Ashleigh Gardner rips Test Australia’s approach after Sophie Ecclestone’s ten give England hope
England 463 and 116 for five (Wyatt 20*, Cross 5*, Gardner 3-33) want 152 runs to beat Australia 473 and 257 (Mooney 85, Healy 50, Ecclestone 5-63)
Another five-wicket haul, and ten for the match, from Sophie Ecclestone set England up for an attractive final-day pursuit at Trent Bridge earlier than Australia roared again by way of their very own game-changer, Ashleigh Gardner, who claimed three key wickets on the fourth night to show the Women’s Ashes Test on its head.
England had been left needing to tug off the very best profitable run-chase in Women’s Test historical past, nicely past Australia’s 198 for 3 within the 2011 Ashes, and surpass their very own document for the very best fourth-innings rating of 245 for 9 throughout final yr’s draw with Australia in Canberra after they had been set a goal of 268.
Their hopes had been dented when Gardner, Australia’s off-spinning allrounder who predicted on the third evening that the vacationers might use a pitch displaying some cracks to their benefit on day 5, had England’s first-innings double-centurion Tammy Beaumont caught at slip for 22 and eliminated Nat Sciver-Brunt to a mistimed pull both facet of Tahlia McGrath’s lbw dismissal of Emma Lamb.
Gardner then trapped Heather Knight lbw as she took three wickets for 9 runs within the area of 17 balls to depart England floundering on 73 for 4. Just as Sophia Dunkley and Danni Wyatt had began to regular issues for England, Kim Garth had Dunkley caught behind and by the shut England nonetheless wanted 152 runs with 5 wickets in hand.
England had missed six possibilities in opposition to their opponents, who constructed a 267-run lead firstly on the again of partnerships price 99 between openers Beth Mooney and Phoebe Litchfield and 50 between Mooney and Ellyse Perry earlier than Alyssa Healy found some well timed type – and luck – to placed on 59 for the eighth wicket with Alana King. That restricted the injury as Australia went from 149 for 1 to 257 all out of their second innings, thanks largely to Ecclestone’s 5 for 63 which gave her match figures of 10 for 192.
Making Ecclestone’s achievement all of the extra outstanding was her relentless toil throughout Australia’s first innings, when she bowled 46.2 overs, 28 of them on the trot, for five for 129, her maiden five-for haul in Tests. This haul got here from fewer overs, 30.5, however that was nonetheless near double England’s subsequent hardest-working, seamer Kate Cross with 17, and Ecclestone was working because the hosts’ sole frontline spinner, with Knight sending down 5 overs in Australia’s second innings and fellow part-time spinner Sophia Dunkley simply two within the first.
Litchfield had added only one to her in a single day rating of 41 when she hit an Ecclestone supply to Cross, who failed to carry on at cowl. But Cross was smiling once more when she had Litchfield out leaving for a second time in her maiden Test, this time with one which jagged again in sharply from size and crashed into the highest of off stump 4 runs shy of a half-century.
Mooney introduced up her fifty sweeping Ecclestone to the boundary and survived on 55 when Sciver-Brunt entered the assault having despatched down simply 5 overs in Australia’s first innings attributable to a knee problem however could not maintain a firmly struck return catch on her follow-through.
Lauren Filer, the younger fast, turned issues again in England’s favour with two wickets in 4 balls when she had Perry out chopping on to a brief ball after which produced one other, fuller, ball that seamed in once more to beat McGrath’s flick and deflect off the entrance pad to peg again off stump.
Filer saved the Australians beneath strain along with her tempo and motion, however it was left-arm spinner Ecclestone’s variation in pace which accounted for Jess Jonassen, a faster ball that was too full for her tried slog sweep and skidded low beneath the bat into the stumps. It was the second time Ecclestone, the No. 1-ranked bowler in each white-ball codecs, had dismissed Jonassen this match.
Annabel Sutherland was promoted to No. 6 after her unbeaten century from No. 8 within the first innings and she or he acquired a life on nought this time when she swept Ecclestone arduous and low to sq. leg the place Wyatt shelled the chance. But then Ecclestone received one to show in a good distance and Mooney edged onto leg stump to fall for 85.
When Gardner walked out forward of Healy – who was staring down the prospect of a double pair in Ashes Tests – the strain mounted, and threatened to boil over when Cross had Gardner pouched at second slip on the third ball she confronted. Then Cross fired one in that appeared to have missed Healy’s bat by a hair’s breadth first-ball earlier than hanging the underside of Amy Jones’ gloves just for Ultra-Edge to indicate Healy had received a feather to it and one other, albeit tough, probability had gone begging for England.
Healy confronted 4 extra balls earlier than she was off the mark, bisecting slip and gully and from there she appeared to settle step by step into her innings, her beautiful off-drive to dispatch Filer’s fuller ball down the bottom for 4 proved it. She wanted to after Wyatt made up for her earlier blunder when Sutherland spooned Ecclestone to her at sq. leg, Australia having misplaced 4 wickets for 20 runs within the area of 33 balls.
Filer was in a position to exploit one of many cracks Gardner had talked about when she received one to spit up into King’s again as she took evasive motion and, after Healy introduced up her fifty with a single in direction of cowl, King edged Lauren Bell to slide.
Healy perished spooning a full toss from Ecclestone straight to midwicket and Ecclestone sealed her five-for when she trapped Darcie Brown lbw for a third-ball duck.
There hasn’t been a end in a Women’s Test since 2015 when Australia defeated England at Canterbury, however this match is now poised to interrupt a run of six stalemates.
Valkerie Baynes is a basic editor, ladies’s cricket, at ESPNcricinfo