lice Capsey says England are now fully focused on the “bigger picture” of winning back the Ashes after their sensational comeback bid continued in Bristol last night, with the teenager warning: “We haven’t even played our best cricket yet!”
Heather Knight’s unbeaten 75 guided England to their highest-ever ODI run-chase to claim a dramatic two-wicket victory that levels the series scoreline at 6-6 with two games to play.
After losing the one-off Test and First T20, England were faced with the improbable task of needing to win five matches on the bounce to wrestle back the Urn, but have now reeled off the first three of those to stun the world champions going into Sunday’s second ODI in Southampton.
“You look at the bigger picture and we want to win the Ashes,” Capsey said. “We always felt that once we got that first win out of the way, we would go on a bit of a streak.
“We’ve shown a lot of fight in this series that previously we might not have shown. Going into this series, Australia are the most successful cricket team [in the world] and we knew it was going to be a real challenge. We wanted to compete with them, but we were the underdogs. It’s been brilliant to fight back and put the pressure back on them.”
Set a daunting target of 264 after Beth Mooney’s unbeaten 81, it looked as if England would be made to rue a host of chances squandered, with five dropped catches and a missed stumping punished to the tune of 128 runs.
However, the tourists were also uncharacteristically sloppy with ball in hand and despite some ugly dismissals that threatened to leave Knight stranded, England got over the line with 11 balls to spare.
“This whole series, we haven’t been at our best,” Capsey added. “Even in the T20s we were probably playing at 80 per cent. Today, we weren’t at our best again, but to get over the line in pressure moments like that is great. It’s really exciting that we haven’t played our best cricket yet and it’s 6-6 with all to play for.”
Australia are now in serious danger of surrendering the Urn for the first time since the home series defeat of 2013-14, having lost three successive matches for the first time in six years, and captain Alyssa Healy says there can be no shying away from their predicament.
“The Ashes is on the line now proper, isn’t it?” Healy said. “So if that doesn’t galvanise the group, I don’t know what does.”
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