Ecclestone and Beaumont reach high marks in historic Women’s Ashes Test

Left-arm orthodox spinner Ecclestone became just the 10th woman to take 10 wickets in a Test during the Women’s Ashes against Australia, joining three other England bowlers with her 10/192 across both innings.

With figures of 5/129 and 5/63, Ecclestone also became just the fifth woman, and second from England alongside Julia Greenwood, to take five-wicket hauls in both innings.

Ecclestone was not the only English player to put her name up in lights, with teammate Tammy Beaumont making a club solely for herself, as the only women’s player to make a score of 200+ in a Test match, 150+ in an ODI and 100+ in a T20I.

Beaumont made an imperious 208 in the first innings of****the five-day match that kicked off the multi-format series, also becoming the first England woman to score a Test double ton, passing 189 made by Betty Snowball in 1935 along the way to claim the highest score honours.

The England opener is just the seventh batter to achieve the feat across men’s and women’s international cricket, after Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum, Tamim Iqbal, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and David Warner also reached the high mark in each format.

Beaumont is now also the second woman along with England captain Heather Knight to score a century in all three international formats, while 208 is the fifth-highest individual score ever in a Women’s Test.

Adding 22 in the second innings, Beaumont finished with the second-highest runs aggregate in a women’s Test and the highest in England. Kiran Baluch’s 264 (242 and 222 against the West Indies in Karachi, 2004) remains the highest.

The one-off Test match is England women’s first over five days on home soil, and all six women’s Tests played since 2015 ended in draws as bad weather wreaked havoc.

And the batters of both sides have made the most of the opportunity. After four days of aggressive play, the Test match has set a new record for the highest runs aggregate in a women’s Test.

The teams have compiled 1309 runs across the first four days, already eclipsing 1143 when the same teams met in 1998 in Guildford. The Decision Review System has also been made available for the first time in a women's bilateral series in England. Curiously, DRS has been called upon 15 times, with England making one successful review, and England making three.

We could well see a thrilling finish in Nottingham, with England needing 152 runs with five wickets in hand.

In setting up England’s target of 268, Alyssa Healy equalled her own mark for the fastest recorded Test fifty by an Australian woman (61) balls, coming in at No.8.

Australia’s charge to post a defendable score in time did not come without sacrifice though, with their opponents becoming the first side in women’s Test history to dismiss all of the top five bowled.

Ahead of today’s potentially close finish, England’s two-run victory over India in Jamshedpur in 1995 is the narrowest victory by runs, while Australia’s two-wicket win over England in Worcester back in 1951 is the narrowest by wickets in hand.