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England will take heart from their near-miss in the dramatic drawn Test as proof they can still win the women’s Ashes with three straight ODI wins over Australia.
Kate Cross and Sophie Ecclestone’s safe defence of the final 13 balls on Sunday ensured England were still in the series, albeit needing a titanic fightback to regain the urn.
Set 257 from 48 overs to win the Test on the final evening, England went at more than five-an-over for the entire innings and got the margin down to 45 from ten overs before a late collapse.
Four of their top five went at a strike rate of above 80, as they took the game on and left Australia genuinely concerned England were set to spring an upset.
It prompted the majority of fielders being placed back on the boundary, as Australia made the move to strangle England’s scoring down the legside.
And with restrictions limiting those tactics in the white-ball formats, England have the belief they can now get the better of Australia in the 50-over games.
“(We can) just take from it that we were able to go at around six-an-over for that long,” Nat Sciver said.
“Taking that into a 50-over match will be brilliant.
“All the bowlers are in really good places as well. It’s three ODIs to win to regain the Ashes so that’s what we’ll be focusing on.”
In the five multi-format series played for the Ashes, no team has come from behind going into the final format to claim the trophy.
England would need to win all three ODIs to win the Ashes back from Australia, currently up 6-4 and with two points available for each match.
But outside of the form of Heather Knight (168no and 48) and Katherine Brunt (8-84 for the Test), it will be the hard hitting from the likes of Sophia Dunkley that excites the tourists most.
The 23-year-old thumped 45 from 32 on Sunday to give England their last chink of light, including hitting two sixes in two balls of Annabel Sutherland.
“She was in the zone and was picking her ball and doing really really well,” Sciver said.
“She’s very special. She has a days when she’s like that and she has other days when she can’t get herself going.”
© AAP
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