England kept their Ashes hopes alive with a remarkable three-run win on Wednesday evening, handing the Australians their first outright defeat in any format since September 2021.
Ellyse Perry struck back-to-back maximums off the final two balls to finish on 51 not out, but her efforts could not quite overhaul England’s record total of 186 for nine.
Australia now lead the series 6-2, with England still needing to win every remaining match to regain the Ashes, but their leg-spinner Sarah Glenn nonetheless labelled it an “emotional” moment and said she had been “screaming with happiness” as England sealed the win.
“It’s been a long time coming,” she added. “We’ve had a lot of really close calls and we’ve always known we can beat them, it’s just getting over the line against a top line-up who have had momentum for a long time.”
A display of clean hitting by Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney had got Australia off to a flyer, but a first international scalp for Dani Gibson and a 100th wicket in T20 internationals for the 24-year-old Sophie Ecclestone headlined an Australian collapse from 58 for none in the powerplay to 96 for five in the 13th.
The No 8, Georgia Wareham, ramped up the pressure by smashing successive sixes off the 18th over, but Lauren Bell responded in the 19th by bowling her with a brilliant slower ball, and Ecclestone then kept it tight to defend 20 off the final over.
“It felt like we were slightly off, in every facet of the game,” Healy said. “With the bat, we had a little bit of a handbrake on at times and couldn’t get ourselves going.”
A crowd of 20,328 watched the match, fully justifying the decision to bring England Women back to the ground for the first time since the semi-final of the 2009 Women’s World T20.
England had succumbed from 100 for one to 112 for five in the space of 13 balls, before Danni Wyatt’s 76 from 46 balls propelled them to their highest T20 total against Australia.
Alice Capsey and Heather Knight fell to successive deliveries from Annabel Sutherland, and while Amy Jones dug out the hat-trick yorker, she fell victim to a brilliant diving catch by Sutherland at long-on in the next over.
Sutherland would go on to have Wyatt caught at deep third in the 17th; but in between times, the England batter took 25 runs off one Megan Schutt over, including four successive boundaries – sliced, lofted, pulled and cut. At last, the crowd had something to shout about – as they did when Ecclestone speared the only six of the England innings over midwicket during her 12-ball 22-run cameo.
Earlier on, Sophia Dunkley had continued the charmed life she had lived during Saturday’s half-century at Edgbaston, sending a shorter ball from Schutt skywards, only for the ball to slip through the outstretched hands of a sheepish-looking Tahlia McGrath at cover.
Three overs later, McGrath finally saw her off for 23 by clinging on to a catch in the same position, though only at the third attempt, following a couple of nervous juggles. But by then, England had a 57-run opening partnership on the board, and the platform for a record-breaking total.
