Alana King has gone from sitting on Australia’s bench to turning the Ashes on its head, producing one of the best balls of the series to help her side retain the trophy at Southampton.
Overlooked for the past four white-ball games, King was player of the match for Australia on Sunday as they scraped home to a three-run ODI victory over England.
The win gave Australia an 8-6 lead in the multi-format series, meaning even with a loss in the last ODI at Taunton on Tuesday they will retain the Ashes.
King created headlines last year when she bowled the perfect legbreak to dismiss Tammy Beaumont the day after Shane Warne’s death, having the Englishwoman stumped when she beat her in flight.
But her ball to dismiss the same batter on Sunday was every bit as good.
With England 2-107 after 21 overs, King pitched the ball on leg, spun it past the edge of Beaumont’s bat and took the top of her off stump to bowl the opener for 60.
“I haven’t seen it, but people keep telling me it was a great ball,” King said.
“My dad keeps screaming out on the balcony that it was a ripper. No doubt I will have a look at it later.
“But I’m just glad to be back in the squad and glad we got the win.”
King also removed England captain Heather Knight lbw and Alice Capsey in her 3-44 as Australia sent down 35 overs of spin.
Fellow legspinner Georgia Wareham was the other unlikely hero for Australia, as she took 26 off the last over with the bat to help Australia get to 282.
England then finished 7-279 in reply, ending their three-game winning streak over Australia and the hosts’ chances of winning back the Ashes.
“You talk about momentum in games and series. That swung the momentum back into our changeroom at the break,” captain Alyssa Healy said.
“We took a little bit of a buzz out of that, we were up and about after that last over. That helps.
“And it turned crucial in the end.”
Australia, though, are adamant the job is not done yet and they want to win the multi-format series outright and not just retain the Ashes by drawing it.
Alana King. (Photo by Tom Dulat – ECB/ECB via Getty Images)
“We’ve retained it, which is awesome,” King said.
“But as we said all along we came to win it. So we have one more game to win the Ashes here.”
In the first final-ball finish of what has been a thrilling series, Australia denied Nat Sciver-Brunt’s bid to pull off a chase of 283 at Southampton.
Needing 15 to win off Jess Jonassen’s final over, Sciver-Brunt got the equation down to five runs off one ball before she failed to find the boundary and England finished 7-279.
Australia’s spinners were the heroes for the visitors, with Ashleigh Gardner and King both claiming three wickets after Ellyse Perry top-scored with 91.
Australia still need victory in Tuesday’s final ODI to claim the series outright, but some pressure is now off after this result.
“It’s not a relief,” Healy insisted. We still haven’t played our best cricket yet, which is a bit scary at times.
“We are obviously really chuffed. We came here to win the Ashes, and we’ve retained them so far.
“There is still one game to go, and we’ll be putting our best foot forward. But to know the Ashes are coming back with us is really exciting.”
The win keeps Australia’s record of holding every major trophy available to them, having not dropped one since the 2017 World Cup.
But at times on Sunday, it looked as if Healy’s team would be pushed all the way to the final match of the series at Taunton on Tuesday.
After being sent in, Australia slumped to 2-27 early and were 4-102 before Perry dug them out of a hole alongside Gardner (33) and Annabel Sutherland (50).
And at stages in the chase, England were in control.
It took a great ball from King to bowl Tammy Beaumont on 60 and with England 2-107 after 21 overs, as the spinner pitched it on leg and hit the top of off.
And while King (3-44) and Gardner (3-54) struck again through the middle overs, England appeared on track for victory at 5-201 with 12 overs remaining.
It was at that point Gardner stood up, having Amy Jones caught reverse-sweeping on 37 and removing Sophie Ecclestone lbw in the same over.
From there, Sciver-Brunt was always fighting up hill.
And while her and Sarah Glenn (22no) got the equation down to nine off three balls and seven off two, England’s incredible fightback to try and win back the Ashes was over.
“I thought we had it, Nat played an outstanding innings,” England captain Heather Knight said.
“It’s been an outstanding series, the best series ever in women’s cricket in my opinion.”
© AAP
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