Some dazzling fielding from the home team, including three direct-hit run-outs, and a century partnership led by Natalie Sciver ultimately trumped another fine all-round performance by Ellyse Perry, who top-scored with 78 and claimed the key scalp of Edwards.

The bulk of both sides' runs came from middle-order partnerships: 116 between Perry and Alex Blackwell for the visitors, 122 between Sciver and Lydia Greenway for the hosts. Ultimately the latter was more significant because England made better use of the rapid outfield conditions at the County Ground by rotating the strike more regularly in between boundaries, which both teams reached with ease.

Victory was achieved with 26 balls to spare, with all-rounder Georgia Elwiss​ ensuring the late departures of both player of the match Sciver (66 off 75 deliveries) and Greenway (53 off 70), but it had no bearing on the final result, to the delight of the crowd of 3352.

The main consolation for the Stars was Perry extending her remarkable run with the bat. She made the most of an extra life on 21 to notch her sixth consecutive half-century, ensuring she had doubled the previous women's record of three she overtook last year. It took the right-hander's record from her past nine one-dayers to 541 runs at an average of 131.25. 

Having spent more than a year planning their Ashes campaign the Stars were forced to begin the series with an new opening partnership. Nicole Bolton was ruled out with concussion from the blow to the head she suffered in the team's final training session on Monday. That allowed Jess Cameron, passed over for both warm-up matches, to earn a late reprieve.

Bolton's opening berth was filled by Jess Jonassen. While the all-rounder had only once batted above seven in her preceding 22 one-dayers she has been Australia's Twenty20 opener, alongside remaining one-day opener Elyse Villani, since April last year.

The experiment was tested immediately after Meg Lanning's decision to bat first on winning the toss.

The start of the Stars' innings was notable for two aspects: the classically high elbow in forward defence from Villani and then captain Lanning, as well as their struggle to score other than from boundaries. The former influenced the latter, with eight of the first 10 overs soaked up by dot balls as the Stars notched 2-30 from their compulsory powerplay.

In their defence, scoring was made difficult by the impressive bowling of Katherine Brunt, who deservedly claimed the scalps of both openers as part of her 3-48 from 10 overs.

The visitors' top three - Villani, Jonassen, Lanning - contributed only 29 runs between them. While Lanning seemingly had grounds to be aggrieved at her leg-before dismissal, due to an inside-edge, Villani's departure for 18 lobbing to square-leg was more disappointing given how secure she had looked beforehand.

At 3-35 in the 12th over the Stars were vulnerable. But under the stewardship of Perry and Blackwell that position was converted to one of superiority, albeit one partly squandered due to a slew of late wickets.

While the first half of Perry's innings was hindered by her failure to rotate the strike regularly - excluding her boundaries, she scored from only three of her first 38 deliveries - she and Blackwell got the innings back on track by stemming the flow of wickets. Some of those boundaries, however, particularly the straight drives and deft cuts behind gully, were indicative of her class.

What seemed a pivotal moment at the time, and even more so given the way the match progressed, was the failure of left-arm spinner Rebecca Grundy to hold on to a sharp return catch from Perry when the all-rounder was on 21. That would have left the Stars at 4-63 in just the 19th over.

England also spurned the chance to end the fourth-wicket partnership at 70 when Blackwell, on 30, got nowhere near a wide delivery from Grundy and was stranded well out of her crease. She survived thanks to an uncharacteristic fumble from wicketkeeper Sarah Taylor.

The half-centuries for Blackwell and Perry came in consecutive overs of a batting powerplay in which the Stars made 40 runs with only the loss of Blackwell. The veteran was the first of four run-out victims during the innings, which were a better reflection of the standard of England's fielding than the dropped catches. Former England international Ebony Rainford-Brent reckoned the run-out, three of them direct-hits, were a positive repercussion of England's players now being full-time professionals.

Fine fielding was also the cause for Perry's departure in the 46th over, with Sciver snaring a difficult outfield catch to remove her. The loss of a wicket in four of the last five overs meant the Stars did not sufficiently take advantage of having been 4-187 in the 38th before, when they lost Jess Cameron to one of those four run-outs.

Alyssa Healy'ss unbeaten cameo of 29 from 25 pushed the Stars' score well above 200, but with better support at the other end it would have been the 250-plus score it should have been, given the helpful pitch and lightning-fast outfield.

Perry's claims for the player of the match award strengthened when she claimed the prized wicket of Edwards for 15 in the seventh over. With the captain gone all the attention turned to England's other elite batter, Taylor. The soft dismissals of Heather Knight and Amy Jones were of little consequence as long as Taylor remained at the crease.

The opening match of the series looked destined to be heading Australia's way when Taylor departed for a run-a-ball 30 in the 20th over, feathering a catch from off-spinner Erin Osborne that was well held up at the stumps.

At 4-80 the home team needed someone outside their big two to propel them, a role Sciver took with aplomb. A boundary from the first delivery she faced set the tone for her innings.

While left-hander Greenway initially laboured in their partnership - she made 16 from her first 43 deliveries - like with Perry and Blackwell earlier just being there and denying wickets to their opponents helped shift the momentum.

It seemed Sciver and Greenway set themselves a target of reaching the 30-over mark unscathed and then shift to attack mode. From 4-124 at they added 70 runs in the next 10 overs to put the hosts firmly in control, and each reach half-centuries in the process.

Most of the damage was inflicted upon fast-bowler Holly Ferling and leg-spinner Kristen Beams, who respectively finished with 0-42 from seven overs and 1-52 from eight.

Even though both set batters fell between the 41st and 44th overs - Sciver was the latter, after Blackwell's overhead catch at full-stretch at mid-on - the required 22 off the last 40 deliveries with four wickets in hand seemed safe even with two new batters at the crease.

The home team and their fans were not given cause to bite their fingernails, with Elwiss (25 not out off 20) and Brunt (7 not out off 5) comfortably seeing them home without further loss

smh.com.au - The reporter is covering the women's Ashes with the support of Cricket Australia