3 is the magic number for Australia as they beat England to retain the Ashes

The day started full of excitement and nerves after England Women dramatically pulled the Ashes series back level on Sunday. They needed nothing else but a win to give them a chance of winning back the Ashes in the final one-day test. The ground filled as the 11 o’clock start time edged closer. The first key moment of the match was the toss, which England won and decided to field first.

Immediately, the home crowd lifted England and they dismissed Healy for 13 (from 15 balls) and Litchfield for 4 (from 7 balls) after some great bowling from Bell and superb fielding from Capsey. However, this quick start was snuffled out and countered by Perry who scored a high 91 runs from 124 balls to boost Australia’s total. All Australia needed to do was maintain a constant flow of runs to add to their already high run total. That’s what they did. While England did dismiss McGrath for 5 from 9 balls and Jonassen for 5 from 5 balls it was fantastic scoring from Mooney (33 from 42), Gardner (33 from 37), Sutherland (50 from 47) and Wareham (37 from 14) which ended Australia’s innings 282-7 and leaving England a mountain to climb.

England needed something big, something massive, something almost impossible and the key to that would be a good scoring start and no early wickets. Unfortunately, for the host side that was not the case. Wareham bowled Dunkley for 13 from 30 balls. Disaster. Or was it? Beaumont gave England a glimmer of hope after scoring 60 runs from 62 balls and a further 59 runs from Glenn and Jones only added to that hope but a poor innings from Knight (12 from 19), Capsey (2 from 7), Wyatt (8 from 12) and Ecclestone (1 from 2) put a serious slash in England’s chances. The total was still achievable and an unbelievable 111 runs from 99 balls from Sciver-Brunt was nearly enough to put England ahead in the series, but it was not to be, and Australia won by a minuscule 3 runs.

A stupendous effort from everyone involved did not go unnoticed and they could all hold their heads high going into the final test. They earnt lots of respect from the nation and a lot of credit also needs to be given to Australia for their bowling and batting during the series.