England's misery against Australia continued as they were bowled out for 90 in a shambolic 72-run defeat in the third Women's Ashes T20 in Adelaide.

Chasing 163 to win, England slumped to 39-5 inside seven overs and only Heather Knight's 40 provided any resistance in the chase with Danni Wyatt-Hodge's 17 the only other score in double figures.

England, who are 12-0 down in the multi-format points-based series, have now lost all six white-ball games on the tour, and are staring down the barrel of an Australian clean sweep with four points on the line during next week's Test match in Melbourne.

Such was the sorry state of England's batting that they were outscored by Australia opener Beth Mooney alone, who made a sublime unbeaten 94 from 63 balls in the hosts' 162-5.

The score did not feel beyond England on a good pitch and after their batting had improved in the previous match in Canberra where they came within six runs of chasing 186.

But they were thoroughly outplayed in all aspects of the game as only Nat Sciver-Brunt, who was bowled by an Annabel Sutherland beauty, could realistically say she fell to a good delivery.

Of the top order, Sophia Dunkley was promoted to open and chipped one to cover in the second over, Alice Capsey was caught behind sweeping for six and Wyatt-Hodge and Amy Jones both fell to loose shots off Georgia Wareham in the seventh over as England's hopes of a first win were crushed.

The Test match begins on 30 January as England aim to avoid the first clean sweep of the multi-format Ashes, which has been in place since 2013.

Mooney has been a constant thorn in England's side throughout this T20 series with 213 runs in three innings, and in Adelaide she delivered an outstanding display of fitness and game-awareness as her batting partners fell tamely around her.

The left-hander hit more twos than fours in her knock (10 fours and 11 twos), and has also run almost as many twos than all of England's side by herself across the whole series (20 to England's 23). Her dot ball percentage of 25% is stark in comparison to England's combined 41% too.

Even in the final over, she was sprinting back and diving to the striker's end as England had no answers to her versatility, with her audacious scoop over the keeper off Lauren Filer an example of her 360 skill alongside her discipline in executing the basics.

England improved vastly in the field and with the ball, particularly at the death as they conceded just one boundary from the final three overs - in contrast to the 48 runs they conceded from the same stage of the game in the previous outing.

Youngster Georgia Voll was caught off Capsey for 23 after an opening stand of 56, Sophie Ecclestone removed Phoebe Litchfield for 12 with her first ball and Ellyse Perry fell for the same score off Charlie Dean.

At 10 overs and 76-1, it looked like Australia could end up a few runs short and while England did not make many mistakes in the field, Mooney once again gave the tourists a demonstration in discipline and ruthlessness to provide some backbone.

If Mooney was Australia's backbone, England were utterly spineless.

There were glimmers of a batting rejuvenation in Canberra with aggressive, punchy efforts from Wyatt-Hodge, Dunkley and Knight but any hopes of repeating that were quickly distinguished in front of a lively crowd of more than 10,000.

After a top order slump littered with poor shots, Knight showed some much-needed grit with three fours and a six in her 38-ball knock but she was let down by the rest of her line-up.

Maia Bouchier was dropped for Dunkley to move up the order and Capsey came in at three, but the changes did very little to ease England's misery.

Knight and Ecclestone's stand of 29 was the highest of the lot in England's second-heaviest T20 defeat in terms of runs, but it only felt like it was delaying the inevitable.

There was a wicket for each of Australia's bowlers in a fine all-round performance and a day after head coach Jon Lewis admitted their superiority in agility, speed and power, they also delivered more moments of magic in the field.

Newcomer Voll leapt to her right in the covers to remove Ecclestone, before veteran Perry pulled off a stunning dive and a throw with pinpoint accuracy to remove Linsey Smith.

England can no longer say with any credibility that there is not a gap between them and Australia, as the defeats are simply becoming more embarrassing as the tour goes on.

"That was a tough watch, we didn't play anywhere near our best cricket. We've got a lot of work over the next few days to make sure we can front-up at the Test match at Melbourne."

Australia captain Tahlia McGrath: "It looked like Beth Mooney was batting on a different wicket to everyone else.

"We are really looking forward to the Test, a day-night match at the MCG, it doesn't get much better."

England captain Heather Knight: "We've got to draw a line under the T20 series and try and win the one-off Test.

"We haven't put our batting and bowling together. There's a lot of learning to do, we're gutted, we need to learn a lot from this Australia team."