At Edgbaston on Saturday night, a record audience of 19,527 witnessed England come within a few runs of defeating Australia until the T20 world champions finally surpassed their goal of 154 with only one ball remaining. The crowd, which outnumbered that at the Commonwealth Games last summer, had watched the death overs with spellbound attention. With Mooney and Ash Gardner at the crease, Australia appeared to be in complete control. Australia needed 24 runs from the final 19 balls; Gardner had just hit Sarah Glenn for a six over deep midwicket.
But as Gardner sought to hit another boundary, the leg-spinner deceived her into edging to Jones behind the stumps. Glenn then bowled Grace Harris with the first ball, opting for a massive slog. Mooney kept making progress, but Lauren Bell bowled Ellyse Perry with the ideal back-of-the-hand slower ball, setting up a frantic final over in which England came close to upending Australia’s winning position.
Australia needed five runs from the final over, so captain Heather Knight had left the finest bowler in the world, Sophie Ecclestone, to bowl it. The opening ball of the over was driven down the ground for four runs by Annabel Sutherland. Ecclestone then dove to save the single, and Amy Jones then took a challenging high catch off Sutherland’s bat. Georgia Wareham, who finished unbeaten on 61, though, hammered the following ball across cover, and she and Beth Mooney sprinted frantically to grab the winning single.
Beth Mooney’s unbeaten 61 in the T20 chase (Credits: Getty Images)
England’s play in the T20
At 118 for seven in the 18th over, England appeared to be in trouble despite Sophia Dunkley’s half-century of 42 balls, but an exhilarating late-order cameo from No. 6 Jones, who struck 40 not out off 21 balls, ignited the batting and brought them to almost par.
Overall, Australia’s field performance was uncharacteristically clumsy. Jess Jonassen missed a simple opportunity to run out the England wicketkeeper four balls into Jones’s batting. She was also dropped by Wareham at deep midwicket while on 15. In any case, Jones was able to capitalize by smashing a six into the delighted Hollies Stand, taking 18 runs off the penultimate over.
Three out of the four boundaries that England scored during their powerplay were made by Dunkley, and the hosts’ position was severely hampered by the loss of three wickets in the first eight overs. In the ninth over, Nat Sciver-Brunt smashed Jonassen over deep midwicket while Megan Schutt removed Danni Wyatt’s off-stump. Between innings, when Alice Capsey came out to bat, the crowd erupted in a huge applause; however, when Darcie Brown ran Alice Capsey out a few minutes later, the crowd erupted in an equally huge boo. Capsey exhibited skepticism, but replays revealed that she had missed the opportunity to quickly ground her bat, forcing her to leave.
Knight and Dunkley enjoyed a fifty-run partnership, but when both batsmen fell in quick succession at the end—Dunkley was caught off the bat at short third after two missed chances—poor debutant Dani Gibson was left facing Schutt’s hat-trick ball. She managed to survive it, but in the subsequent over, after only scoring one run, she sent up a leading edge to extra cover. England appeared to have made a mess of things when Ecclestone stole the next ball behind the stumps, briefly leaving Jonassen, too, on a hat-trick. However, Jones came to their team’s rescue.
In order for England to win the series and reclaim the Ashes, they must now win all five of the remaining games. The next T20 match is on Wednesday at the Oval.
