Women's Ashes | Disappointed Heather Knight focused on winning last 2 ODIs after Ashes series defeat

England women's skipper Heather Knight has expressed her disappointment after the tourists squandered the opportunity to regain the Ashes following a 27-run defeat in the first of three ODIs in Canberra on Thursday.

England, who lost a rain-affected T20I series 0-1 before drawing a thrilling Test, had come into the ODI leg of the Ashes trailing 4-6. They needed to win each of the three ODIs to regain the urn for the first time since 2013/14. However, a poor display with the bat during the run-chase 206, has now given the Aussies an insurmountable 8-4 lead.

However, they still have a chance to draw level the multi-format rubber and while Knight is disappointed at her sides' failure to recapture the urn, she has now focussed her attention on winning the last two games in a bid to make a statement ahead of their World Cup title defence in New Zealand next month.

"We’ve got two more games to nail those performances and put batting and bowling together," she said. "We’re still in with a chance of the drawing the series which is our focus now," Knight said as quoted by 'The Cricketer"

"We’ve gone toe to toe [with Australia] and the mentality this series has been really good. We haven’t been able to get over the line which is a shame and haven’t had that killer instinct. They’re the sort of team that make you pay for it and don’t give you a second chance. But we believe we’re good enough to beat them," she added.

"We just have to reassess, bring our best for the next two games, try and string bat and ball together and be ruthless. Of course, there’s disappointment but we’ve got to try and win games and with the World Cup coming up, our focus turns to that and being in the best shape possible," said the middle-order batter.

Coming back to the first ODI, Knight was full of praise for her bowling-unit for their brilliant display on Thursday.

Katherine Brunt and Kate Cross were the pick of the bowlers for the world champions, sharing six wickets between them. She also lauded Beth Mooney for her gritty 91-ball 73 that helped Australia get to 205/9.

"I thought we bowled outstandingly. We really took the game to them, bowled perfectly to the plan and adapted to the pitch. I thought Kate Cross, Katherine Brunt and Anya [Shrubshole] at the top were outstanding," she said.

"Beth [Mooney] batted well, a gritty innings, but I think we were quite unlucky. There were a lot of inside edges and things which didn’t go to hands, but we’d have taken 205 at the start," said Knight.

However, Knight also lamented the lack of partnership from her batters which paved way for a 27-run defeat.

Barring Nat Sciver (45 off 66 deliveries),  none of the top and middle-order batters showed any resistance against Darcie Brown (4/34 in 10 overs) and Meghan Schutt (2/39 in 9 overs).

However, she lauded the late resistance that was displayed by lower-order batters like Brunt (32* off 46 deliveries) and Kate Cross, who scored a 26-ball 17.

"[With the bat] we didn’t get partnerships together and didn’t have a set batter. I thought the girls in the lower order fought really well – Crossy might be looking for a little trip up the order! But we weren’t able to get partnerships together and lost wickets at regular moments," said Knight.

"In the three games we’ve played we haven’t been able to string batting and bowling together and put in that complete performance. That’s what you need to do when you’re playing against one of the best sides in the world. We backed ourselves to chase that down, but they came out hard at us and we lost early wickets. I’m proud of the way the girls fought but unfortunately, the Ashes have gone." she signed off.

The second ODI will take place on Sunday (February 06) at the Junction Oval in Melbourne.