Healy confident patchy Aussies can shift momentum

Australia have entered rare territory after their third-straight defeat in the multi-format Ashes, but captain Alyssa Healy expects the must-win scenario now facing the tourists to galvanise her group.

England’s tense two-wicket ODI win in Bristol followed twin T20I wins in London and left the seven-game series locked at six points apiece with two one-dayers to come.

Australia’s only edge is the fact that as the current holders, they only need to win one of those games to keep the trophy – but if they want to take the series outright, they cannot afford a fourth-straight slip up.

"I mean the Ashes are on the line now and proper, so if that doesn’t galvanise the group I don’t know what (will)," Healy told Sky Sports after Wednesday’s game.

"We obviously haven’t been in this position a lot and we can either see it as an opportunity to learn and grow or an opportunity to throw excuses out there.

"So it’s up to us to turn it around for the next two games and that Ashes trophy is well and truly on the line.

"We’ve been showing (character) in patches … but we’ve just got to be better, got to be sharper in certain areas to get ourselves over the line and that’s what we’ve got to find in the next few days."

The last time Australia lost three consecutive matches was in 2017, when they went down to New Zealand in two T20Is in Geelong and Adelaide before crossing the Tasman for a third defeat in Auckland.

Only six members of their current 15-player squad were part of that tour, including Healy and Australia’s top performer with the bat from Wednesday’s game in Bristol, Beth Mooney.

"It's hard to say," Mooney told reporters when asked if the rarity of Australia’s defeats made them tougher to respond to.

"I think you take each game into isolation and what you can improve on, whether you win or lose.

"Sometimes I think winning can hide things in different dressing rooms (but) it's not the case in our dressing room.

"We certainly aren't blaming anything or any outside forces in terms of the wicket or the toss or anything like that.

"I think we've got a really amazing perspective in that dressing room to look inward and know that we can be better than that.

"I don't think that it'll hurt us too much ... obviously it's disappointing it's not 12 points to none at this this stage of the series, but there's still two games to play, a lot on the line and we're still in it."

To find the last time Australia lost three straight games in the same series one must dive back even further to the 2013 Ashes – the first points-based series.

Then, after a drawn Test in Wormsley and an Australia win in the first ODI, England took out all five remaining games to seal the series 12-4.

"I think a few of the girls who have been in the team since 2019, 2020 probably haven't experienced that," Mooney said of Australia’s three defeats in eight days.

"It's probably a little bit different for some people in this group, but from my perspective, it just presents a really great opportunity and a great challenge for this group to put our best foot forward.

"There's no complacency. We know we've let ourselves down a little bit in the last couple of games but there's plenty of opportunity in the next couple of games to rectify that."

CommBank Ashes Tour of the UK 2023

Multi-format series level at 6-6

Test: Australia won by 89 runs

First T20I: Australia won by four wickets

Second T20I: England won by three runs

Third T20I: England won by five wickets (DLS)

First ODI: England won by two wickets

Second ODI: July 16 at The Rose Bowl, Southampton, 11am (8pm AEST)

Third ODI: July 18 at The County Ground, Taunton, 1pm (10pm AEST)

Australia squad: Alyssa Healy (c), Tahlia McGrath (vc), Darcie Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, HGrace Harris, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham

England ODI squad: Heather Knight (c), Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Bell, Alice Capsey, Kate Cross, Charlie Dean, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Danielle Gibson, Sarah Glenn, Amy Jones, Nat Sciver-Brunt (vc), Issy Wong, Danielle Wyatt