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AAP
AAP
Sport
Alex Mitchell

Aussies unearth real star in teen Brown

Teenager Darcie Brown took 4-34 in Australia's one-day win over England which secured the Ashes. (AAP)

In retaining the Women's Ashes for a third straight series, Australia may well have truly uncovered the prodigious talent that will allow them to reign over England for some time to come.

Darcie Brown, just 18 years old, could hardly have impressed more in Canberra on Thursday night, taking 4-34 as Australia earned a 27-run victory in the first ODI to take an unassailable 8-4 points lead in the series.

Brown found hooping swing to have Tammy Beaumont caught in the slips and dismissed captain Heather Knight plumb lbw with the very next ball, while a diving caught-and-bowled to get rid of Nat Sciver essentially sealed the victory.

The teenager said she'd entered the series fearing she might not play, but showed she'd learned lessons from last year's series against India.

"I was just thinking I was going to run drinks. It's a credit to the coaches and my teammates who backed me in and had full belief," she said.

"Just bowling full, in that India series I bowled a bit short. I can swing it sometimes if I pitch it up, so that's one of my weapons and if I bowl short then I'm sort of taking that away.

"Hopefully, I just keep pitching up and be a bit more consistent."

Brown is already working on impressive career ODI figures, now with nine wickets at 15.1 through her first four contests.

She credited the entire bowling corps for helping her progress while saving special praise for Tayla Vlaeminck, who remains sidelined with stress fractures.

"Early on, she was really, really helpful to me, especially in the India series as well. Before the first ODI, she let me come into her room and we looked at a few plans ... she's been a real help," Brown said.

But not even Brown's elite talent stops her friends back home in the small South Australian town of Kapunda from just treating her as one of the mates.

"A few friends don't really watch cricket that much," she said with a laugh.

"I don't really talk about it too much when I go home, I haven't seen some of them in a while since I've moved to Adelaide ... they always give me a message here and there when they see something on Instagram.

"I guess they just treat me as normal, which is pretty good."

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