Snapshot of day five of the Ashes Test between England and Australia at Trent Bridge, where the visitors launched the women's multi-format series with a win.
ENGLAND v AUSTRALIA, Women's Ashes Test, Trent Bridge, Day Five on Monday.
SCORE: Australia (473 and 257) beat England (463 and 178) by 89 runs.
SUMMARY: After England resumed on 5-116 chasing 268, the hosts whittled the margin down to 127 runs before Ashleigh Gardner took hold. After removing England's best three batters on the fourth evening, Gardner took all five wickets on Monday to finish the job quickly for Australia. Gardner's 8-66 gave her figures of 12-165 for the match and ensured England wouldn't survive until lunch. Australia now take a 4-0 points lead in the multi-format series, with wins in two of the six remaining white-ball matches set to be enough to retain them the Ashes.
PLAYER OF THE MOMENT: Ashleigh Gardner. Her incredible day-five performance gave her the best innings and match figures in history by an Australian woman and the second best of all-time in both categories.
KEY MOMENT: Alyssa Healy's stumping of rival glovewoman Amy Jones. After Jones put Healy down on 0 on day four before Healy made 50, Healy didn't offer Jones the same chance on Monday. The Australian keeper briefly fumbled an Ashleigh Gardner ball that ripped off the pitch, but managed to regain control in time and and whip off the bails before Jones could make a second effort to get her bat over the line. With 117 still required at that point and only the tail left to bat with Danni Wyatt, the game was as good as over.
STAT OF THE DAY: The result marks the end of six straight draws in women's Tests, and shows why the addition of a fifth day for the first time since 1992 was so important.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "She's going to be a real leader in this group for a long period of time. I hope that today gives her that confidence. I'm sure it will." - Alyssa Healy, on what 26-year-old Ashleigh Gardner's record-breaking Test can do for Australia's future.
Comments