The Ashes: England beat Australia in second T20 to keep series hopes alive

England kept their Ashes hopes alive with a thrilling three-run victory over Australia in the must-win second T20 at The Oval.

Danni Wyatt's 76 from 46 balls propelled England to 186-9, their highest ever T20 total against world champions Australia.

Australia needed an unlikely 20 to win from the final over and fell short on 183-8, despite Ellyse Perry's two sixes from the last two balls.

England trail 6-2 in the multi-format series, and need a total of nine points in order to regain the Ashes.

In front of an enthusiastic crowd of 20,328 in south London, England started positively with an opening stand of 57 between Wyatt and Sophia Dunkley.

But Annabel Sutherland, with 3-28, triggered a middle-order collapse that saw the hosts slip from 100-1 to 119-6, including skipper Heather Knight falling for a first-ball duck in her 100th T20 international.

Wyatt maintained her aggressive intent and held England's innings together, supported by Sophie Ecclestone's crucial 12-ball 22 at the death.

In reply, Australia openers Beth Mooney and Alyssa Healy attacked England's seamers by adding a rapid 59 in just 6.2 overs before leg-spinner Sarah Glenn bowled the latter for 37 from just 19 balls.

But the introduction of the spinners completely halted Australia's charge as they suffered a middle-order collapse of their own, losing four wickets for 16 runs with two wickets each for Glenn and Ecclestone, and one for Charlie Dean in her first appearance of the series.

Perry, with support in cameos from Georgia Wareham and Sutherland, led a late fightback but Ecclestone expertly held her nerve.

The third and final T20 takes place at Lord's on Saturday at 18:35 BST.

• Highlights on iPlayer: Watch England's T20 victory

• England 'going to fly' after first win - Knight

Third time lucky for under-pressure England

Despite trailing 6-0, much of the narrative surrounding England's performances in both the Test and the first T20 at Edgbaston has been that they are not too far away.

England pushed Australia for four out of five days in the Test and took the game to the penultimate ball in Birmingham, and at the third time of asking, managed to just stay on top when it mattered.

If England lost, the Ashes would have been surrendered at the earliest opportunity - though that would not have been a fair reflection of how they have played.

Wyatt led the charge, including smashing 25 from the 16th over, bowled by Megan Schutt, just as England had lost their flurry of wickets.

England's habit of losing wickets in clusters is one that will frustrate Knight, as numbers four to seven contributed just nine runs before being rescued by Ecclestone's late surge that included the innings' only six.

Healy and Mooney relished the quick Oval pitch, tucking into plenty of width and short bowling from England's seamers to somewhat silence the crowd.

But the spinners, particularly Glenn and the ever-reliable Ecclestone, stalled the run rate until Wareham's quickfire 19 from 11 balls briefly revived Australian hopes.

England have still got a lot of work to do - they cannot afford another defeat in four games - but they have at least landed one punch on the world's best.

'An important psychological hurdle' - what they said

England captain Heather Knight, speaking to BBC Test Match Special: "It was a little bit of a psychological hurdle for us to get over. I think the way we've stayed really positive and been really resilient after two close losses has been really outstanding.

"Hopefully we can push on and get something at Lord's. We know Australia will come back very hard at us and we'll try and win this T20 series 2-1."

England's Danni Wyatt on TMS: "Hopefully this is the start now. Not to get too far ahead of ourselves, we're going to celebrate tonight. To beat Australia is an incredible achievement. We'll see what we can improve upon and go again."