England’s Women’s Ashes pain worsens after limp third T20 defeat by Australia | Women’s Ashes

Australia are six from six in the Women’s Ashes after England put on an embarrassing display with the bat, collapsing to 90 all out in 17.3 overs – one of their worst ever performances in a T20 – to hand Australia a 72-run victory in the final T20 of the Ashes series.

The result will once again put pressure on the England coach Jon Lewis, who had claimed 24 hours ago that the gap between the Ashes rivals was closer than the scoreline suggested.

Chasing 163, only two England players – Heather Knight and Sophie Ecclestone – made it into double figures, in what was their poorest batting performance of the tour so far. England’s shot selection was inept, offering up soft catches against Darcie Brown, who took two wickets on recall to the T20 side, and mis-executing the sweep against Georgia Wareham, who claimed three.

Australia once again demonstrated complete supremacy in the field, with Georgia Voll taking a stunning diving catch at backward point to finally see off Ecclestone, before Ellyse Perry flung herself at the ball at cover and ran out Linsey Smith.

Another perfect illustration of the difference between England and Australia was the performance of Beth Mooney, whose batting had been the mainstay of Australia’s total. Twice in a row in the 20th over of Australia’s innings, Mooney stole a second run from under England’s noses, pulling out a full-stretch dive to beat Smith’s throw in from deep midwicket, before using sheer speed to outpace long-on, making her ground just before Amy Jones could whip off the bails.

Mooney finished on 94 not out, including 10 fours: meaning that 54 of her runs actually involved sprinting for 22 yards. Or to put it another way, this was the bleep test live in action and Mooney aced it – just as she does in practice, where she has gained her reputation as one of the fastest runners in the women’s game. England have no one who can match her, and whatever Lewis might think, that isn’t because of the Australian weather.

Minutes later, with England in pursuit of 163, Mooney held on to a superb catch down the leg side to hand Alana King the wicket of Alice Capsey. She also executed a tidy stumping of Knight as England were finally put out of their misery in the 18th over of the chase.

A new-look England bowling attack had actually done well to restrict Australia to 162 for five: the next highest score after Mooney’s was Georgia Voll’s 23. England’s decision to drop Sarah Glenn paved the way for Smith’s Ashes debut, and she helped England keep it tighter in the powerplay by sending down two overs without conceding a boundary, before returning at the death to have Annabel Sutherland caught in the deep. Of course, her performance also raises the cursed question of why England left her sitting on the sidelines until the series was already dead and buried.