England seek better batting performance against Australia in second Ashes ODI

England will be seeking a vastly improved batting performance when they go into Thursday's second ODI against Australia 0-1 down in the Ashes.

A top-order collapse which saw England crash to 19 for 4 and then 44 for 5 proved the difference between the sides - with Ellyse Perry claiming 3 for 43 - the hosts failing to recover despite their bowlers putting Australia under pressure in a nervy, but ultimately successful, chase.

England's batting woes came down somewhat to poor shot selection and, were it not for No. 5 Natalie Sciver's fighting 64 and tailender Sophie Ecclestone's valuable 27-run cameo off as many balls, the defeat could have been much heavier. As it happened Australia won by two wickets with 45 balls to spare after making hard work of reaching the target.

Alyssa Healy's 66 was their only real batting performance of note as Ecclestone claimed three wickets and Laura Marsh two as part of a strong all-round performance from England's bowling unit in which Sciver and quicks Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole also claimed one wicket each.

Shrubsole said England wouldn't be making wholesale changes to their approach which saw them go unbeaten in 14 matches across all formats immediately before meeting Australia.

"We just need to be clear in our decision-making and commit with bat and ball," Shrubsole said. "There were a lot of positives from the game, despite the defeat, and I think we threw a few punches back - especially with the ball. We were excellent with the ball as a unit, Soph and Katherine especially were threatening and really troubled Australia. Hopefully we can keep that going."

One England wicket which fell through no fault of their own was that of Fran Wilson, who was given out lbw despite replays showing the ball had hit her glove first as she attempted a sweep off Jess Jonassen. With no DRS in this series, Wilson left the ground in furious disbelief, while England captain Heather Knight later said the players would prefer to have the review system in place. Healy and Australian coach Matthew Mott also supported the inclusion of DRS.

Shrubsole said: "One or two decisions were slightly frustrating, but umpires are human and they're allowed to make errors. It would be nice to have DRS but it's the same for both teams and it was the same in the last Ashes.

"Going forward I'm sure DRS will become part of the women's game on a regular basis like it is in the men's and that's obviously a step in the right direction. It's come into ICC tournaments so bilateral series like this are the logical next step."

DRS was not brought in for this series because of cost and resource consraints, however it will be in place for every home England women's international from 2020.

Australia will also be looking to improve, particularly with the bat, and especially against an England side determined to do better.

"We never really know when we're beaten and we've made a habit of fighting back into games and that's a good quality in this team," Shrubsole said. "We didn't really get enough runs - and it's always hard to come back from a start like we did - but we took it pretty deep and that was impressive.

"It did look as if we might steal the win at a couple of points but we didn't get there in the end. As a team it was a really good effort to take it that far and we can take a lot from that."

The second match will be played in Leicester on Thursday, followed by the third and final match of the ODI series in Canterbury on Sunday. The one-dayers will be followed by a four-day Test and three T20Is.