Women's Ashes: England beat Australia in final T20 at Cardiff

Natalie Sciver recorded career-best figures with both bat and ball

Natalie Sciver starred with bat and ball as England won the final Twenty20 international of the Women's Ashes against Australia by five wickets.

Having taken a career-best 4-15 with the ball, the all-rounder hit her highest score in T20s for England.

Chasing just 112 to win, England were reduced to 22-3 before Sciver (47) stepped up.

The Southern Stars wrapped up the multi-format series with victory at Hove on Friday.

Australia had not won the Women's Ashes since before it switched to a multi-format series

Anya Shrubsole claimed the first four Australia wickets to fall to reduce the visitors to 25-4, before Sciver's career-best 4-15 saw the visitors bowled out for just 111.

England's batting has come under scrutiny after consistently poor performances this summer and Danielle Wyatt - promoted to the top of the batting order with Lauren Winfield having been dropped - went for a golden duck as she chopped on to Ellyse Perry.

Captain Charlotte Edwards and Sarah Taylor also failed but Sciver struck 47, including two fours and a huge six, to ensure England ended the series on a high with a consolation win.

What they said

Player of the match Natalie Sciver: "It is a shame that we didn't come off with the bat in Hove and that will haunt us for a while. It's hard to explain the poor batting, maybe there was a lack of concentration. We knew the task in hand and we knew that we were capable of performing and we showed that today, so it is just a shame that we couldn't do it at Hove."

England captain Charlotte Edwards: "We spoke about getting something from this last match and to beat the best team in the world is something we should be proud of but missing out on that run chase at Hove makes it doubly disappointing as a group. Ultimately Australia have been the better team but when we have played at our best we have matched them."

Australia skipper Meg Lanning: "The bowlers have certainly been the better performers this series for both sides. Early wickets have been a key and it meant that we had to take the time to rebuild our innings and especially in T20 cricket if you have to start to rebuild you're in a little bit of trouble. Even though we won the Ashes and that is what we came here to do there is certainly still a lot for us to do, especially with a World T20 coming up."

Ex-England batter Ebony Rainford-Brent on BBC Test Match Special: "The biggest issue for England in this short format is the opening partner for Charlotte Edwards. The bowling is brilliant but they need to work on building batting partnerships. This is why Nat Sciver scoring runs is such a positive."

Ellyse Perry was named player of the series after scoring 264 runs and taking 16 wickets in the seven matches