Lydia Greenway hit an unbeaten 39 off 27 balls to steer England's women to a four-wicket win over Australia in the first of five Twenty20 internationals.
The 25-year-old left-hander from Kent saw the tourists home on 144-6 at the Adelaide Oval with 10 balls to spare.
Australia totalled 140-5, thanks mainly to captain Alex Blackwell (35) and Lisa Sthalekar (38 off 29 deliveries).
But England began their reply with a flurry of boundaries and Greenway hit a six and four fours to guide them home.
"All the girls that came in knew what they had to do. We kept our cool and when the run rate went up and it paid off.
"I'm really happy with my performance and to start the series with a win. We'll be looking to take this momentum with us to the MCG on Friday," said Greenway.
She made an early mark on the game by taking a catch at deep mid-wicket to dismiss Shelley Nitschke off spinner Holly Colvin for 17 at the start of the seventh over of Australia's innings, Meg Lanning having already been bowled for 10 by Laura Marsh.
Colvin then took a leaping return catch to send Leah Poulton, who had been dropped by captain Charlotte Edwards at mid-wicket off Marsh, on her way for 26 but the World Twenty20 champions accelerated from 63-3 at the half-way point of their innings, thanks to the efforts of Blackwell and Sthalekar.
They were finally separated when Danielle Wyatt ran out home skipper Blackwell and the Stoke teenager then had Sthalekar after being entrusted with the final over of the innings.
England needed a good start with the bat and were given exactly that by Edwards and Marsh, who hit three fours each to set the tone for the run-chase.
Edwards was caught trying to reverse sweep Nitschke's left-arm spin after making 16 off nine balls and Marsh followed in the eighth over for a run-a-ball 23.
But Wyatt (16) and Susie Rowe (20 off 20) kept the scoreboard ticking over at a healthy rate and although England lost two wickets in the 17th over when Heather Knight and Fran Wilson fell to medium-pacer Sarah Coyte, the latter bowled first ball, Greenway kept her nerve to finish the job.
"England cashed in on some bad bowling and batted really well and in the end 140 wasn't quite enough," Sthalekar commented.
"We didn't quite have the rights plans for some batters...so we'll learn from that."
She added: "I think T20 for the women's games will start to flow on like the men's and it's going to be harder to keep teams down to around six runs an over."
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