Yesterday evening, Raf and I sat across the table from Jon Lewis, in a conference room on the 15th floor of the team’s swanky 5-star hotel in the centre of Adelaide, and conducted a lengthy interview with the England Head Coach, which Raf afterwards wrote up for The Guardian.

Asked how close he thought his England side were to the Australians, Lewis answered: “I think we’re closer than 10-0.”

He then went on to insist that the team’s batting wasn’t the problem, reserving most of his criticism for the bowlers.

It makes you wonder if he has actually been watching the same series as the rest of us; because today’s outcome – a 72 run defeat, after having restricted Australia to their lowest total of the T20 series – somewhat suggests that they are not closer than 10-0, and that the batting is very much the problem.

Coming into this final T20, with the Ashes already gone, Lewis nevertheless said he would put out his strongest side. One change was enforced, with Lauren Bell – unavailable due to a migraine – replaced by Lauren Filer; but additionally England dropped Sarah Glenn and Maia Bouchier, bringing in Linsey Smith and Alice Capsey in their stead.

Glenn has been a strong performer for England over the past couple of years – she is currently placed 4th in the ICC rankings; and has been as high as 2nd – but the Aussies do seem to have worked out that if you play her with a straight bat (as Tahlia McGrath did in the last game) or get to the pitch of the ball (as Grace Harris was doing) you can take her for a lot of runs very quickly.

Bouchier has also had a tough tour, with 2 ducks and a highest score of 17 in the 2nd ODI, so that was probably a reasonable call as well.

Smith was straight into the action, taking the new ball as she has done for Vipers of late, bowling 2 overs in the powerplay for 11 runs without conceding a boundary. Given how hard bowling in the powerplay is to these Australians (ask Freya Kemp, who was pumped for 13 in her first over, or Lauren Filer, who went for 9) that’s job done; plus Smith also came back to bowl the 19th, conceding only 9 at the death despite the Australians throwing the bat at that stage. All in all, it was a solid return for Smith, so it is safe to say that’s the last match she’ll play for England until the next blue moon.

As in the game at the SCG, the Australian innings was all about Beth Mooney, who finished on 94 not out. Mooney doesn’t hit a lot of boundaries – aside from Ellyse Perry (who played a chunk of her career in the era when 120 was still a good score) her career boundary percentage is the lowest of the Australian top-order at 17%; and today it was even less than that. Mooney hit just 16% of her deliveries to the rope, but still finished with a Strike Rate of 149, meaning she did a lot of running. She’s an incredibly efficient runner too – she can go like lightning at Manuka when she has to, but she can also judge a run perfectly, conserving her energy on the occasions she doesn’t need to go hard.

Australia bubbled along at around 8 an over, reaching 123-3 going into the last 4. Those death overs proved crucial in the 2nd T20 at Manuka, with McGrath and Harris adding 53 runs; but here England kept much better control and the Australians were restricted to just 39*. (Ok… “just” is probably over-egging it, but it was still much better than 53!)

This left England with a target of 162 – the lowest they’ve been asked to chase in the T20 series, and a real opportunity to finally get some points on the board and show the world that they were closer than 10-0.

They blew it.

With no Bouchier, Dunkley moved up to open, and you could see from the first ball how she was going to play – swinging wildly at one outside off. Her next stroke – a textbook drive down the ground – showed that she can play properly, which is what she needed to do at that point in the game, but… then… well… Dunks gonna Dunks, and another cart at Darcie Brown’s first delivery was the end of her renaissance.

The recalled Capsey followed her in, followed her example with one decent shot (a lovely drive though point), and then followed her out, as Beth Mooney added “good ears” to her skillset on the night, hearing a little nick which the umpire had missed, and having her caught on review.

Australia bringing on Annabel Sutherland at that stage seemed like an odd move – pace on the ball was just what Danni Wyatt-Hodge wanted, and she proceeded to strike consecutive 4s to prove the point. But Sutherland then got the chance to bowl a ball at Nat Sciver-Brunt, and it was a good ‘un. “Top of off” seems to be a big thing in cricket at the moment – something coaches and commentators talk a lot about – and Sutherland nailed it, leaving England 3 down and in some trouble.

Nonetheless, Wyatt-Hodge was going well, and Heather Knight continued her solid form from Manuka, and for a moment you wondered if England were going to pull through. Georgia Wareham put an end to that – a careless stroke from Wyatt-Hodge saw her caught in the outfield; and two balls later Amy Jones followed LBW, probably a little too early in her innings to be trying a ramp – a thoroughly irresponsible shot that will have about as much impact on her future selection as Linsey Smith’s success with the ball today will have on hers.

It was all over then – Australia knew it, and England knew it. Heather Knight hit Alana King for the biggest over of the match (15 runs off the 13th) but it didn’t make the slightest bit of difference.

There was one more moment of real brilliance to come, as Georgia Voll taught England how to catch – showing the kind of athleticism you learn surfing on Bondi Beach, stretching out her right paw to take the sort of low diving grab that should only be possible if you are wearing a baseball mitt!

England did squeeze past their lowest ever T20 total of 87… just – bowled out for 90 – 4 runs fewer than Beth Mooney had made all by herself.

In that interview yesterday, we asked Jon Lewis what he was going to say in his team talk before today’s game. He replied that he thought that Grace Harris had done his work for him when she said on TV that Australia wanted to humiliate England, and that he’d give her a pat on the back when he saw her.

Like so much of cricket, it was mind-games from both Harris and Lewis. That’s the nature of the sport – we know all of these players can play. But only one team looks capable of playing out in the middle in front of a crowd at the moment, and it isn’t England. That’s the coach’s responsibility – that’s why he is paid a (rumoured) 6-figure salary. How much longer he’ll be being paid it is for the ECB to decide; and they need to decide very soon.