England faced a shocking six-run (DLS method) defeat in the second T20I of the ongoing women’s Ashes against Australia on Thursday. With this win, Australia are 2-0 ahead in the three-match T20I series and have already won the Women’s Ashes. The match, which was curtailed by rain, saw a brilliant fighting knock from England skipper Heather Knight while chasing the revised target of 175. Knight scored 43* off 19 balls but her side still fell short by six runs, which forced the England skipper to give a controversial gesture.
In the last over of the match, England 22 off 6 balls to win. Knight hammered a boundary on the very first ball of the over of Annabel Sutherland and England were hopeful of a stunning win. However, fate had other plans in store as the rain got heavier and match had to be abruptly stopped.
With a score of 168/4 in 19.1 overs, England were six runs short of DLS par score. Resulting which, Australia were declared the winners. Knight, who was batting at 43*, could not believe this and threw her bat on the ground in anger.
Heather Knight throws her bat in frustration.
The DLS par score is 174. #CricketTwitter #AUSvENG pic.twitter.com/5m609x1FL4
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) January 23, 2025
Later, she picked up the bat and disappointingly walked back to the dugout.
After the game, Knight admitted that her reaction was an emotional one and the umpires made the right decision.
“It was right decision by the umpires. I was really in the zone to try and win us that game, and obviously frustrated that we were going off, but it wasn’t at the umpires at all. It was pretty wet, even when we were running it felt pretty slippy and it was quite hard to attack those twos. So yeah, it was the right decision, hundred per cent,” said Knight as quoted by News18.com.
“It was brilliant game of cricket. Felt like I could get us over the line. I felt really set, and I had some really good boundary options on a very good cricket wicket. It was an awesome crowd and they deserved a finish, and you could hear the frustration from the fans that that we were going off, and the game wasn’t able to reach its conclusion,” she added.
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