For Healy, her elevation to the top of the list worked a treat, striking 12 boundaries in 81 balls at the crease to immediately put the home side under pressure. Ellyse Perry made the defining contribution of the Women's Ashes opening day. Credit:PA Backing the touch that has revolutionised her game at the top level over the last 18 months, Healy attacked anything remotely off target from the earliest exchanges of the standalone Test Match even after Nicole Bolton (6) was castled by Katherine Brunt. It was against the flow of play when she fell, misjudging a straight-break from debutant southpaw Kirstie Gordon, who bowled her leg stump around her front pad. But she had done plenty of damage with her aggression, ensuring that Australia’s engine room would walk out from a sound base. For Lanning’s part, she found rhythm harder to come by with the newcomer also slipping several deliveries past both edges of her bat before lunch. There was also a chance, Heather Knight, England’s captain, shelling her opposing number at cover on 26.

Then after the long break, Sophie Ecclestone – the more experienced of the southpaws – kept her at bay with a long and accurate spell, sneaking through the gate not long after the day’s halfway mark. Loading But, from the moment Haynes and Perry came together for the fourth wicket, any pressure the home side had built through the second and third hours of the day quickly dissipated. Reminiscent of the last time the unflappable Perry played a Test, when she tallied a series-defining 213 not out against Knight’s side in 2017, her defence was unconquerable. Haynes, meanwhile - who captained in Lanning’s absence in the last Women’s Ashes - played in such a controlled fashion it was scarcely believable that she spent 2013 to 2017 in the international wilderness. The long-term teammates were at ease immediately after tea. By the time the second new ball arrived, they were satisfied advancing the visitors to stumps. Perry reached her 50 in 117 deliveries, Haynes joining her half an hour from the close from her 145th ball at the crease. Brunt (1/30) was excellent early on but lacked potency as the day wore on, her opener partner Anya Shrubsole (0/39) improved later in the day but was well down on her best form earlier on.

Ecclestone (1/64) who, at 20 years of age, is already one of the best spinners in the world, enhanced her reputation in her post-spell lunch having earlier left the field in tears after injuring her shoulder while diving unsuccessfully to stop a Healy clip. Alyssa Healy elevation to the top of the list worked a treat. Credit:PA She never let the favourable spinning conditions get the better of her, creating chances with her height and flight rather than overdoing it with sidespin. Not helped either by the lack of DRS - she had Lanning lbw, but not given, on 42 – the enthusiastic Lancastrian will bowl far worse for better returns. Gordon (1/53) bowled just as many dangerous deliveries in the first two sessions but mixed that up with far too many full tosses, routinely feasted on by Perry who was the most adept Australian at using her feet to break up the newcomer’s length. Laura Marsh (0/50), the offspinner at the other end of her international journey, never looked likely, nor did medium pacers Nat Sciver (0/18) and Georgia Elwiss (0/5) in their brief stints at the bowling crease.