An Australian win, a huge match haul of wickets, a turnaround from a day earlier – sure, all significant on the fifth day of the Women’s Ashes Test in Trent Bridge. Significant above all, though, were two words in that previous sentence: fifth day. Finally, a women’s Test was played over the full span that men’s matches enjoy, giving the space to the contest that allowed it to run its course.
Only once has a women’s match been scheduled over five days, for a standalone game in Sydney in 1992. On that occasion the entire third day was washed out, and Australia won by an innings so might well have wrapped it up in four had that not been the case. Even the anomalous five-match series of 1984‑85 had four-day matches. So if we get deeply technical, this was the first women’s Test with play on all five days – and it was a triumph.
