By Matt Hardy
England captain Heather Knight hailed a “massively positive” series for her side despite losing the Women’s Ashes last night in Southampton.
The hosts needed victory in the match to force a decider tomorrow in Taunton but even an unbeaten Natalie Sciver-Brunt century was not enough as Australia won by three runs.
Having been 6-0 down in the points-based series, England managed to level the series at 6-6 ahead of yesterday’s second One Day International.
Ashes draw on line
But they were unable to reach Australia’s target of 282 and the tourists are now unassailable in the series – an 8-8 draw would still hand the holders the urn.
“I think we’ve played outstandingly,” Knight said. “We’ve been quite evenly matched cricket teams.
“We’ve maybe lost big moments in the past but there’s been a real shift in this group and how we communicate and get through it. It has been a massively positive series for us.
“We’re disappointed. The way we’ve fought back, we thought we had momentum and we had belief we can win. We can draw the [Ashes] series and win an ODI series and that would be a massive achievement against this team.”
England took steady wickets to restrict the Southern Stars to 102-4 after 21 overs but Australia then began to motor.
Ellyse Perry knocked 91 for the tourists while Annabel Sutherland hit 50 off 47 balls. Beth Mooney, Ashleigh Gardner and tailender Georgia Wareham all registered scores of over 30.
The target was looking similar to the total England chased down in Bristol last week – 262 – but the final over went for 26 runs and piled the pressure on the hosts.
Steady
They got off to a steady start but Sophia Dunkley fell for 12 before captain Knight – a hero last Wednesday in the West Country – was dismissed.
An impressive innings from Tammy Beaumont came to an end a couple of overs later with the opener leaving the crease on 60 before both Alice Capsey (2) and Danni Wyatt (8) fell.
A brilliant stand between Sciver-Brunt and Amy Jones saw England recover and slowly work towards the total but Jones was dismissed for 37.
Sciver-Brunt and Sarah Glenn between them came within one boundary of winning the match and taking it to a decider in Taunton on Tuesday but the batter’s unbeaten 111, combined with Glenn’s 22 not out, was not enough and England agonisingly lost by three runs.
The two sides will play the final ODI tomorrow but England will need to wait until the end of next year before they get another chance at winning the famous urn.
