Beaumont: I’ve been dreaming of hitting Ashes century since 2005
F
ollowing her essential unbeaten century, Tammy Beaumont described the second she reached three figures as one thing she had “dreamt of since 2005”, as she grew to become simply the second England ladies’s participant to attain 100 in all three codecs of the game.
Faced with hauling in Australia’s first-innings whole of 473, Beaumont, 32, brought up her ton in the penultimate over of the day as she guided England to the shut at 218 for 2.
An ever current for England during the last decade, Beaumont has over 200 white-ball appearances for her nation, however in simply her eighth Test match, she joined Heather Knight as solely the second feminine cricketer to have reached three figures for England in Test, ODI and T20 cricket.
“Heather said to me when I came into the changing room ‘welcome to the club’,” joked Beaumont after play. “I didn’t realise she meant the all three formats one, I thought she just meant an Ashes hundred or something. It’s always good to look back at personal milestones and nice to tick that one off – something that I thought probably might evade me as I’m coming to the latter half of my career.
Of where her Test century ranks in her career achievements, Beaumont said: “If we go on to win this Test match then it would be right up there. Let’s wait and see. It’s great to tick it off and yes, as a kid, I dreamt of scoring an Ashes Test hundred – pretty much since 2005 that has been my goal. But as I’ve gone on, it’s contributing to the team. Ask me on day five if we win and I think it’ll be a yes.”
Her century, reached off 152 balls, was dominated by pull photographs, as she punished the Aussie seamers any time they dropped quick, while she was equally dominant off the entrance foot when the bowlers overpitched, discovering the quilt boundary on quite a few events.
“I’m a typical opening batter and love the ball coming on,” Beaumont defined. “I played a lot of men’s cricket as a kid so almost the faster it comes to me the easier I find it.’
As dominant as Beaumont was, she also had her fair share of luck when facing the Aussie spinners, who she struggled to find the same rhythm against. On 88, an edge flashed past first slip, and when she was on 61, she was caught at short-leg after the ball bounced off her foot. Australia discussed whether to review, but decided against, assuming the ball had hit the ground.
“I knew I’d hit it and it had hit my foot,” defined Beaumont on whether or not it had been robust to maintain a poker face as Australia mentioned the evaluation. “I didn’t know if it had hit the floor as well but it’s not my decision to make. It’s hard to tell when it’s hit your foot whether it’s also hit the ground at the same time. I guess I got lucky with one but then again I’ve probably had a couple of unlucky decisions in the last month or so in regional cricket. I guess luck came at the right time.”
With England nonetheless over 250 runs adrift, England shall be hoping for Beaumont to repeat her trick from the warm-up match final week and register one other double-century.
“It’s quite evenly balanced,” was Beaumont’s evaluation. “We’re still a long way behind but only two wickets down and the wicket is pretty flat, still. It’s pretty evenly poised and it’s pretty much anyone’s game to grasp hold of on day three.
“If you apply yourself as a batter there’s definitely runs out there to be had and so far our batters have pretty much looked at ease.”