ENGLAND women and their Australian counterparts must try again tomorrow (10.30am) to resolve their third Ashes Royal London ODI after rain washed out play today at Worcestershire's New Road ground.

Umpires Martin Saggers and Alex Wharf called off play for the day at 1.45pm after no let-up in the weather.

The match needed to start by 3.55pm for a 20-overs-a-side contest to take place but the constant rain which had fallen since early morning showed no signs of relenting.

The sides are level in the series — after England won the opening clash at Taunton and Australia replied with victory at Bristol — and will now take advantage of the reserve day.

England pace bowler Kate Cross said: "We had a chat about what happened at Bristol. We haven't tried to reinvent things because we beat them at Taunton.

"We knew they would come back hard at us. They did exactly that and fair play to them, that's what the Ashes is about. We weren't expected to take the Ashes easily this summer.

"We didn't bowl well enough, we gave too many four balls and we let a lot of pressure off at crucial times. We didn't turn up at Bristol and the Australians did so credit to them.

"We knew it would be very hard fought. But we've not become a bad team overnight and we know this series is going to be played that way."

Cross admits England have put in a lot of work to try and combat the threat of Meg Lanning, who fell cheaply at Taunton but made a century at Bristol.

She said: "It is difficult we know. She is a world-class player. We have done a lot of work on analysing her and how we can get her out early because that's the best way to do it.

"You have got very small margin of error with her but it's a good challenge and all the team are up for that."

Australian opener Jess Jonassen said: "It is always hard to say whether there is momentum with either side. The last two games were evenly contested for periods.

"You've got to play each game as it comes and if you get too far ahead of yourself, it can turn around quite quickly against you. It is a matter of wanting to peak at the right time."