When pundits were attempting to analyse England and Australia before the women's Ashes, the overwhelming response was that while England probably had more steel in the longer format, the Test, Australia had the dash to make amends in the limited-overs matches.
That the Southern Stars went to the halfway mark of the one-off Test in Canterbury strongly in the ascendancy was not a surprise, given their flair and talent. That they did it because they had out-fought England on the basics most certainly was. 
The visitors had recovered from 5-99 due to an effort led by Jess Jonassen - who was trapped leg-before one run short of a century on debut - and disciplined lower-order batters such as No.10 Kristen Beams (26 not out off 98 deliveries).
England, however, had no one who could play that anchor role, despite collectively being much more familiar against the red ball than the Australians.
The ones who came nearest to matching Jonassen were Charlotte Edwards, Nat Sciver and tailender Katherine Brunt, and they all fell in the 30s.
Getting the scalp of the redoubtable Edwards, bowled for 30, never loses its charm, as Stars seamer Megan Schutt later attested to.
"It still feels pretty good," said Schutt, 22. "She's been in amazing form - and has been for the past 17 years - so she's always a big wicket, no matter what form she is playing in.
"It's something I'll never forget ... to get such a big wicket, of 'Lottie', I couldn't ask for a better day."
What Schutt also did was force the home team to bat for survival. All but seven of her 18 completed overs were maidens.
Around them she claimed the scalps of Edwards, Sciver, Laura Marsh and Anya Shrubsole. The latter fell for a 48-ball duck, a reflection of the Stars' discipline and that most of the last session was - until the plucky hitting of Brunt - either dot balls or wickets.
"That's all you can hope for, to go out and know those are the only two things [dots or wickets] that are happening," the South Australian said after England were bowled out late on day two for 168 - a deficit of 106.
"Spending all that time [before the series] in Brisbane, we spent a lot of it working on being defensive yet still having that intent to score.
"That was probably the difference. We probably managed to play a bit more positively while still playing defensively at the same time. They weren't able to do the same thing.
"We just kept the pressure on them for the entire day, and at times they crumbled. Having so many maidens in a row, the pressure really showed, and paid off at the end."
OverOf the 84.4 overs England faced in their innings, 34 were maidens. They scored at a crawl: just under two runs per over. All 10 of their wickets were either bowled, leg-before or caught by the wicketkeeper or first-slip, reflecting how little freedom they were afforded by the Australians.
While Schutt finished the job for the Stars, who were a bowler down due to leg-spinner Beams having a calf strain, the key early breakthroughs were made by Ellyse Perry.
Over the past two years Perry has transformed her reputation from a bowling all-rounder to a genuine all-rounder to arguably a batting all-rounder.
Schutt insisted her ability to remove Lauren Winfield and Sarah Taylor in the first three overs - the latter for a golden duck - and remaining opener Heather Knight soon after lunch more than made up for her first-innings failure with the bat.
"She's an amazing athlete in all areas. Some people have thought about her batting more than her bowling over the past six months or so, but I think she showed - and has showed all through the series - she's as good with the ball as she ever has been," Schutt said, praising Perry for taking two new-ball wickets for the second consecutive women's Ashes match.
"Personally, I think she's moving the ball more than she ever has."
Seamer Schutt said she was proud that the Stars were on track to finish the Test with no worse than a draw, which would preserve their points lead over England heading into the series-ending Twenty20 matches.