Women's Ashes door still ajar for England after Test draw with Australia

This rare four-day clash will go down in history as the moment Ellyse Perry plundered an historic, unbeaten double hundred, but her side was unable to muster the result her majestic innings deserved.

Australia must now win one of the three Twenty20 matches remaining in this multi-format series to ensure they retain the urn they won back from England two years ago. For England, it's a matter of win all three, and win back the Ashes.

England began the final day 128 runs adrift of Australia with all 10 second-innings wickets in hand, and proceeded to stave off just about everything the home side threw at them.

Opening pair Tammy Beaumont and Lauren Winfield were the only casualties on an unfruitful day for Australia's bowlers who received little help from the wicket, or the pink ball.

"It was good to get the two points but there wasn't a lot of life in the wicket today, so it was pretty tough for the bowlers, to pick up two in that first session was a really good start but England just shut us down there," Australian captain Rachael Haynes said.

"It was a little bit frustrating, I felt a little bit for our bowling group because they were bowling good areas, it just wasn't doing anything. Particularly later on in a Test you expect maybe a little bit of variable bounce.

"In some respects it was the same for both teams and we had the rub of the green yesterday.

"I certainly don't sit here and feel a bit empty or lost with where we're at. Our team's in a good place at the moment we've got some people in very good form, so it's really exciting heading into the last leg of the series."

There was virtually nothing to be extracted for the bowlers from this pitch, allowing England's top order to fend away any chance of defeat.

Captain Heather Knight stoically led the way with a brick-wall like 79 not out off 220 balls. Georgia Elwiss was just as stubborn at the other end and finished unbeaten on 41 from 190 balls. When the captains shook hands an hour early to call it off, those two had put on 117 runs unbroken and England was 2-206.

"It was important we came back today and really dug in and fought hard and showed a bit of character, myself and Georgia did that really well," Knight said.

"For us to put on that partnership was really pleasing and obviously make the game safe. We hung in there last night, they could've really taken the game away from us.

"It was a tough day, you don't play a lot of multi-format cricket and they're tough on the body and mentally as well. To come back today and only lose two wickets was really pleasing for mine."

Never has a Test been played in Australia, barring a match against New Zealand 21 years ago where only 7.5 overs were bowled, where so few wickets have been taken. And this was in a match which didn't lose a single over to rain, such was the toil of the bowlers on both sides of the equation.

This was also the second-highest scoring Test on Australian soil, and boasted the highest scoring rate at 2.41 runs per over.

Perry had 213 of those, while Knight ended with a pair of half-centuries.

A total of 2324 witnessed the final day, bringing the total for the Test to 12,674. It was a fair come down from the Perry show on day three as Australia threw just about everything they had at England, including Nicole Bolton, Elyse Villani and Rachael Haynes, without success.

Debutants Amanda-Jade Wellington and Tahlia McGrath picked up a wicket each.

Wellington's ripping leg break to remove Beaumont was easily the highlight of the day, and reminiscent of Shane Warne's "Gatting ball" in 1993.

McGrath had Winfied trapped LBW soon after, but that all happened in the first session and that was the extent of the damage.

The battle for the urn between the World Cup winners and the world No.1 team goes on.