Wyatt, bowlers keep England's Ashes dream alive in thrilling win

A riveting fifty from Danielle Wyatt coupled with a composed bowling performance saw England down Australia by a narrow three-run margin at The Oval on Wednesday (July 5).

Put into bat, England were off to a flying start through Wyatt and her opening partner Sophia Dunkley as runs came at a fair clip on another fine batting strip at The Oval. On their part, Australia were quite shoddy, leaking far too many extras with the ball and also conceding freebies in the field. At the halfway mark, England were strongly placed at 87/1, eyeing a total in the 180-190 range.

However, Annabel Sutherland and Ashleigh Gardner led a strong fightback and the hosts soon found themselves in a soup at 119/6 with five overs still left to bowl. It is then that things turned topsy-turvy for the World Champions as the 16th over bowled by Megan Schutt went for 25 and Sophie Ecclestone weighed in with a cameo of her own as 67 came off the final 30 balls of the innings to get England to a challenging total.

Australia started slowly but skipper Alyssa Healy soon found her groove as the tourists raced away to 58/0 in the PowerPlay, setting themselves up perfectly for the big chase. But, Healy fell to a soft dismissal and a struggling Beth Mooney was then involved in a terrible mix-up that ran out Tahlia McGrath to dent the innings. Australia's intimidating batting line-up suffered a mini-collapse even as Ellyse Perry tried to fight on from one end.

Sutherland and Georgia Wareham gave the star all-rounder some support but England held their nerve well for most part, getting the equation down to a daunting 50 needed off the final 18 balls. The game then sprung to life as Wareham took Charlie Dean to the cleaners to take up a 19-run over, meaning 31 were needed off the final 12 balls but Lauren Bell held her nerve to bowl a tidy penultimate over, giving away just 11 while also nipping out Wareham.

With 20 to get off the final six deliveries, Perry had to contend with the guile of Ecclestone and although sixes were hit off the last two balls to bring the margin down to negligible levels, the game had been done prior to that. Australia will rue their sloppiness on the field and a rare batting mishap even as England continue to dream of regaining the urn. The home side came into this match needing to win all of their remaining games to keep their Ashes hopes alive and have managed to stay afloat with a morale-boosting win.

Brief scores: England 186/9 in 20 overs (Danielle Wyatt 76; Annabelle Sutherland 3-28, Ashleigh Gardner 2-39) beat Australia 183/8 in 20 overs (Ellyse Perry 51*, Alyssa Healy 37; Sarah Glenn 2-27, Sophie Ecclestone 2-35) by three runs