better of battles between the pair - she had scored 178 runs against her without being dismissed.

Down under, King spun that record on its head - dismissing Sciver-Brunt four times at an average of just 15.

Without their most composed batter churning out big runs, England lacked direction.

Are Australia superior athletes?

We've heard it a lot this winter - that England aren't as athletic as their opponents - and could be fitter.

The first thing to say is that it's nothing to do with seniority or youth - Australia had an average age of 28 in this series, compared to England's 27.

And while much has been made of England's catching abilities - they dropped seven catches in one day of the Test - their catching efficiency of 63% was only just behind Australia's 68. In fact, the Aussies dropped more chances in the series - 20 to 19.

Yellow and green butterfingers? Nah...

What the raw numbers don't show is that a drop is only registered when a fielder goes for the catch.

So while Australia were plucking outrageous grabs out of the sky - displaying athleticism never before seen so consistently in women's cricket - England were dropping simple opportunities.

So many of those Australian drops were difficult chances which England would not have attempted.

And while there's no data for runs saved in the field, the naked eye would suggest Australia saved 20-30 more per game than England.

One other measure of fitness is the ability to bat time and in doing so, run more singles than the opposition and turns ones into twos etc.

Across the series, England soaked up almost 200 dot balls more than Australia (some probably down to the afore-mentioned exceptional fielding), while Alyssa Healy's side scored 111 more singles and 17 more twos.

Given there wasn't much difference in terms of sixes hit - Australia smiting 17 to England's 12 - it's that ability to turn over the strike and keep the scoreboard ticking which the hosts excelled in.

Ok, so Australia are amazing, but what about the rest?

England are no longer streets ahead against the rest and secure in their status as the second best team in the world.

While they are pretty good at dominating teams like West Indies, Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka, the gap appears to be closing with India and South Africa.

England only have a win record of 50% against India since the last Ashes, while it was South Africa who knocked them out of the 2023 T20 World Cup.

In the period between the last Ashes and this one, England's batters actually average less runs per wicket against India (16) than they did in the 16-0 Ashes clean sweep (17).

The caveat here is that India were at home in those matches, but again it comes back to England's inability to play spin well.

The fact India are the growing power in the women's game, having set up the lucrative Women's Premier League and winning the last two Under-19 World Cups, where they beat South Africa in the latest iteration, should be a warning to England.

Not only must they close the gap on Australia, but they must keep an eye on the growing powers behind them.

Stats supplied by CricViz data analyst Srinivas Vijaykumar.