England regained the Women’s Ashes via their fourth straight win over Australia, which came by five wickets with an over to spare in the second Twenty20 international at the Ageas Bowl.
Lydia Greenway’s crafty 80 from 64 balls, the highest format score for England Women, saw the tourists’ modest 127 for seven overhauled in front of a strong crowd, which built ahead of the game between England and Australia’s men.
Greenway, who should have been stumped on 10, underpinned a recovery from the depths of nine for three, sharing a stand of 67 with captain Charlotte Edwards before completing victory.
Bowlers Danni Hazell and Katherine Brunt were key to restricting Australia, who chose to bat first in overcast conditions near the south coast. They respectively returned figures of 2-11 and 1-15 from four-over allocations. Save for opener Meg Lanning’s 53-ball 60, the tourists struggled to score smoothly.
Today’s victory represents a stunning response to going four points to two down after losing the first one-day international at Lord’s last Tuesday. That left England needing to win four of the last five matches to be sure of regaining the urn.
They completed that task ahead of Saturday's finale at the Emirates Durham ICG thanks most notably to player of the match Greenway, whose 11 fours featured several reverse and regular sweeps against spinners and seamers.
The reply initially faltered when Heather Knight and Danni Wyatt were bowled respectively by Julie Hunter and Sarah Coyte, between which Coyte took a brilliant right-handed return catch to snare Sarah Taylor.
Greenway seized the initiative with two reverse-swept fours off Erin Osborne full-tosses, the second coming immediately before her reprieve by Australia wicketkeeper and skipper Jodie Fields.
The left-handed Greenway took Osborne for two more fours in her next over and also hit Ellyse Perry for a pair of boundaries in the 10th, after which 65 were required for victory.
Edwards fell for 24 to Holly Ferling, via a skied catch at mid-off, shortly before Greenway heralded her fifty by sweeping Coyte finely for four.
Tension grew when Natalie Sciver’s cameo 13 was ended by a run-out with 12 needed from 13 balls, but Greenway reverse swept Coyte for two more boundaries before scrambling a single to short fine-leg for the winning run.
Both sides had made a change from Tuesday’s first T20I at Chelmsford. England brought in spinner Holly Colvin for seamer Anya Shrubsole, who has a groin injury, while Australia gave a format debut to 17-year-old seamer Holly Ferling, who replaced Jess Jonassen.
Alyssa Healy was dropped at square-leg by Knight but it mattered little when she fell at midwicket in the same Brunt over. Likewise, Jess Cameron narrowly survived being run out by Edwards but then departed to Jenny Gunn’s direct hit from her own bowling.
Lanning eased to a 50-ball half-century in the company of Alex Blackwell during a stand of 57 that ended when the former, having lifted Gunn over square-leg for the game’s sole six, was unlucky to be run out off bowler Colvin’s fingertips.
Blackwell perished for 25 to Gunn via a skied catch at mid-off in the penultimate over and Australia capitulated in the last, losing wickets to its first three balls although the second was a run out so Hazell did not take a hat-trick.
