England beat Australia by five wickets to win the best-of-three Twenty20 series against the world champions 2-1 on Saturday and keep the women's Ashes alive.

Australia still lead the multi-format series by six points to four, but England inflicted their first T20 series defeat since 2017.

"We talked about trying to win the series and the way we performed tonight was brilliant," said England captain Heather Knight.

In a rain-disrupted match in front of a record crowd of 21,610 for women's bilateral international in England at Lord's, Australia posted 155-7 from their 20 overs.

Ellyse Perry top scored with 34 off 25 balls as the tourists recovered from 66-3 at the midway point of their innings.

Due to a rain delay, England were set a revised target of 119 off 14 overs.

The hosts appeared to be cruising to victory thanks to Alice Capsey's 46 off 23 balls.

And despite the loss of three late wickets, Knight's women got over the line with four balls to spare when Danielle Gibson hit her first ball for four.

Three one-day internationals remain in the series with one win enough for Australia to retain the Ashes.

"We've maintained belief after a tough start to the series," added Knight. "Another amazing atmosphere out here tonight helped us, another record.

"There is a long way to go, not much room for error, but we'll take it one game at a time."

Australia captain Alyssa Healy remains confident her side will bounce back from losing a T20 series for the first time since New Zealand's 2-1 win over six years ago.

"They just played a really good innings. They batted really well and we didn't execute," said Healy.

"In T20 when you are not quite on it, you can get pounced upon.

"Fortunately we've still got three games in the Ashes series in the one-day format."