What ought to have been a notable victory for England’s women ended instead in the surrender of the Ashes to Australia.
Having restricted their opponents to a paltry 107 from their 20 overs, England collapsed to 28 for five on a blameless pitch and subsided for their lowest Twenty20 total, 87 all out.
Instead of going to Cardiff 2-0 up in the T20 series, and needing a win there to retain the Ashes, England are ten points to four down after losing for the fourth time in six matches in all cricket to Australia on this tour.
Australia not only regain the Ashes after a five-year break but also win them on English soil for the first time since 2001.
Tidily though Australia bowled, England’s demise was very much of their making, with their batting frailties again shown up by Australia.
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After taking seven off the first four balls of their innings, it all started to go horribly wrong for England in the second over. Charlotte Edwards, the talismanic captain, got herself out when she bottom-edged a pull from the left-arm spin of Jess Jonassen onto her stumps. Two wickets then fell in the third over, bowled by the impressive Ellyse Perry. Lauren Winfield, trying to drive on the up, spooned a catch to mid-off; Natalie Sciver played inexcusably across her first ball to be bowled neck and crop.
Much now depended on Sarah Taylor, whose 42-ball fifty at Chelmsford had been the match-winning innings in the first T20 international. She began brightly, skipping nimbly down the pitch to hit Jonassen over the top for four. But, in the final powerplay over, Taylor miscued an innocuous full toss from Rene Farrell straight to mid-on. In the same over from the medium pacer, Heather Knight could not keep out a well-delivered slower ball.
Katherine Brunt led a partial recovery, but when she chopped Megan Schutt into her stumps, England were 53 for six in the 13th over. In the next over, Danielle Wyatt was unluckily run out by the bowler’s deflection, and when Meg Lanning took a brilliant catch at mid-wicket to remove Anya Shrubsole, the end was nigh for England.
A carnival atmosphere had greeted the players when play began at 7pm. After a minute’s silence for the Shoreham air disaster victims, a capacity 5,500 crowd, of which 600 had free tickets, really got behind England, and did not have to wait long to celebrate the first Australia wicket when Perry miscued a pull to mid-wicket.
That proved the only wicket to fall in the first ten overs, but only 42 runs were gleaned in that time from impressively disciplined England bowling. Shrubsole proved effective, conceding six runs from an opening spell of three overs. Her final over, bowled at the death, yielded three runs, and her tally of 17 dot balls underlined the excellence of her control.
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Australia lost six wickets between the 11th and 18th overs, batting poorly in that time. Had Grace Harris not been missed off her first ball, it would have been even worse for them, but her 14 off 11 balls proved useful. Crucially, off the last 13 balls of the innings, 18 runs were plundered when Jess Cameron improvised skilfully.
Edwards, for whom this was a fourth defeat in nine Ashes series, conceded that England had been guilty of some poor shot selection. “We haven’t batted well in this series and have been beaten by the better team,” she said. “This will hurt for a while, but the girls are pretty tough, and we’ll bounce back.”