Chester teenager Sophie Ecclestone played her part as England kept their hopes of reclaiming the Women’s Ashes alive.
The 18-year-old from Helsby grabbed a key wicket as the World Cup winners beat Australia in the third One Day International at Coffs Harbour.
England had lost the opening two ODIs to trail 4-0 on points in the multi-format series.
Ecclestone, the only change to the squad that won the World Cup in the summer, was not selected for the first ODI, which Australia won by two wickets.
But the former Helsby High School student was called into the side for the second ODI and she took the wicket of opener Alyssa Healy on her Ashes debut as Australia ran out 75-run winners on the Duckworth–Lewis method.
But England made it third time lucky at the weekend as they overcame their old foes by 20 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis method.
Ecclestone claimed the capture of opener Nicole Bolton on her way to series-best figures of 1-38.
The left-arm spinner’s wicket kick-started a mid-order collapse that saw Australia slip from 159-1 to 251-9 in reply to 284-8.
Ecclestone, who plays for Lancashire as well as Cheshire and her local senior men’s side, Alvanley, will be hoping to keep her place in the team for the only Test of the series, which gets under way in Sydney on Thursday, November 9.
England coach Mark Robinson said: “I think we probably went some way to getting the momentum back with a win. Nobody wanted to go into the Test match having lost the third ODI so that’s good news for us.”
