Australia looking to white-wash the T20I series as well
A rain-affected game at Canberra saw a fighting England go down by six runs, seeing hosts Australia take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the T20I series in the ongoing Women’s Ashes.
Ahead of third and final T20I, here’s our match preview and predictions
Australia vs England 3rd T20I | Women’s Ashes 2025 | 13:45 IST, January 25, 2025
Tahlia McGrath led the hosts once again in absence of Alyssa Healy and after being put into bat first, Australia were in a spot of bother early on as Charlie Dean pegged them back at 75-4 before late order heroics from McGrath and Grace Harris saw the Australians end up with 185/5. While Beth Mooney was the only one amongst the top order to get amongst the runs, Australia would be expecting some more runs from the likes of Ellyse Perry and Phoebe Litchfield, especially going into the red-ball series. With the ball, the hosts had Megan Schutt take the game away from the visitors with two huge breakthroughs in the middle, picking up the scalps of Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Sophie Dunkley to see the hosts steal a win right at the end. McGrath tried a total of seven bowlers including herself although only Schutt, Annabel Sutherland and Kim Garth were amongst the wickets with McGrath hoping for a better performance from her bowling unit in the final T20I game.
The rain’s consistent persistence in Canberra meant that chasing would’ve been tough in the previous game and the visitors set off well even though they lost Maia Bouchier early on. Wyatt-Hodge and Sophia Dunkley along with late fireworks from Heather Knight almost saw England home as they fell agonisingly short. Knight will know that her batters finally turned up in the series as a unit and will expect more of the same in the final white-ball game of the Women’s Ashes, heading into the red ball. England were expensive though, with the ball, as barring Charlie Dean, all the other bowlers went over seven, and Knight used a total of seven bowlers, with all of them leaking runs and unable to capitalise on a strong start.
At the Adelaide Oval, where there will be plenty of runs on offer, English captain Heather Knight will hope her bowlers stand up although it will be Australia starting as the favourites once again but England’s fight in the previous game means that we should be in for another close encounter.
Fantasy XI: Beth Mooney, Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Heather Knight, Ellyse Perry, Annabel Sutherland, Ashleigh Gardner, Grace Harris, Lauren Bell, Alana King, Charlie Dean, Sophie Ecclestone
Venue: Adelaide
Winners Prediction: Australia
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