Women's International Cricket: Ashes Is On The Line Now, Says Skipper Healy After Australia Women Lose First ODI

The Ashes: The dominant force in women's international cricket, Australia suffered three successive defeats for the first time since 2017 but skipper Alyssa Healy believes that it will take one win to galvanize her team and make a comeback in the multi-format series against archrivals England.

World Champions Australia are in a must-win situation in the ODI series and winning the final two ODIs to win the Ashes series outright following England’s tense two-wicket victory in the first ODI here after their twin T20I wins in London and left the seven-game series locked at six points apiece with two one-dayers to come.

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.

Australia’s only edge is the fact that as the current holders of the women's Ashes, they only need to win one of the remaining two games to keep the trophy -– but if they want to take the series outright, they cannot afford a fourth-straight slip-up when the two teams meet in the second ODI at Southampton on July 16. The third match of the series will be played at Taunton on July 18.

"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," Healy said.

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"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," she said.