Women's Ashes: England now favourites after levelling series? | 'Hard truths' needed for Australia

The Women’s Ashes is level at 6-6 with two games to go after England pulled off a stunning two-wicket win over Australia in the first ODI on Wednesday.

A superb 75 not out from captain Heather Knight and a late-innings cameo from Kate Cross, unbeaten on 19, helped the hosts chased down a record target of 264 with 11 balls to spare.

That made it three wins in a row for England, having won the last two matches of the IT20 leg of the multi-format series, and gave them two valuable points which kept the series alive heading into Sunday's second ODI in Southampton.

• Heather Knight fires England to thrilling Ashes-levelling win in first ODI
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England need to win the two remaining one-dayers to reclaim the Women's Ashes for the first time since 2014, and Sky Sports Cricket experts Lydia Greenway and Mel Jones assessed how their respective former teams are shaping up with everything still to play for…

Are England now favourites to win the series?

Former England international batter Lydia Greenway:

That word 'momentum' is the most important one. Not only do Australia have to stop that momentum, they have to then push it in their direction and that takes some going. They're going to have to dust themselves down and review it as best as possible, but not dwell on it.

It's a fine line between dwelling on what has been to looking ahead and thinking 'okay, that's how we're going to go about it now'. It will be really interesting to see how they're going to go about turning it around.

England aren't in the driving seat, they've got two games left to play which they have to win so we can't get carried away, but they've done the best they can.

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There were many key moments in that game. They lost wickets at crucial times, but when it really counted in terms of the outcome, Heather Knight and Kate Cross stayed there.

That partnership is something the other batters will look at and say 'let's get there' because they haven't been 100 per cent. That is arguably the most pleasing thing for England, the fact they haven't been playing their best and beat the No 1 team in the world in all formats of the game.

Now it's 6-6, they could be in a position where they think 'we're competing with Australia, this is great, we can make errors and still get away with it and win'. I want to see them go again even harder. I'd like to see them keeping with those improvements because if you stop improving as a side, you get caught off guard.

Australia need to face 'a few hard truths'

Former Australia international batter Mel Jones:

What we've seen from Australia over the last few games is an Australia I've never really seen before. You see it for moments or in one game, but not over a series of games where I look at the field and everyone is standing there, there's not a lot of energy out there, they're not recognising the moments where people need to lift and step in and step up.

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Do I want Australia to win? Yes - but it's not about the loss, it's how you lose games and for me, at the moment, there are a few things they need to sit down and have a few hard truths come to the fore.

England are a brilliant side and what I've been impressed with is that they've hung in there. That's a worry for Australia and the other worry is the momentum they have, and there is a seriously good, tangible feel around this unit and everyone else around them.

The crowd and the whole country are riding with them and that's a really hard thing to try to shift when you're the opposition team in an away series.

They've got to try to remove themselves from all the hype and excitement about that and get back to something, which I'm still scratching my head about what it is.

The scary thing with England is there is so much room for improvement. It's been 137 games since Australia have lost three games on the trot.

Watch the second ODI of the multi-format Women's Ashes between England and Australia on Sunday, live on Sky Sports Cricket from 10.30am, ahead of the first ball at 11am. Stream this summer's men's and women's Ashes series on NOW.