Australia Women are within two points of retaining the Women’s Ashes after a comprehensive victory over England in the third Royal London Women’s ODI at Canterbury.
Set 270 to win England’s top order had absolutely no answer for Ellyse Perry (7-22) and were eventually dismissed for 75.
The win means Australia are 6-0 up in the multi-format series, needing two points to get their hands back on the urn and four points to win them outright.
England would have felt hopeful of putting together a competitive chase after pulling Australia back from a fast start with the bat. At one point they had been 130-1 with over half their overs left but Nat Sciver led a fightback with the ball that gave them some hope.
That hope was soon extinguished by Perry’s fine spell, a spell that leaves England with an awful lot to do to get back into the series.
The two teams now move on to red-ball cricket, playing a warm-up match each before the Women’s Kia Ashes Test gets underway at Taunton on July 18.
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Mark Robinson: “The first two games are the games that really cost us. Today hurts your pride but we were just blown away – in those first two games we had chances to get points on the board.
“We’ll have to go away, regroup, have a chat about how we move forward and try and avoid becoming tentative in the rest of the series.
“We look forward to the Test. The change in format might just be welcome. The players will enjoy putting on the whites and we need to keep fighting and believe we can get back in the series.”