Heather Knight explains why England retain Ashes belief despite latest setback
England cannot afford another defeat after Australia sealed a clean sweep of the ODI leg of the series
England captain Heather Knight insists her side are “still alive” in the Women’s Ashes, despite an ODI whitewash that leaves them on the brink of leaving Australia empty handed.
The tourists have been outclassed in the 50-over leg of the multi-format series, with Friday’s thumping 86-run loss in Hobart following setbacks in Melbourne and Sydney.
That leaves Australia with a 6-0 lead on the points table and within one more win of retaining. Knight’s side, meanwhile, need to take a clean sweep of three T20s and the concluding Test match to emerge victorious.
It is not entirely new territory, England having gone 6-0 down at home in 2023 only to take an 8-8 draw, but reversing such a scoreline Down Under is an enormous task given the home team’s dominant displays.
“We’re still alive, we’re still in it. We’ve got to keep believing,” said Knight.
“It’s going to be tough but we’ve been here before. The last Ashes was 6-0 and we were able to turn it around. We kept it game by game and got on a bit of a roll.
“I think the change of format is really good for us, T20 is one of our best formats and I think that little reset will do us some good.
“T20 is a format a lot of the girls love playing and I hope that change will do us a lot of good.”
England started the third ODI well with the ball, reducing the Australia top order to 59 for four in the 15th over.
But the hosts recovered to post a formidable 308 for eight as Ash Gardner made a match-winning 102 at exactly a run-a-ball. Sophie Ecclestone, England’s spin bowling banker, took one for 76 – the second worst analysis of her career.
England lost Maia Bouchier for a duck and Knight for 14 before a stand of 89 between Tammy Beaumont (54) and Nat Sciver-Brunt (61) put them back in the hunt.
Neither was able to match Gardner by going big and the pursuit crumbled for 222 as leg-spinner Alana King scooped five for 46 backed by an excellent fielding display.
“It was an outstanding innings by Ash,” admitted Knight.
“We kept up really nicely in the case and had some really good partnerships, we just weren’t able to prolong them. The pressure of having 300 to chase caught up with us.
“When you’re chasing that score a lot of things have to go right and we lost wickets at bad times. But we asked for more bravery from our batters and I thought we did that really well. It really felt like we were in the game.”
All-rounder Freya Kemp, spinner Linsey Smith and wicketkeeper Bess Heath will join the squad for the T20 leg, with Beaumont, Kate Cross and Ryana MacDonald-Gay will depart to begin preparations for the Test match at the MCG.
Cross did not feature in the one-day series due to a back injury but is tracking to be ready for Melbourne.
PA