Two sides with plenty to play for is the equation after the first T20I of the Women's Ashes. For England it's pride, with the best-case scenario now a drawn series in a fightback from 8-0 down that would better their 2023 effort at home, where they overcame a 6-0 deficit to draw eight-all. For Australia, the chance to record their most emphatic victory in the history of the multi-format contest is very real, as is a 16-0 whitewash. Just whisper that last bit quietly though, as the Australia camp are - publicly at least - not giving it any airtime just yet.
But England are going to need a much better performance than their 57-run defeat in Monday's opening T20I if they are to salvage something from the series, with the result already guaranteeing that Australia will retain the Ashes.
For a time at the SCG, Sophia Dunkley's first outing of the series had England on track to overhaul a lofty target of 199. But despite her 30-ball 59, the tourists were left wanting.by a lack of support with the bat and a sub-par fielding display that brought back memories of their T20 World Cup group stage exit at the hands of West Indies.
Meanwhile, Australia's ability to deal with anything thrown at them - on this occasion the late injury withdrawals of Alyssa Healy and Ash Gardner - only rammed home their dominance.
"Home" being a keyword, Dunkley added, although she admitted that playing on Australia's turf wasn't the only difference between this and the previous contest in England.
"We are obviously very disappointed with the result today," Dunkley said. "We came here with a really open mindset of a new format, fresh format, and we just couldn't put them under pressure for long enough. We've come away falling short, but there's still eight points out there to get, so we're going to go into that doing everything we can to try and come away those eight points. There's still a lot for us to play for, going into the next few games.
"We're playing Australia on their home soil, so coming here and doing that was always going to be tough to get over the line and win the Ashes. But over the last few games, they've just put us under pressure a bit more than we have done to them, and we've not come away winning those big moments. There's definitely things we've reflected on there and now it's just for us to look forward to the next three games that we've got, and just to give it our all, and try and fight for those eight points as much as we can."
The T20 leg moves to Canberra on Thursday, then Adelaide on Saturday before the four-day, pink-ball Test at the MCG starting on January 30.
While England's fielding let them down in the latest match and, to a lesser extent, the first ODI, also in Sydney, their batters contributed to their own downfall on more than one occasion in the 50-over matches, which Australia won by four wickets, 21 runs and 86 runs, the latter after they had posted 308 for 8.
Dunkley epitomised the style of play England have aspired to under the coaching of Jon Lewis, with her aggressive batting taking her to fifty in just 24 balls as she peppered the gaps and cleared the boundary four times in all.
"I just wanted to come in and contribute as much as I could to the team," she said. "I just prided myself on being aggressive and trying to take the bowlers on, and putting the other team under pressure. I tried to go out there and do that today, and get us in the game and unfortunately it wasn't quite good enough, but I'll continue to do that going forward."
In terms of how England can turn things around, Dunkley added: "Just sticking to what we want to do and how we want to go about it. We've not been successful but we come back again and we don't change that. It's really important that we keep our eyes very much focused on how we want to play as a team, and how you want to come across. Look, we could go out there and try our best, and still lose. So either way we just want to give it our best shot and try and be brave."
England's focus on playing how they want to play - effectively the "fearless" mantra introduced by Lewis when he took charge of the team two years ago - has remained a common theme during this Ashes series. But the state of play suggests a change in approach is warranted - as Australia proved in adapting in the absence of two players who have both been involved in every T20I their side has played since January 2013.
Whether that extends to an outright change of leadership, however, remains up for debate, with captain Heather Knight's nine-year tenure sure to come under scrutiny.
"We just back Heather 100 percent to lead us out there," Dunkley said. "She's done the job amazingly for a long time. She's a massive, massive part of our change room, a massive leader and yeah, I back her 100 percent to help turn this team around. All we can do is stick together now and fight as hard as we can for the last three games. I'm sure she can bring the best out of us in the last couple of games."
Beth Mooney's 75 off 51 balls set up Australia's victory and she also took two catches standing in as wicketkeeper for Healy, while legspinning duo Alana King and Georgia Wareham claimed five wickets between them to help bowl England out for just 141 in 16 overs. Acting captain Tahlia McGrath was their next-best batter with 26 off nine, and she took the crucial wicket of Dunkley as the home side once again showed off their enviable depth and resilience.
Could that stretch to keeping them unbeaten in the series? For Mooney, the task of winning the Ashes outright comes first.
"I don't know if we'll look that far ahead, but I think certainly we take stock tonight and enjoy that win," Mooney said. "That was a pretty special win after some great performances in the ODIs and then trying to play our way a little bit more in T20 cricket and put a marker out there. We'll try and celebrate that win and then worry about Canberra tomorrow.
"You look at each game in isolation and get the points that are on offer and hopefully the conversation in the dressing-room is we've got to play on Thursday like we're on no points and it's the start of the series. This group's hungry to keep getting better and I think the really important thing is that we've got the personnel that can keep pushing the boundaries."