Australia (185-5) beat England (168-4) by six runs (DLS method)

Heather Knight threw her bat down in frustration as Australia claimed victory in the Women’s Ashes, with rain preventing the final five balls being bowled.

Australia won by six runs on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method, but Knight believes she was denied the chance to “try and do something special”, with the tourists needing 18 runs from the final five deliveries before the umpires made their crucial decision. Australia won the game to take the series victory and a 10-0 points lead after five matches.

At the point the call was made, Knight was unbeaten on an impressive 43 from just 19 deliveries, and on strike, and believes she could have led England to their first win of the tour Down Under.

“It was a brilliant game of cricket, I felt like I could get us over the line,” Knight said.

“I was really set and felt like I had some good boundary options on a very good wicket so [I am] just disappointed that I wasn’t able to be given a chance to try and get us over the line and give the crowd the finish they deserved.”

It was the second rain intervention that proved decisive. At the first delay England had been two runs ahead on DLS when the players were forced to leave the field, 8.4 overs into the run chase with Sophia Dunkley and Danni Wyatt-Hodge at the crease, after the former had hit a four from the ball preceding the delay to put her side ahead on DLS.

Wyatt-Hodge had also tried to leave the field early on, at the end of the fifth over when the first lightning strike was seen in the sky but along with Maia Bouchier was recalled back to the crease despite the first spots of rain starting to fall.

Lightning struck for a second time, and yet play was still allowed to continue until the ninth over, by which time the rain was significant. Crucially for England, they did not delay a second time in the deciding final over, although Knight does not place blame on the officials.

“I think it was the right decision by the umpires,” she acknowledged.

“I was obviously just really in the zone to try and win us that game and really frustrated that we were going off.

“It was pretty wet out there, even when we were running twos it felt slippy to be honest, it was hard to attack those twos so it was the right decision 100 per cent to take us off.”

Knight had played a stunning innings to drag her side back from the brink of defeat and this was England’s best batting performance by far of the series.

Wyatt-Hodge set the platform with a well-timed 52 from 40, while both Dunkley and Nat Sciver-Brunt made important contributions.

Crucially England showed they were up for the fight, and despite an ill-judged shot from Bouchier, were not at fault for their wickets. Rather it was Australia who showed their superiority and skill to prevent England being able to consistently stay above the required run-rate.

If anything the match was lost by England’s shortcomings with the ball, with Sophie Ecclestone – who has come under fire in recent days after refusing to do an interview with the BBC’s Alex Hartley in a spat made public by the broadcaster – having a bad day. Her 19th over was the most expensive of the first innings, going for 18 runs, as Tahlia McGrath and Grace Harris piled on 71 from just 35 balls to guide the hosts towards a match-winning 185.

Knight was keen to play down the dispute with World Cup-winner Hartley, saying: “We don’t have a problem with Alex, I haven’t actually seen her to ignore, so no problem at all.”

As Australia were left to celebrate in the rain, Harris already had her mind set on the next target, saying on the player microphone “it would be very, very good if we could embarrass this England team” when asked about the possibility of a clean sweep.

Phoebe Litchfield echoed her team-mate’s sentiments after the opening T20 of the series, in an embodiment of the ruthlessness Australia have shown so far.

With one T20 and a Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground to come, Australia have already won the Women’s Ashes, but there is no doubt they will go for the jugular.