| Venue: The Ageas Bowl, Southampton Date: 16 July Time: 11:00 BST |
| Coverage: Ball-by-ball Test Match Special commentary on BBC Sounds, BBC Radio 5 Live and the website and app, where there will be live text commentary and in-play video clips (UK only). Highlights on iPlayer and Red Button. |
It’s time to dare to dream.
Very few thought Heather Knight’s England could get to this position – levelling the multi-format points-based Ashes series after Australia raced ahead with a 6-0 lead.
Knight and England were perhaps among the only ones who did believe.
The captain said her team would “fly” after overcoming the psychological hurdle of getting one win on the board against the world champions, which they did in the second T20 at The Oval.
But England are not just flying.
They are soaring, and in a fascinating twist, Australia are the ones succumbing to the pressure.
There was a sense after England’s 2-1 series win in the T20 leg that they had already achieved enough, that they had exceeded expectations and now normality would resume in the 50-over format.
After all, it is Australia’s strength: they are world champions, and England had not previously beaten them in the format since 2017.
And in a fitting coincidence, that win came at Bristol, also where Knight’s side reached parity with Australia with a tense two-wicket win.
England still face a tough task, needing to win their two remaining games (or one, if the other is tied or washed out), while just one win sees current holders Australia retain the trophy.
But despite the hype, England are keeping their feet firmly on the ground.
“We’re not taking them lightly, they’re not pushovers whatsoever,” said England batter Tammy Beaumont.
“But we’re playing good cricket. We’ve gone toe-to-toe with them.
“We’ve always felt we can beat them, but in the past we probably wouldn’t have thought we could achieve that after going 6-0 down.”
England’s aggressive style of play has provided much of the thrill throughout the series, sparked by Lauren Filer’s raw pace in the Test match and accelerated by the brutal hitting of Alice Capsey and Danni Wyatt with the white ball.
And there is plenty to improve, too – England dropped five chances at Bristol and missed a stumping, and ended up chasing at least 40 more than they needed to.
But throughout it all, Knight has remained calm, Sophie Ecclestone has been world-class and quite ominously for Australia, Nat Sciver-Brunt is yet to really fire.
The world’s best preparing for the unknown
Perhaps the most intriguing element of it all is how Australia are going to handle the pressure.
While England are basking in the joy of unfamiliar territory, there is no precedent for how this Australia side will react.
After the T20 defeat that allowed England to creep back in to contention, captain Alyssa Healy said it was a “kick up the bum” – but the performance that followed at Bristol suggested the kick had not quite been hard enough.
They have built themselves a reputation of a team with immaculately high standards under skipper Meg Lanning, who is absent from the tour for medical reasons.
They grind bowlers down with the bat, frustrate batters with their consistency and pull off athletic saves in the field when everyone in the ground is assuming that it’s gone for four.
But in the first ODI, balls slipped through legs to the boundary, fielders were giving up on achievable chases (for them), bowlers gave away 17 wides and some batters threw away their wickets cheaply.
It is difficult to say whether this is down to Lanning’s absence, or whether England’s aggression has landed a psychological blow.
And yet, Australia’s brilliance is shown in the fact that they are probably still favourites, and that even in their poor performances, England have had to work very hard for the wins.
They are not be used to being the wounded tiger, and England, so often the prey, are not used to being the hunter.
History beckons for England, or else world order will be restored.