Australia close on Women’s Ashes after England hold on for draw in Test thriller

• Australia 337-9dec & 216-7dec; England 297 & 245-9 (target 257)
• Points shared after wild final day that could produced any result

Australia and England engineered a grandstand finish to the Ashes Test in Canberra, as England nearly ran down the biggest fourth-innings chase in women’s Test history before a collapse left them scrambling to survive at nine wickets down. The gap between the teams in the end was 11 runs, with the last-gasp draw leaving Australia leading the multi-format series on points 6-4.

Those dramatic final hours came after losing most of the third day to rain, encouraging Australian captain Meg Lanning on the fourth and final day to declare at 216 for seven late in the second session. Lanning set England 257 to win from 48 overs, an equation that should have been relatively straightforward for Australia to protect against tired players on a wearing pitch with no fielding restrictions.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2YLiuHMoA