England have kept alive their hopes of retaining the women's Ashes with a seven-wicket win over Australia in the first Twenty20 international at Chelmsford.
Meg Lanning's side went into the game leading 8-2 on points having won the Test match and one-day series and victory would have sealed an outright success.
However, they were up against it after scoring just 7-122 from their 20 overs and the home side cruised to victory in 17.3 overs.
Ellyse Perry top scored with 30 but some disciplined bowling and excellent fielding from England saw the hosts take wickets regularly with Lanning the only other batter to pass 20.
A fine 50 from Sarah Taylor laid the foundation for the emphatic victory.
The two sides will meet again in Hove later this week with England needing to win the two remaining matches to level the series and retain the Ashes.
"We were not really able to get going and kept losing wickets at regular intervals (and) 122 was never going to be good enough," Lanning told Sky Sports.
"We were outfielded and off in all departments and couldn't do as well as we can. We'll look to Hove now and try and get the win."
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