MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australia retained the Women’s Ashes against England with two matches to spare following their 27-run victory in the opening one-day international on Thursday.
Two weeks after the men’s team coasted to a 4-0 Ashes triumph against Joe Root’s England, holders Australia defended a modest total of 205-9 at Canberra’s Manuka Oval to take an 8-4 lead in the multi-format series.
With two points for a win, and two ODIs remaining, England could still draw the series, but Australia ensured they would retain the Ashes as holders.
Put into bat, Australia endured a mid-innings collapse to slump from 60-1 to 67-4 with skipper Meg Lanning among the wickets that tumbled.
Beth Mooney rescued Australia with 73 off 91 balls and was the last batter to fall to the final delivery of the innings.
For England, Kate Cross and Katherine Brunt evenly split six wickets between them.
England were jolted early in their reply when Darcie Brown (4-34) dismissed Tammy Beaumont and touring captain Heather Knight off successive deliveries.
Nat Sciver made 45 but Brown took a stunning return catch to deny her a fifty and England eventually were bowled out for 178 inside 45 overs.
“We came into this series with one job to do – retain the Ashes and we’ve done that,” Mooney, named player of the match, said.
“We’ve got another job to do now and win them outright.”
Knight was optimistic England could still level the series in Melbourne which hosts the last two one-dayers on Sunday and Tuesday.
“We’re still in with a chance of drawing the series and that’s got to be our focus now,” Knight said.
“We didn’t get a partnership together… We lost wickets at regular moments and they bowled well. They kept the stumps in the game and that made it hard to score on that wicket.”
(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; editing by Toby Davis)
