On the fourth morning of the Women’s Ashes Test in Nottingham, Australia had the game in their hands. One wicket down, 149 on the board, leading by 159 in the third innings, with their two most reliable hands Beth Mooney and Ellyse Perry together at the crease. Thirty-five overs later they were all out for 257, the last nine down for 108.
That session-and-a-bit of was like the breaking of a storm, after three and a half days of bowlers working thanklessly thanks to a batting pitch and a raft of missed chances from both teams. The game’s trajectory had not suggested losing two wickets in four Lauren Filer deliveries just before lunch, three wickets in 12 balls in the second session, or three in six balls just after tea.
Australia’s eventual lead of 267 owed a lot to the captain, Alyssa Healy, with an even 50 that stopped the run of wickets in the second session and held firm until the beginning of the third. Commentators speculated about whether Healy was hiding herself down at No 8 in the order, after a first-innings duck that followed a pair of them in her previous Test in 2022.
Her move down to No 6 was more about getting the first-innings century-maker Annabel Sutherland up the order, and not disrupting Ashleigh Gardner who had batted well at No 7. A captain with no runs behind her making way seemed sensible enough, especially after keeping wicket for 121 overs.
In the end the demotion earned her all of four deliveries of extra rest, as Mooney and Gardner fell. Perhaps rushed, Healy nearly did complete her Audi – four noughts in a row – when she feathered a ball from Kate Cross with the wicketkeeper up to the stumps. It got through Amy Jones, perhaps the most important of six England drops in the innings, and Healy was soon able to start playing her favoured cut shot in typically a counterattacking mode.
Still, England were delighted when they got through Australia just after the second break. They had needed to create 16 wicket-taking chances – and had done so. Their young pace option in Filer had outbowled Australia’s young pace option Darcie Brown: both were erratic at times, but Filer managed to find a more dangerous line much more often.
Then there was the epochal effort of Sophie Ecclestone, the left-arm spinner bowling 77.1 overs in the match to finish with five wickets in each innings. Nothing in Ecclestone’s career could have prepared her for such a workload, yet she was still delivering with quality at the end as at the start. Jubilation from the crowd spilled over as she took the final wicket, completing a 10-wicket match and becoming the first woman to do so for England in 20 years.
That eventual target of 268 looked tall next to the record chase in women’s Tests: 198, by Australia’s 2011 team, but as with some statistics, that one is not very meaningful. Most women’s Tests have been played over the course of three days, while others have lost time to rain. Out of the 145 matches played to date, 53 of them didn’t even reach a fourth innings. Another 45 had fourth innings of less than 50 overs, with most of those teams chasing token targets or batting out draws when facing unlikely ones.
If we look at broadly possible chases – say, targets between 140 and 300, with more than 50 overs faced – there have only been 37 of those in 89 years of the format. Six wins, 19 draws, a dozen losses. The successful chases are uncommon, but mostly that’s because the format is too. The modern style of attacking batting has had few attempts at a total, and England nearly got the record at their most recent attempt in Canberra in 2022.
- Download the Guardian app from the iOS App Store on iPhone or the Google Play store on Android by searching for 'The Guardian'.
- If you already have the Guardian app, make sure you’re on the most recent version.
- In the Guardian app, tap the Menu button at the bottom right, then go to Settings (the gear icon), then Notifications.
- Turn on sport notifications.
Chasing 268 then was eminently gettable for an England team of this batting talent that can play in such a positive way. Tammy Beaumont’s first-innings double ton, the attacking fifties from Heather Knight and Nat Sciver-Brunt, the pitch that still looked nice for batting when players timed their shots, all of it was there. A start of 55 for none in the first 10 overs confirmed the inevitable. England would run this down by lunch the following day. Free entry was announced.
But that crowd might be dampened after all. Filer outbowled Brown, but Ecclestone has some competition in the spin department from Gardner. Their respective first innings were five for 129 compared to four for 99, with Gardner intervening every time England looked on top. First she dislodged Knight, later Sciver-Brunt, and finally ended Beaumont’s epic, giving Australia a small lead.
In the second innings she struck first ball, Beaumont again, a rare situation where a bowler was on a hat-trick and both of the wickets were the same player. That slip catch was followed by a ball that turned sharply and stayed low, the surface starting to play some tricks at last, catching Knight in front. Sciver-Brunt’s sweep shot, dollied to the field off the top edge, completed a triple strike that England couldn’t believe.
Three for 33 so far for Gardner, with more to come, and the wickets of Emma Lamb and Sophia Dunkley falling at the other end. England will start the final day with five wickets down and 152 more runs to get. Australia were up, they were down, they were out, and somehow they end the fourth day as they started it, with the match squarely back in their hands.
