Key events
18th over: England 90-2 (Knight 37, Sciver-Brunt 41) The partnership is worth 72, England’s two leaders have been impressive. Georgia Wareham comes on, took the first wicket to fall in Southampton to start unravelling England’s chase. Skiddier sort of leg spinner than King. Tidy enough over but there’s one bad ball that goes for four, England have been very good at picking off boundaries consistently, and Knight pulls the short ball away.
17th over: England 84-2 (Knight 32, Sciver-Brunt 40) Tahlia McGrath with some medium pace, as Australia keep changing styles. England going just under five an over. Four singles here, using gaps in the leg side. Drinks.
16th over: England 80-2 (Knight 30, Sciver-Brunt 38) Go time for Nat Sciver-Brunt! Doesn’t want to let the leggies set the tone. Comes down the pitch to King and drop-kicks her over midwicket for four, then repeats the does a few balls later and this time lands it on the boundary rope on the full. Six! And goes back past Heather Knight on the scoreboard.
15th over: England 68-2 (Knight 29, Sciver-Brunt 27) Nearly a stumping! Looks out at first, in real time, but the replays show that Sciver-Brunt has just got her toe back inside her ground in time. Gardner drew her into the drive and got a straight ball past the bat. Survives.
14th over: England 63-2 (Knight 26, Sciver-Brunt 25) Bold from Knight, the last ball of the King over again, skips down and bangs it over mid off for four. After three singles that makes it a good over for England. Knight goes back past Sciver-Brunt in the run race.
13th over: England 56-2 (Knight 21, Sciver-Brunt 23) Ash Gardner comes back, spin from both ends. Alternating, flatter trajectory then a little more air. Jonassen at midwicket gets a gee-up from her captain Healy after not hurling herself at the ball to stop one run. When Gardner flights the ball, Sciver-Brunt gets cautious. Four singles from the over.
12th over: England 52-2 (Knight 19, Sciver-Brunt 21) Leg spin for the first of 20 overs today, Alana King with the ball in hand. Bowls a good one to Sciver-Brunt, past the edge, but the batter ends the over with a powerful straight drive for four.
11th over: England 47-2 (Knight 18, Sciver-Brunt 17) Vote of confidence, Sutherland gets a fourth over despite being expensive in her previous today. Alternates between bowling at the thigh pad and bowling a bit outside off stump, keeps the scoring to four singles.
10th over: England 43-2 (Knight 16, Sciver-Brunt 15) And again it’s Schutt to turn the tap off. Flow and constriction. Three singles from her over, mainly when she gets a bit too short and they can play into leg side.
9th over: England 40-2 (Knight 15, Sciver-Brunt 13) Runs off Sutherland again, both batters lining her up. Sciver-Brunt does so by using her feet to make some space and hitting back down the ground. Knight gets a fuller ball and drives it immaculately.
8th over: England 31-2 (Knight 11, Sciver-Brunt 8) Stacked leg side field for Megan Schutt, two midwickets and a mid on as well as a deep midwicket and a fine leg, allowing her to swing in and target the stumps. It works, two runs and a wide from the over.
7th over: England 28-2 (Knight 10, Sciver-Brunt 7) Sutherland bowls an early no ball, giving up a free hit. Knight has already taken a single, so Sciver-Brunt gets to face it, smashes it to cover, but Litchfield pulls off a great save to keep four runs to one. Then once she’s back on strike, luck with the batter as she edges past her stumps for four. Over the stumps, really. Then a leading edge into space! Short of Litchfield, who has been busy. Useful over for England.
6th over: England 19-2 (Knight 8, Sciver-Brunt 1) Confident boundary for Knight to start the Schutt over, a ball wide enough to step into a square drive. A couple of singles to follow, Sciver-Brunt off the mark.
5th over: England 13-2 (Knight 3, Sciver-Brunt 0) Gardner out of the attack, Sutherland in for some medium pace, and after Knight turns over the strike, Gardner comes in to a silly mid on position. Interesting. Four balls to Sciver-Brunt who is just playing straight and can’t score.
4th over: England 12-2 (Knight 2, Sciver-Brunt 0) Poor start from England. The century-maker from Southampton comes to the crease early. Please save the day again, Natalie.
WICKET! Beaumont b Schutt 4, England 12-2
Risky shot to start from Beaumont, shovelled in the air through midwicket where Tahlia McGrath is not quite close enough to take a catch. Gardner dives to save at midwicket but gets tangled and is touching the rope. But those four runs are all that Beaumont will score today, as she swings across the line and is beaten by inswing, Schutt pegging back the stumps as she has done so often before.
3rd over: England 8-1 (Beaumont 0, Knight 2) Gardner finishes the over, conceding only two runs to a Heather Knight drive. So that’s 1 for 3 from Gardner’s two overs.
Apparently some absurdly detailed bag-checking at Taunton means that much of the sold-out crowd is still outside the ground waiting to get in. Not surprising, the situation was similarly ridiculous at Bristol. Nobody can actually explain what all of the checks are in aid of – is the cricket Taunton a high-profile target for splinter cells? Is there a huge problem with drunks hurling vodka bottles onto the pitch at women’s ODIs?
WICKET! Dunkley c Litchfield b Gardner 2, England 6-1
Another poor score from Dunkley, using her to open the batting hasn’t worked in this series. Huge swing across the line at the spinner, hitting it way up in the air and Litchfield tracking back from cover takes a tricky catch.
2nd over: England 6-0 (Dunkley 2, Beaumont 0) Megan Schutt to partner Gardner with the new ball, so often a menace with huge inswing. Dunkley tries to get creative from the second ball of the over, misses the paddle but the ball hits her pad and goes away for four leg byes. The shot doesn’t work but it’s a win on the scoreboard.
1st over: England 1-0 (Dunkley 1, Beaumont 0) Ash Gardner opening the bowling. Off spin to start, as Australia did in Southampton, with usual opening pace bowler Darcie Brown left out. Dunkley starts in sketchy fashion, chipping a shot close to the bowler, and takes five balls to scurry a single to midwicket.
Players onto the field, let’s go…
Australia might partly fancy chasing in case rain plays a part – it’s generally easier in a DLS-adjusted game to be on the batting side and bat knowing the task ahead. The Met forecast though looks pretty decent for the time being, fingers crossed.
Teams
One change for England, finger spin from Charlie Dean coming into the side in the place of leg spin from Sarah Glenn. Australia go unchanged. Surprising England haven’t used either of their true pace options, Issy Wong or Lauren Filer, at all in this series. But then, pace off has been effective.
England
Tammy Beaumont
Sophia Dunkley
Heather Knight *
Alice Capsey
Nat Sciver-Brunt
Danni Wyatt +
Amy Jones
Sophie Ecclestone
Charlie Dean
Kate Cross
Lauren Bell
Australia
Alyssa Healy + *
Phoebe Litchfield
Ellyse Perry
Beth Mooney
Tahlia McGrath
Ash Gardner
Annabel Sutherland
Alana King
Jess Jonassen
Georgia Wareham
Megan Schutt
Australia win the toss and will bowl
The coin flips Australia’s way, and after successfully defending in Southampton and unsuccessfully defending in Bristol, they will chase in Taunton.
For all of the Australians staying up late through this northern summer, Della has been on the case to find out how best to do it. England residents can file away notes for the next southern Ashes.
I had a look at Australia’s double-leg-spin selection, one that they didn’t use in Bristol but corrected to great effect in Southampton.
Also if you’re a podcast type, there’s my Final Word Daily wrap with your other OBO buddy Adam Collins.
If you want to catch up on that last epic – the highest-scoring women’s ODI in history, with a three-run difference at the end – here is Raf Nicholson’s report.
Preamble
Geoff Lemon
And so we arrive at this. Ten days of brilliant cricket across three formats for the Women’s Ashes series of 2023, one that must take the mantle as the best we’ve seen, once you combine the quality of the play with the closeness of the results. Now there’s one more day to decide the series scoreline.
Yes, Australia retained the trophy by winning the previous ODI at Southampton – a match that could have been England’s until the very last ball was bowled. Nat Sciver-Brunt again got to feel the hollowness of outplaying everybody with a dramatic hundred and yet falling just short of the green and gold.
But a trophy retention does not give Australia a series win, and England could yet deny them that. The series is 6-8 in favour of the visitors on points, so a win here for England would mean a tie. Australia, as we saw when that same scenario played out in 2018, would hate that.
Don’t expect any letting up, then. There is a risk that England might be deflated, emotionally hollow after a comeback streak that reached three matches in a row and so very nearly added the fourth. But both teams will desperately want to win this one, to stamp their own version of events on the eventual scoreline.
