Cross faced 12 balls at the end as her side fell short of the target by 12 runs. Had they won, England would have taken a 6-4 lead in the Ashes series into the final three one-day internationals. Instead, they go into the matches trailing by that score.
A win would have also set a new record for a fourth-innings chase in women’s Tests and given England their first success over Australia in the longest format since 2014.
“I came off the pitch and I was quite happy because I had done my job,” said Cross.
“Then I saw all my team-mates’ faces and it was almost like we lost. It was a complete mix of emotions.
“The dressing room afterwards was really, really quiet. There were a lot of tears.
“It was a game neither team deserved to lose, a draw didn’t feel like the right result and both teams could have won.
“We got into a position we could win and in some way that is worse.
“We knew it would have been something special.
“The fact we didn’t lose it was a decision that had to be made to keep us in the Ashes as well.”
Australia now only need to win to win one of the three ODIs, with the first on Thursday (03:10 GMT).