Alana King has gone from sitting on Australia’s bench to turning the Ashes on its head, producing one of the best balls of the series to help her side retain the trophy at Southampton.

Overlooked for the past four white-ball games, King was player of the match for Australia on Sunday as they scraped home to a three-run ODI victory over England.

The win gave Australia an 8-6 lead in the multi-format series, meaning even with a loss in the last ODI at Taunton on Tuesday they will retain the Ashes.

King created headlines last year when she bowled the perfect legbreak to dismiss Tammy Beaumont the day after Shane Warne’s death, having the Englishwoman stumped when she beat her in flight.

But her ball to dismiss the same batter on Sunday was every bit as good.

With England 2-107 after 21 overs, King pitched the ball on leg, spun it past the edge of Beaumont’s bat and took the top of her off stump to bowl the opener for 60.

“I haven’t seen it, but people keep telling me it was a great ball,” King said.

“My dad keeps screaming out on the balcony that it was a ripper. No doubt I will have a look at it later.

“But I’m just glad to be back in the squad and glad we got the win.”

King also removed England captain Heather Knight lbw and Alice Capsey in her 3-44 as Australia sent down 35 overs of spin.

Fellow legspinner Georgia Wareham was the other unlikely hero for Australia, as she took 26 off the last over with the bat to help Australia get to 282.

England then finished 7-279 in reply, ending their three-game winning streak over Australia and the hosts’ chances of winning back the Ashes.

“You talk about momentum in games and series. That swung the momentum back into our changeroom at the break,” captain Alyssa Healy said.

“We took a little bit of a buzz out of that, we were up and about after that last over. That helps.

“And it turned crucial in the end.”

Australia, though, is adamant the job is not done yet – with sights set on winning the multiformat series outright rather than just retaining the Ashes through a draw.

“We’ve retained it, which is awesome,” King said.

“But as we said all along we came to win it. So we have one more game to win the Ashes here.”

-AAP