England vs. Australia Women's Cricket: Scorecard, Reaction as Hosts Regain Ashes

England regained the women's Ashes with a game of the series to spare, beating Australia by five wickets at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton.

The women have been playing a new format of the Ashes, with points accrued across all three formats of the game.

Thanks to Lydia Greenway's exceptional innings of 80 from 64 balls, they now lead the series by four points with one match still to play, which is worth just two.

Australia, who won back the Ashes in 2010/11, will next have a chance to win it back when the two sides meet in early 2014 in the southern hemisphere. It was recently announced that the points format will be retained.

Here's the story of how the game unfolded:

Australia innings 

Australia let a good start get away as they settled for 127-7 from their 20 overs.

Winning the toss and batting first, opener Meg Lanning made a great start by hitting 60 from 53 balls, while Alex Blackwell (25) chipped in with a smart cameo.

Elsewhere, there was little support, with only Ellyse Perry (11) managing double figures. 

England orchestrated three run outs, as Australia collapsed in the last two overs, while Danni Hazell was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4-0-11-2.

England innings

England looked like they were heading for a swift and brutal defeat as Australia left the hosts reeling at 9-3.

However, Lydia Greenway played an outstanding innings from there, scoring 80 in just 64 balls to get England home.

She was composed and inventive, with the reverse sweep and deft glances the hallmark of her 11 boundaries.

Captain Charlotte Edwards supported her with 24 from 28 balls, but this was a virtuoso performance in a tricky situation, and more than deserving of winning an Ashes.

Here is the scorecard, as given by the BBC:

Australia Women Innings 127 for 7 (20.0 overs)

			Runs	Minutes	Balls	4s	6s
Lanning	run out (Colvin)		60	53	53	6	1
Healy	c Brindle	b Brunt	9	16	14	2	0
Cameron	run out (Gunn)		7	14	10	0	0
Blackwell	c Brindle	b Gunn	25	34	26	1	0
Perry	c Greenway	b Hazell	11	15	10	0	0
Fields	run out (Greenway)		2	5	3	0	0
Haynes	not out		3	4	2	0	0
Osborne	lbw	b Hazell	0	0	1	0	0
Coyte	not out		1	2	1	0	0
Extras		0nb 4w 4b 1lb	9
Total		for 7	127	(20.0 ovs)

Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Brunt	4.0	0	15	1
Wyatt	3.0	0	25	0
Hazell	4.0	1	11	2
Colvin	4.0	0	26	0
Gunn	4.0	0	33	1
Sciver	1.0	0	12	0

Fall of Wicket
19	Healy
38	Cameron
95	Lanning
119	Blackwell
122	Perry
123	Fields
123	Osborne

England Women Innings 128 for 5 (19.0 overs)

			Runs	Minutes	Balls	4s	6s
Edwards	c Cameron	b Ferling	24	52	28	2	0
Knight		b Hunter	2	4	4	0	0
Taylor	c and b Coyte		1	2	5	0	0
Wyatt		b Coyte	0		2	0	0
Greenway	not out		80	71	64	11	0
Sciver	run out (Haynes)		13	24	12	1	0
Brindle	not out		0	6	0	0	0
Extras		1nb 1w 2b 4lb	8
Total		for 5	128	(19.0 ovs)

Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Coyte	4.0	0	29	2
Hunter	4.0	0	23	1
Osborne	4.0	0	26	0
Perry	3.0	0	21	0
Ferling	4.0	0	23	1

Fall of Wicket
8	Knight
9	Taylor
9	Wyatt
76	Edwards
116	Sciver