11th over: Australia 57-1 (Litchfield 16, Perry 6) Filer returns and bangs a few in short, Perry looks uncomfortable to one that bounces sharply and it takes her glove but lands short of slip. Both batters are watchful and use soft hands to drop into the gaps and rotate strike, four single off the over.

10th over: Australia 53-1 (Litchfield 14, Perry 4) Litchfield picks up her second boundary by driving Sciver-Brunt down the ground. Australia bring up fifty in the tenth over.

9th over: Australia 48-1 (Litchfield 9, Perry 4) Lauren Bell is finding a nice bit of shape out there, she jags one away that Perry inside edges onto her pad. Shot! There’s the class of Perry though, puts the last ball out of her mind and then stands tall to punch through point off the back foot to open her account with a boundary.

Here comes Ellyse Perry with her ABOVE ONE HUNDRED AVERAGE ON THIS GROUND.

WICKET! Healy c Jones b Bell 29 (Australia 43-1)

8th over: Australia 43-0 (Litchfield 9, Healy 29) Nat Sciver-Brunt replaces Filer and is greeted by a lighting handed Healy who pulls her first delivery away for four! Three further singles make it seven off NSB’s first over. England need a breakthrough…

7th over: Australia 36-0 (Litchfield 8, Healy 23) Healy nearly drags on first ball with a waft outside off stump, the ball runs away for a single and brings Litchfield on strike. Suddenly the Aussie openers look in a bit of strife! Litchfield nearly chops on herself and then there is huge appeal for a caught behind but the umpire rightly says no and England, rightly, don’t review. Just the one run off the over.

6th over: Australia 35-0 (Litchfield 8, Healy 22) Litchfield has struggled to time the ball so far, especially in comparison to the positively purring Healy, but she does get a pull shot away off Filer to notch up her first boundary. England haven’t looked that threatening so far, the sun is fully out and the wicket is getting more biscuit coloured by the minute.

“I’m checking in from Salvador, Bahia in NE Brazil, the cradle of capoeira!” says Cressida Evans. “Where, sadly everyone thinks cricket is an offshoot of baseball. Never mind, come on girls!”

The cradle of capoeira indeed! We’ll do well to beat that Cressida.

5th over: Australia 30-0 (Litchfield 4, Healy 21) A tighter over from Bell, dot balls keep Litchfield tied down and the opener attempts a risky trot down and loft over the top, the ball lands over the infield and plugs, the batters come back for two runs.

4th over: Australia 28-0 (Litchfield 2, Healy 21) Filer looks more settled after the ground has been sawdusted and hamered at her end, a decent over is blotted by a half volley at the last that Healy pings away in front of square for four. Sublime batting from the Aussie captain.

3rd over: Australia 23-0 (Litchfield 1, Healy 17) Another good over for Australia as Healy check drives Bell down the ground for four. The Aussie skipper is in fine fettle. Bell gives away another couple of wides down the leg side and Litchfield gets off the mark with a squeeze to square leg off a decent yorker.

2nd over: Australia 15-0 (Litchfield 0, Healy 12) Alyssa Healy is off to a flier! She pulls Filer’s first ball away over midwicket for four and follows up next ball by crunching the over correction half volley away through the covers for four more. Filer is having some trouble with her landing foot and the ground staff are summoned to do some earth pummelling. Filer’s first ball back is driven for another four by Healy!

The England seamer does not look happy, I think she feels the earth is moving under her feet, and not in a Carole King kinda way.

Lauren Filer will share the new ball.

Andy Roberts is off something of a long run (aptly given his name) in the emails.

“Hey James, Andy in FNQ listening along and loving the early start – cricket underway at 9am is a great start to the day! Looking forward to Healy and co. dominating again, feel they have just a bit too much class across the board for England (or anyone else really). HOWEVER…”

(here it comes… gulp)

“I have a bit of a gripe. I love the Guardian OBO coverage, but am frustrated that for cricket in Australia the Guardian consistently displays the score the wrong way around. If I am watching cricket played in Australia, on a Guardian Australian edition page, the wickets really should be BEFORE the runs. I understand that for cricket in England or elsewhere the reverse is true, but this is match is being played in AUSTRALIA and I access the OBO via The Guardian AUSTRALIAN edition. I hope I can count on you to encourage the editors to make the appropriate changes.”

I sort of see what you are saying Andy but my brain, heart, hell, my soul, just won’t allow me to do it the Antipodean way. Talk about an old dog and new tricks, I can barely get myself into matching socks these days man! `Next you’ll be asking me to catch with my hands facing upwards and start drinking beer out of miniscule receptacles…. Just kidding cobbah.

There undoubtedly is a reason why we do it this way, to keep it uniform and all that most likely. The Guardian big dog editors will of course all be reading this right now as they discuss my inevitable and hefty pay rise so maybe one of them will be in touch.

1st over: Australia 2-0 (Litchfield 0, Healy 0) Lauren Bell starts for England with the ball. She bowled well in the first game but shows some signs of nerves early on by spearing a couple down the leg side to give the umpire an early arm stretch.

Bell is into her groove soon enough though, the rest of the over is full as the tall seamer goes in search of some early swing, she’ll have to find it pronto, the sun is starting to burn through in Melbourne. Litchfield defends and it’s just two runs off the first over.

Ben Mimmack is an early contender in the OBO mailbag:

“It’s probably not very interesting, seeing as almost everyone in the US seems to be moving here these days, but I’m following from Dallas, TX. It is far-flung from both the UK and Aus though and still a bit snowy from the winter storm we had last week. Cheers!”

Great to have you on board Ben. I was going to call you ‘cowboy’ then but thought better of it.

The players are coming out as I type – yeehaw!

The weather is a bit overcast in Melbourne which gladdens my heart under a black treacle skied Blighty. More importantly it’ll provide some decent conditions for both Laurens Bell and Filer to make early inroads with the shiny white Kookaburra.

Time to make a pre-play coffee, we’re about 15 minutes away from the first ball. Let us know where you are tuning in from, furthest flung/most interesting location gets an as yet undisclosed prize*.

*OBO infamy not good enough for you eh? Eh?

The ECB have issued a quick update on Kate Cross, it appears she is still not quite fully fit, I’m sure we’ll see her make an appearance in the series before too long.

“Kate Cross has remained in Sydney to train and continue her return to play.”

Both captains mention they want their sides to be more “ruthless” and “clinical” in today’s match. Australia have never lost at the Junction Oval, a fact that Alyssa Healy wasn’t aware of as she was informed at the toss, “thanks for the good vibes before we start” she grins.

On the flip side, England have won the last seven matches in which they have chased… game on!

Both teams are unchanged from Sydney:

Australia 1 Alyssa Healy (c & wk), 2 Phoebe Litchfield, 3 Ellyse Perry, 4 Beth Mooney, 5 Annabel Sutherland, 6 Ashleigh Gardner, 7 Tahlia McGrath, 8 Alana King, 9 Kim Garth, 10 Megan Schutt, 11 Darcie Brown

England 1 Tammy Beaumont, 2 Maia Bouchier, 3 Heather Knight (c), 4 Nat Sciver-Brunt, 5 Danni Wyatt-Hodge, 6 Amy Jones (wk), 7 Alice Capsey, 8 Charlie Dean, 9 Sophie Ecclestone, 10 Lauren Filer, 11 Lauren Bell

England win the toss and choose to bowl first!

The men’s Ashes is a long way off in traditional months and weeks notation. Talking about it at this distance is a breach of protocol, a red flag, signal for a weary roll of the eyes. It’s Big Three pandering, disrespectful to more marginalised nations, a diminishing of the contests in between.

It also involves reaching rudely across the Women’s Ashes, which kicked off over the weekend in Sydney, all set to be a genuinely fascinating spectacle. Australia have the numbers, the stars and the endless all-rounders. England have depth, reliable medium pace, dogged spin, and the quickest bowler in Lauren Filer, who was genuinely challenging in South Africa, but struggled to plant her feet during a rain-addled warmup this past week.”

Some pre toss reading for your delectation:

Preamble