England vs Australia LIVE: Cricket scorecard and Women’s Ashes updates from day five at Trent Bridge
England are in a precarious position on the final day of the one-off Women’s Ashes test match after a wonderful performance from Australia cricket’s Ashleigh Gardner leaves them chasing a further 152 runs with just five wickets in hand.
Needing 268 to win in the fourth innings Tammy Beaumont and Emma Lamb got the hosts off to a solid start, putting on 55 for the first wicket. Gardner came into the attack and nicked off Beaumont before trapping captain Heather Knight lbw for 9 and dismissing the dangerous Nat Sciver-Brunt for a duck.
Sophia Dunkley (16) and Danni Wyatt (20*) managed a slight fightback but Dunkley feathered one behind off Kim Garth late in the day to leave England reeling at 116-5.
Earlier, the indefatigable Sophie Ecclestone claimed a 10-wicket match haul with astonishing figures of 77.1-16-192-10 this week helping to restrict Australia to 257. Either team can win this match on the final day but England need to win the morning session to have any chance of claiming a surprise victory.
Follow all the action from the Women’s Ashes, below:
Women’s Ashes: England vs Australia
England resume on 116-5 needing 152 runs to win on the final day
Debutant Danni Wyatt is 20 not out overnight and carries England’s hopes
Winning side will earn four points in multi-format Ashes series
England vs Australia
09:30 , Mike Jones
Good morning one and all and welcome to The Independent’s coverage of the Women’s Ashes. We’re in the deep end of this one-off test match with the game, remarkably, still in the balance.
A recap of the first four days is as follows:
Australia won the toss on a sunny morning and chose to bat with England taking consistent wickets despite Ellyse Perry’s 99. Annabel Sutherland came in at eight and knocked a delightful 137* as the visitors were finally bowled out for 473 - a mammoth total in Women’s test matches.
In replay, England were led expertly by opener Tammy Beaumont who scored a record breaking 208 as the hosts finished just 10 runs short of Australia’s total. Heather Knight (57), Nat Sciver-Brunt (78) and Danni Wyatt (44) all provided able back-up.
The third innings was the Sophie Ecclestone show as the pitch begin to turn and batting became more difficult. The left-arm spinner claimed a second five-wicket haul - making it 10 for the match with figures of 77.1-16-192-10 - as Australia only managed 257. Beth Mooney (85) and captain Alyssa Healy (50) provided the impetus.
England then came out to bat again needing 268 runs to win. Emma Lamb and Tammy Beaumont took the team to 55-0 but the introduction of Ashleigh Gardner (9-1-33-3) saw the hosts slump to 73-4. Sophia Dunkley was dismissed late on the fourth day to leave England 116-5, still 152 runs away from victory.
How will this test match end? It seems certain that one of the sides will claim victory and Australia are the favourites but can the hosts shock the best team in the world and get over the line?
