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• Shimona Nelson scores perfect 44 as Magpies upset Thunderbirds 53-50; Aiken George's Swifts beat GIANTS to go top

  Adelaide Thunderbirds suffered their third loss of the season and have fallen to second place when they went down 53-50 to bottom-placed Collingwood Magpies on Saturday.

  Shimona Nelson scored 44 goals and Sophie Garbin nine, in a 100 per cent shooting effort as the Magpies in their final season in the Suncorp Super Netball league overcame the defensive efforts of Shamera Sterling and Latanya Wilson.

  Collingwood led 16-12 after the first quarter and held a 27-23 lead at half time.

  Collingwood widened their lead with another 16-12 effort in the third quarter and held on for the win despite a fourth-quarter rally from Thunderbirds who outscored Collinwood 15-10.

  Eleanor Cardwell scored 27 goals from 29 attempts in the loss that saw Thunderbirds’ record fall to second place in the league table with eight wins, one draw and three losses this season.

  The new league leaders are the New South Wales Swifts who defeated GIANTS 68-63 thanks in part to Romelda Aikens-George’s 32 goals from 39 attempts and Helen Housby’s 100 percent shooting for 18 goals.

  Matisse Leatherbarrow and Jo Harten each scored 13 goals while Sophie Dwyer had 11 from 13 in the losing cause.

  The Swifts now boast a record of nine wins, one draw and two losses after 12 rounds.

  In the other game on Saturday, Queensland Firebirds defeated Melboune Vixens 76-71.

• Huge blow for England with spinner Jack Leach ruled out of Ashes

  England’s Ashes preparation has been rocked after spinner Jack Leach was ruled out of the series with a back stress fracture.

  Leach claimed four scalps during England’s 10-wicket victory over Ireland at Lord’s this week, but developed low back symptoms during the match.

  A subsequent scan on Sunday revealed a stress fracture in the lumbar region of the spine, which will rule him out of all five Ashes Tests.

  “Spinner Jack Leach has been ruled out of the LV= Insurance men’s Ashes series with a low back (lumbar) stress fracture,” an England statement said.

  “England will announce a replacement for the Ashes series in due course.”

• Josh Hazlewood set to be fit for Ashes despite missing Test Championship final

  Australia pace bowler Josh Hazlewood will miss the World Test Championship final against India at the Kia Oval – little more than a week before the Ashes begins.

  Hazlewood has been managing an Achilles issue as well as a side injury that flared up during the recent Indian Premier League, but Cricket Australia insists the 32-year-old will be fit for the start of this summer’s showdown with England at Edgbaston on June 16.

  “Josh was very, very close to being given the green light but we are cognisant that our upcoming schedule means this is not a one-off Test match for us,” Australia chair of selectors George Bailey told cricket.com.au.

  “This will give Josh an ideal preparation leading into Edgbaston. With six Test matches in a little over seven weeks we will need all of our fast bowling assets.”

  Hazlewood has played just four Tests in the past three years due to a series of injuries but shared a stint of new-ball bowling with five-day skipper Pat Cummins during the team’s preparation in England.

  He returned early from his recent spell in the IPL due to a side issue, having been ruled out of the preceding Test campaign in India with a recurrence of the Achilles problem he sustained in the final five-day match of the Australia summer.

  Speaking on Saturday about the close proximity of the India decider, which starts on Wednesday, and the first Ashes Test, Hazlewood said: “It’s probably one or the other for me at this stage.

  “Just being over here for the last week and bowling in England, it does feel a lot easier on the body compared to Australia or India where it can be hot, the wickets are really hard and you’ve got to bend your back to get something out of them.

  “In England it feels like you can just take that couple of per cent off, bowl a bit within yourself and the wicket does enough for you.”

  Michael Neser has joined the official 15-man Australia party, but Scott Boland is likely to partner Cummins and Mitchell Starc at the Oval.

  Neser, who has been training with the Australia squad alongside another reserve quick bowler Sean Abbott, has been playing for Glamorgan in the LV= County Championship and taken 19 wickets at 25.63.

  Australia coach Andrew McDonald said the tight turnaround between the WTC final and the five-Test Ashes series has to be taken into account in managing their fast bowlers.

  McDonald said: “Definitely consideration for (the schedule) – we don’t want to go too far ahead.

  “We’ve got the WTC final to play, which we are excited about, but on the back of that we have to quickly turn our attention to England and the Ashes.

  “There are short turnarounds there. That’s nothing we’re not used to.

  “So, there’ll always be considerations around management. I’d say there’d be some moving parts amongst the quicks.”