Women’s World Champions England got back to winning ways in the final ODI of the three-match series against Australia as they won the match by 20 runs via D/L method. One-third of the Common Wealth bank series has been completed as the series shifts format to the four-day Test match in Sydney in 11 days time. England pulled back things in the final ODI as Australia go into the Test match with a lead of two points.
Australia won the first two ODI’s, one in Brisbane last Sunday and the second ODI in Coffs on Thursday. The third ODI was a must-win match for England as the Aussies already had a four-point lead in the series.
However, Australia’s wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy feels that the series is still hanging in the balance even with the Aussies having a slender lead of two points. Australia only needs four more points out of the possible 10 points left in the series to retain the Ashes which they won two years ago in England.
Healy said:
“It’s sort of nowhere at the moment, It’s a bit of an unknown heading into a day-night Test, how each team is going to play and how it’s going to look. At the moment, us 2-1 up is a great start and it’s better than us being 2-1 down. It livens up the series again being 4-2 and reinforces how crucial this Test match is and everyone’s going to want those four points. Personally I’m really excited to be involved in this next period. The next two weeks are going to be really exciting and hopefully Australia can get up and get the points.”
Players from both the teams were unsure of which team had the momentum going into the Day-Night Test match, England’s captain Heather Knight said:
“Hopefully us, We fought really hard to try and get it back. It can be hard in this sort of series, the matches all happen so quickly and momentum is really key, with the three formats as well. We’ll take a lot of confidence, a lot of belief from today’s game that we can perform when we really need to. Going in to that Test match it’s going to be brand new for both teams, day-night Test, it’s going to be really exciting, but hopefully we’ve got that momentum and we can take it there.”