“Australia are producing 20-year-old superstars,” Tammy Beaumont had said as she bemoaned the disparity between the two sides after England’s defeat at Hove on Sunday. On Wednesday England finally showed some fight, courtesy of two 20-year-old stars of their own, Mady Villiers and Sophie Ecclestone, who between them took five wickets to reduce Australia to 122 for eight, after England had earlier put 139 on the board.
The victory was the first in the Women’s Ashes series for England, who had lost five and drawn one of the previous six matches. “It’s bittersweet with the series result, but we’re really pleased that we’ve put in the kind of performance that we’re capable of tonight,” Heather Knight said afterwards.
“Mady was outstanding. She’s a tough cookie – two years ago she was working in a bar in Essex and now she’s a real prospect for the future. You could see from the look in her eyes that she absolutely loved it out there. That’s what you want to see – you want someone desperate to go out and perform well, and she really took the opportunity with both hands.”
Introduced for the first time in the eighth over, off-spinner Villiers – on her international debut – had initially put down a caught and bowled chance offered up by Alyssa Healy but got her revenge the following over when Healy sent up a catch straight to Ecclestone at mid-off after a dangerous looking 28 up top.
Four balls later Villiers tempted Ash Gardner into coming out of her ground, and she departed for a duck as Amy Jones whipped off the bails.
That left Australia 45 for four at the halfway stage, as they had also lost Meg Lanning early on, the Australia captain dismissed for the first time in Twenty20s against England since 2016 as she was trapped lbw by England’s other star, Ecclestone. Having upset the Australian chase, Ecclestone then dismissed Jess Jonassen and Delissa Kimmince with successive deliveries in the 19th over to hand England their first win of the series.
For once Ellyse Perry – named player of the series for her 378 runs and 16 wickets – was unable to spoil England’s party, her unbeaten 60 coming too late to get Australia over the line.
In their innings England had initially looked at risk of another collapse after the run-out of Heather Knight in the 14th over by Perry with a brilliant throw from midwicket. Jones was out two balls later, edging to Healy behind the stumps, leaving England five down with just 88 on the board.
That was after they had once again lost two wickets in the powerplay, albeit with a different set of openers – Tammy Beaumont promoted up the order – while Nat Sciver then handed Tayla Vlaeminck her maiden T20 wicket in the eighth, top edging a bouncer to Delissa Kimmince at third man.
However, a quick-fire unbeaten 50 partnership between Lauren Winfield and Katherine Brunt at the back end of the innings– during which the pair added 34 runs across the last three overs and included a monster six launched over midwicket and out of the playing area by Brunt – laid a platform to allow England to finish the series on a high.