The result confirmed Australia will win the multi-format Ashes series, and reaffirmed the ever-widening gap between the sides. Australia won all three ODIs and had much the better of the Test. It would take a turnaround to prevent them from completing a T20 clean sweep too.

Australia’s 226-3 was a record for them in T20Is, and any small hopes England might have had of chasing it down were soon extinguished by an incisive new-ball spell from Ellyse Perry and Megan Schutt. Wickets fell in each of the first three overs, and the only question became what the eventual margin would be.

With only Sciver, Lauren Winfield, and Katherine Brunt able to make it into double figures, it ended by a distance as England’s heaviest T20I defeat. Having never lost here in 14 previous internationals, England’s ‘Fortress Chelmsford’ wasn’t just breached; it was blown to smithereens.