Brilliant bowling gives hosts victory with five overs to spareAustralia 205-9;
England 178 all outAustralia retained the women’s multi-format Ashes trophy in the first of three one-day internationals, holding England short of a paltry first innings of 205 for nine to win by 27 runs in Canberra. After captain Heather Knight won the toss and chose to bowl, England’s seam attack used a lively surface to suffocate Australia’s scoring until wickets came. But the
Australian bowlers responded in kind, turning the screw until the thread squeaked, and despite a last-wicket partnership of 24 that briefly threatened a revival, England were 178 all out with five overs to go.
Knight said: “Our mentality in this series has been really good. We haven’t been able to quite get over the line, which is a shame, but we believe we’re good enough to beat them and we’ve gone toe-to-toe with them in a lot of aspects, but we just haven’t quite been able to have that killer instinct and get over the line.”