Gardner bowls Australian women to win over England in one-off Test

Australia
Australian players celebrate their win. Photo: Reuters/Molly Darlington

Australia's Ashleigh Gardner tore through England's rear guard to help the visitors win the one-off Test at Trent Bridge by 89 runs on the fifth day on Monday, despite a battling half-century by Danni Wyatt.

England emerged at 116/5 chasing a target of 268 with Wyatt and Kate Cross at the crease, but Gardner's devastating performance put paid to their hosts' slim hopes of victory in a single session.

The off-spinner picked up all five final day wickets to go with the three she had on day four, beginning with getting Cross caught behind on 13 runs to deny England the start to the day they needed.

Amy Jones was next to depart, losing her wicket for four runs, after she charged down the pitch only to see Gardener's delivery beat the outside edge and go through to Alyssa Healy, who completed the stumping despite a fumble.

Sophie Ecclestone was dismissed lbw for 10 runs before Gardner bowled Lauren Filer for a duck and wrapped up the victory by getting Wyatt (54) out lbw to finish with figures of 8/66 in the innings and 12/165 in the match -- both Australian women's cricket records.

Ashleigh Gardner
Ashleigh Gardner celebrates with teammates after dismissing Danni Wyatt. Photo: Reuters/Molly Darlington

"I wouldn't have dreamt of it but I guess it just shows that having five days in the Test match is incredibly important," said Gardner, who was named player of the match.

"As a bowling unit we just said to keep the stumps in play as long as possible. It was just awesome to put a performance on for the team."

The win give holders Australia four points in their quest to retain the Ashes and the teams now move on to the three match Twenty20 International series that begins on Saturday at Edgbaston.

"I really thought we were going to do it this morning, so I'm pretty disappointed," Wyatt said. "It was pretty hard to bat out there.

"There is a sense of missed opportunity, we will have a chat in the changing room about it. There are a lot of positives so we have to try to dust this down and smash them in the white-ball stuff.

"There's a few tired bodies out there and now we just need to dust ourselves off and get ready for the next challenge."

The comments posted here/below/in the given space are not on behalf of Onmanorama. The person posting the comment will be in sole ownership of its responsibility. According to the central government's IT rules, obscene or offensive statement made against a person, religion, community or nation is a punishable offense, and legal action would be taken against people who indulge in such activities.