Tammy Beaumont (208) bettered Betty Snowball's 88-year-old record Test score of 189 for England Women - just the eighth double-ton ever in women's cricket; watch day four at Trent Bridge on Sunday, live on Sky Sports Cricket - coverage from 10.15am, play from 11am
Sunday 25 June 2023 07:02, UK
Tammy Beaumont hit the first ever double-hundred by an English woman in Test cricket, but an 82-run opening stand earned Australia a valuable 92-run lead by stumps on day three at Trent Bridge.
Beaumont (208) bettered Betty Snowball's 88-year-old record Test score for England as she passed 189 on the way to her double-ton - just the eighth player to reach the mark in women's cricket.
But despite Beaumont's brilliance, England lost their last four wickets for 15 runs inside five overs to be bowled out for 463 and see them trail Australia by 10 on first innings.
And that advantage was stretched to nearly 100 by the end of play as Beth Mooney (33no) and Phoebe Litchfield (41no) put on a blistering partnership in the final 19 overs of the day.
This one-off Women's Test match opens the 2023 multi-format Ashes series. Four points are awarded to the winner, with two for a draw. Three T20 internationals and three ODIs follow, where two points are on offer for each win and one for a tie or no result.
With England resuming the third day on 218-2, Beaumont and Nat Sciver-Brunt picked up where they left off the previous evening in adding 137 for the third wicket.
That said, Sciver-Brunt could very well have fallen to the first delivery of the day, given out lbw to Darcie Brown, only to be saved on review with the ball sliding down leg.
It was part of an impressive opening from the Australian bowlers, applying the pressure on England's pair, with runs hard to come by. Beaumont did not get off the mark and add to her unbeaten hundred till the fifth over of the morning.
Sciver-Brunt had another scare when flashing an edge off Kim Garth just over and between first and second slip, but that boundary down to third man suddenly opened the floodgates for England.
Beaumont cracked three further fours off Brown's next over, while Sciver-Brunt brought up her third Test fifty - off 70 balls - with a skewed drive out to the deep backward-point boundary.
The hundred partnership, off just 132 balls, swiftly followed as England also passed 250. Sciver-Brunt, now fully into her stride, then smashed Annabel Sutherland for three fours in succession.
England reduced Australia's lead to less than 200 but, soon after, the breakthrough finally arrived for the visitors, with Sciver-Brunt (78) getting a faint edge on a quicker ball fired in by off-spinner Ashleigh Gardner (4-99).
The wicket sparked a bit of life back into the Aussie attack, with it taking 18 deliveries for Sophia Dunkley to get off the mark and, though she safely negotiated the final throes of the session, she fell for a 51-ball nine soon after lunch, bowled when attempting a frustrated hack across the line to Gardner.
Beaumont moved beyond 150 in the second over after the interval but Dunkley's wicket was very nearly followed with her own three balls later. Given out lbw to leg-spinner Alana King on the field, Beaumont was saved my mere millimetres on review, with the ball pitching just outside leg.
Danni Wyatt's first boundary in Test cricket, drilled through covers, signalled her intent - the first of seven fours in her enterprising 49-ball knock - as England brought their deficit down below 100.
It prompted the second new ball to finally be taken in the 100th over, and Wyatt (44) fell not long after, edging Brown (1-78) to second slip, with Amy Jones (13) then departing cheaply, lobbing a simple catch up to mid-on off Ellyse Perry (1-39).
Beaumont, meanwhile, continued on her merry way, breaking Snowball's record with a boundary expertly guided between slips and gully - in the process, also breaking England's record score as a team (414).
Her double-hundred followed shortly after the tea interval, as England moved to within 50 of Australia's imposing total, but a contentious lbw decision against Sophie Ecclestone (17) suddenly sparked a late collapse.
Ecclestone was given out lbw to Tahlia McGrath (3-24) and, though there was the suggestion of a potential inside edge when reviewed, the decision was not overturned.
McGrath also dismissed Kate Cross for a duck with a beauty that, angling in to the right-hander, straightened just enough to beat the outside edge and clip the top of off stump.
She added Lauren Filer (11) soon after, with Beaumont's magnificent innings then coming to an end as she was bowled by Gardner when attempting to sweep. England all out for 463, just 10 shy of Australia's tally.
But Mooney and Litchfield's efforts in the final hour or so of play saw the visitors again on top, with the pitch still offering very little in the way of help to the bowlers.
Cross had the only chance of the mini-session fall to her, off her own bowling, but she put Litchfield down on 10, with the ball bursting through her hands low in her follow-through.
England opener Tammy Beaumont on her record-breaking double-hundred:
"I can't quite believe it to be honest. I was pretty overwhelmed when I scored a double-hundred in the 'A' game last week, and I thought there was no chance I'd repeat it.
"To contribute in that way was great. It was an amazing feeling; I had a lot of family in [on Saturday].
"I was just in the zone the entire time. I reckon the girls would tell you I said absolutely nothing at tea. I was just steely-eyed.
"Two days left, it's a big morning session ahead. If we can get a few wickets, we can get on a roll. Evenly poised."
Former England fast bowler Katherine Sciver-Brunt on Beaumont:
"She is such a resilient person, in general, but an absolute fighter when it comes to playing for England - and she's got that thing about her where she can turn 50s into hundreds, into 150s and [on Saturday] a double-hundred.
"She has that thing where she can just reset and go again and reset and go again. Not many people have that in them.
"It's not a shock to me, but I am delighted for her and it's nothing but brilliant for England to have Tammy in the runs.
"She used to annoy the hell out of me in the nets. I knew each session, I couldn't relax or have an off day, settle into a spell or bowl at 75 per cent - anything like that.
"It was always a battle, always a fight. I'm extremely competitive and she wouldn't give in either."
Watch day four of the Women's Ashes Test at Trent Bridge, live on Sky Sports Cricket on Sunday, with coverage starting at 10.15am and play getting under way from 11am.
