The Ashes might be lost but Australia can claim a moral victory over England in Sydney on Sunday and build vital momentum for their World Twenty20 defence.
If Australia triumph in the third T20 international at ANZ Stadium, the Southern Stars will have won more matches than England this summer, despite losing the series.
Losing the heavily weighted one-off Test match (worth six points) cruelled Australia's chances of winning back the urn, but in the shorter-formats they've fought back strongly.
Having won the ODI component 2-1, Australia are pushing for the same result in the T20 finale, which would allow them to take winning form into the World T20 in Bangladesh in March.
Australia are looking to win the World T20 for a third straight time, and wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy says despite losing the Ashes, the Southern Stars have the squad and self-belief to create history.
"No one had done it twice so to do it three times would be pretty spectacular," said Healy, who returned to form opening the batting with a composed 37 not out off 43 balls in Australia's seven-wicket win over England at the MCG on Friday.
"We've got a really good squad of girls around at the moment who are actually very good T20 cricketers so it's a big bonus for us. We play a lot of it back here in Australia in our domestic cricket so we're ready to go.
"I think if we get out there (on Sunday) and win it's a big boost for us in coming away from the tour winning more games of cricket than the English team.
"We can take a big positive out of that. Obviously it's very disappointing not to be able to regain the Ashes but we can get on a bit of a roll before the World Cup and I guess get a bit of a mental edge on them."
Share

