We rate England’s players out of 10 after the 89-run defeat to Australia in the Women’s Ashes Test at Trent Bridge…
Tammy Beaumont – 9.5
208 from 331 balls
22 from 26 balls
You have to feel for Beaumont. The first double century by an Englishwoman in Tests, the fifth-highest individual score in a Women’s Test, yet she ended up on the losing side. The England opener was superb in her 208, with her footwork, fitness, finesse and concentration coming to the fore during a marathon innings of over eight hours.
- England crumble to defeat as Ash Gardner takes eight wickets
- Live cricket on Sky Sports | Watch with NOW | Get Sky Sports
Beaumont was impressing in the second innings as well until she edged Ashleigh Gardner to slip to trigger a collapse of 4-18 which sucked the life out of England’s chase of 268. We’ll knock her down half a mark for that!
The big question now is whether Beaumont will earn a recall to England’s squad for the T20 leg of the multi-format series? She has not played a T20I since January 2022 but will be incredibly hard to overlook on this form, with her 200 in the Test following another double the week before in a warm-up fixture.
Trending
- Transfer Centre LIVE! Mount, Rice, Havertz latest
- Man Utd’s £55m Mount bid still on table | Caicedo, Rabiot among other targets
- Havertz to finalise £65m Arsenal move in coming days | Rice, Timber talks ongoing
- Man Utd transfers: ‘Sancho among 13 players up for sale’
- Premier League transfers: Club by club
- Arsenal transfers: ‘Gunners ready to spend over £200m to rival Man City’
- Zidane Iqbal leaves Man Utd and joins Dutch side FC Utrecht
- Rematch clause complicates AJ vs Whyte talks
- Scotland legend Craig Brown dies aged 82
- Hodgson ‘verbally agrees’ to stay as Crystal Palace boss
- Video
- Latest News
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Tammy Beaumont scored the first double hundred by an England player in women’s Tests, making 208 from 331 balls
Emma Lamb – 6
10 off 32 balls
28 of 40 balls
Lamb made starts in both innings at Trent Bridge but was unable to push on. She was pinned lbw in England’s second dig after missing an attempted leg-side flick off Tahlia McGrath, the second out as the home side slipped from an excellent 55-0 to a troublesome 73-4. With Lamb’s sole T20 international to date coming a little under two years ago, we may not see her again until the three one-day internationals that conclude the multi-format series. She is probably slated to partner Beaumont once again in that format.
Also See:
Heather Knight – 6
57 off 91 balls
9 off 17 balls
Knight, who shared a partnership of 115 with Beaumont in England’s first innings, fell twice in the game to the 12-wicket Gardner – the second time around after clocking the Australia off-spinner for a six.
As captain, she had a mixed match. She was perhaps guilty of not having an earlier word with her bowlers as they offered a up a series of loose deliveries to Australia on the third evening, while she could probably have introduced debutant Lauren Filer into the attack earlier on the fourth morning with the speedster proceeding to remove Ellyse Perry and McGrath in her first two overs.
Knight will know England had Australia under the pump a number of times in the game. She needs to make sure she and the rest of the team are ruthless in the games ahead.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Nat Sciver-Brunt scored her third Test half-century from 70 deliveries
Nat Sciver-Brunt – 7
78 off 111 balls
0 off 3 balls
No wickets from 14 overs
Vice-captain Sciver-Brunt, called England’s most important player by Sky Sports Cricket’s Nasser Hussain ahead of the series, was in sparkling form in the first innings and it came as a real surprise when she missed out on a century. She was less impressive in the second, caught on the slog-sweep for a three-ball duck amid that top-order collapse we referenced a little earlier. Sciver-Brunt only delivered 14 overs in the game, dropping Australia opener Beth Mooney off her own bowling on 55 in the second innings before she went on to make 85. Sciver-Brunt took a tumble in her follow through at one point and left the field for treatment. England will hope she has not done herself a mischief ahead of the vital white-ball games to come.
Sophia Dunkley – 5
9 off 51 balls
16 off 39 balls
Dunkley made minimal impact in the match, a real shame for a player of her immense talent. She took an age to get off the mark in the first innings and was not at her fluent best, but she then dug in diligently in the second to steady England after that collapse of 4-18, adding 37 with Danni Wyatt for the fifth wicket before falling late on the fourth evening. Dunkley, who also sent down two overs of leg-spin, looks likely to open with Wyatt in the T20 portion of the series.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Danni Wyatt completed a debut fifty on the fifth and final day of the Women’s Ashes Test
Danni Wyatt – 8
44 off 49 balls
54 off 88 balls
Wyatt might have thought a Test debut was going to elude her but, after 245 white-ball appearances for her country, she finally has a red-ball international under her belt, beating off competition from teenager Alice Capsey to slot in at No 6. Wyatt made 44 in the first innings before her tame exit, guiding Darcie Brown to slip, led to England losing their last six wickets for 73 runs. She then scored a maiden Test fifty in the second innings to keep her team’s hopes of victory alive, until she was left with last woman Lauren Bell and then trapped lbw as Australia clinched victory on the fifth morning.
Amy Jones – 5
13 off 17 balls
4 off 16 balls
We did not get to see Jones’ full repertoire with the bat, chipping tamely to mid-on in the first innings and then stumped in the second after walking past a delivery from Gardner. She was largely impressive with the gloves, coming close to completing a couple of stumpings. A wicketkeeper as skilful as she is will probably be disappointed that a couple of catching opportunities went down but they were far from dollies.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Watch each of Ecclestone’s 10 wickets against Australia in Nottingham
Sophie Ecclestone – 10
5-129 from 46.2 overs
5-63 from 30.5 overs
Scores of 17 and 10
We have to give Ecclestone 10, one mark for each of her wickets, with the England left-arm spinner following a first-innings five-for with another in the second, recording match figures of 10-192 from a whopping 77.1 overs. A few of her scalps came from loose deliveries but she was bang on target for most of the game, with a three-wicket burst after lunch on day four – she removed Jess Jonassen, Mooney and Anabel Sutherland – seeing Australia stumble to 198-7. Now Ecclestone is heading into formats where she is ranked the best in the world. If England are to fight back and regain the Ashes, you can bet the “captain’s dream”, as Knight called her, will play a central role. Fans will just be hoping her heavy workload in the Test has not left any lingering tiredness.
Kate Cross – 6.5
1-102 from 29 overs
2-73 from 17 overs
It was not a vintage display from Cross, one of the bowlers guilty of offering Australia hit-me balls on the third evening as the Southern Stars extended their lead to 92 runs. Cross was much improved on the fourth morning and went on to take two wickets with a dislocated left thumb, an issue she sustained dropping a catch at cover earlier that day. We should perhaps have expected a little rust with the seamer’s pre-series preparation dented by contracting a parasitic illness. Like Lamb, it may not be until the ODIs that Cross reappears with her last T20 appearance back in 2019.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Lauren Filer picked up the wickets of Ellyse Perry and Tahlia McGrath in successive overs on the fourth day at Trent Bridge
Lauren Filer – 8.5
2-99 from 22 overs
2-49 from 11 overs
We can’t quite give Filer the marks we awarded Beaumont and Ecclestone for their epic performances but the seamer deserves a high score for her excellent England debut. Filer bowled extremely fast, dismissed some mighty fine players – removing Perry twice and Mooney and McGrath once each – and had the crowd on the edge of their seats every time she had ball in hand. The 22-year-old is raw and far from the finished article but it would be a surprise if she was not included in the white-ball portion. Filer bowling in tandem with fellow speedster Issy Wong is a tantalising prospect.
Lauren Bell – 6
2-91 from 20 overs
1-27 from six overs
Filer outbowled her fellow Lauren at Trent Bridge with Bell a bit below her best. Nicknamed ‘The Shard’, Bell did not prove too adept at building pressure and did not bowl as many threatening deliveries as the ferocious Filer either. She still had her moments – one of her trademark delicious in-swingers cleaned up Alana King through the gate and she also accounted for Gardner – but will hope for more consistency in the white-ball series.
Watch the Women’s Ashes series live on Sky Sports. The first of three T20 internationals takes place at Edgbaston on Saturday with a 6.35pm start.
Sourse: skysports.com
