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Women’s Ashes Day 4: Australia sets its eyes on victory as England loses five wickets in their 268-run chase

At stumps on the fourth day at Trent Bridge, England’s prospects of a first Test victory since January 2014 and a first win against Australia in any format since July 2019 dangled in the balance as they slumped to 116 for five in pursuit of a fourth-innings goal of 268.

Despite the fact that Sophie Ecclestone stated that her team will “go away tonight and figure out how we’re going to win this Test match,” Australia feels confident that victory is within grasp.

“It is teetering a little bit,” Australia’s Beth Mooney remarked. “I believe our bowlers will take five wickets.” We definitely feel like we’re the happier team leaving this afternoon.”

England had cruised to 55 without loss after 10 overs, but a four-wicket collapse for 18 runs in five overs midway through the evening session shifted momentum in Australia’s advantage. Both Emma Lamb and Heather Knight, who were caught lbw by Tahlia McGrath and Ash Gardner, respectively, pushed their choices upstairs in desperation, but DRS revealed both as umpire’s ruling on impact.

Gardner’s third victim was Knight, who had previously enticed first-innings double-centurion Tammy Beaumont into slicing a half-volley to slip. Nat Sciver-Brunt was the agent of her own downfall in between times, miscuing a draw and being captured by Kim Garth racing round from short leg. Garth chipped in with her own wicket, her outswinger clipping the edge of Sophia Dunkley and settling in the clutches of Alyssa Healy behind the stumps.

Even when nightwatcher Kate Cross hit the last ball of the day past midoff for four, victory is still 152 runs away. England face a lot to climb with Australia’s spinners salivating at the thought of a sixth day on this ground.

It was supposed to be Ecclestone’s day, when her match tally of 10 for 192 in 77.1 overs (the highest bowled by any Englishwoman in a Test since 1987) led to what appeared to be a 257-run victory over Australia. Wickets came in bunches, including four for 20 in 34 balls shortly after lunch, and the loss of Australia’s last three batters in the space of seven balls for no runs after tea, following a 59-run stand between Healy and Alana King for the eighth wicket.

“I knew I was going to bowl a lot of overs, but I didn’t think it would be this many,” Ecclestone explained. “You can’t really prepare for that; you just have to go with it and be mentally tough.”

Ecclestone had relocated to the Radcliffe Road End at the start of the day, presumably to take advantage of some scuffed-up footholes at the Pavilion End (where her previous 50 overs had been bowled). Mooney was eventually removed halfway through the afternoon session, 15 runs short of her maiden Test century, by a ball that looped out of the footmarks and onto her stumps.

The Australians’ smashes around her were notably tentative: first-innings centurion Annabel Sutherland pushed Ecclestone straight to square-leg, while Gardner edged Cross to slip. Most bizarrely, Australia skipper Healy, batting at No. 6, did not emerge from the dressing room until six wickets had already fallen. This meant a lengthier time after nursing three quarters of a doublepair (after three consecutive ducks in Test cricket).

She was taken down by Amy Jones behind the stumps first ball, one of a string of missed opportunities throughout the day, including five by the wicketkeeper-first slip duo of Jones and Knight. They may still be celebrating a victory if they had taken their opportunities.

Instead, Healy clung on for a 61-ball half-century in the second over after tea, but succumbed three balls later, limply holing out off a full toss to Lamb at midwicket, handing Ecclestone her fourth wicket of the day. Darcie Brown, trapped lbw, completed the set; Ecclestone led her team off the court for the second time in four days, holding the ball aloft.

Ecclestone noted at the end of the game that England head coach Jon Lewis had given the players “a bit of a rocket” after a tough last hour on Saturday evening.

Whatever he said seemed to work at first: they started day four with considerably more pep in their stride, especially when Cross bowled a jaffa that pitched a mile outside off and slashed back in to strike Phoebe Litchfield’s middle stump in her third over of the morning. England were also encouraged by Sciver-Brunt’s return to the attack after she was unable to bowl on Saturday owing to a knee ailment.

Lauren Filer, though, made the morning session come alive, finally living up to Lewis’s pre-match description as “a key wicket-taking threat.” She dismissed two of the world’s top batsmen in rapid succession in back-to-back wicket maidens shortly before noon, bowling attempting to fight off a bouncer, before McGrath was beaten for pace and the ball ricocheted off her pads into the stumps.

Perry looked uncomfortable after being dismissed for the second time in the encounter by England’s debutante bowler. Australia, as it turned out, had the final laugh.

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Farzeen K

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