Heather Knight shines bright to keep England’s Ashes hopes alive

England have squared the women’s Ashes at six-all with victory in the first ODI in Bristol by two wickets. And they did it by securing their highest ever 50 over chase, inflicting a third consecutive defeat upon Australia, something they have not experienced since February 2016.

Australia led 6-0 after winning the Test match and first T20I, but three successive victories have England back on par with two to play. And you only needed to look at the reaction of a usually calm Heather Knight,  tossing her bat away after punching the final boundary through cover point and embracing her partner Kate Cross, to understand just how much this meant, and how much England have achieved to keep the Ashes alive.

England 267 for 8 (Knight 75*, Beaumont 47, Gardner 3-42) beat Australia 263 for 8 (Mooney 81*, Sciver-Brunt 2-38) by two wickets