The one-off women’s Ashes Test between hosts Australia and England at the Manuka Oval in Canberra came to an “extraordinary” end on Sunday. In what was a brilliant advert for women’s Test cricket, the match went down right to the wire with Australia needing to pick one wicket off the final couple of overs of the day. England managed to stave off Australia’s late charge to play out a thrilling draw. However, things had looked very different only a hour before the finish, with England going great guns in their chase of 257.
It seemed that the visitors would easily reach the target before the end of the day’s play but a batting collapse, which saw them lose six wickets for 26 runs, put Australia back in contention.
The thrilling end to the Test match resulted in a frenzy on Twitter:
What a finish that was. Absolutely great for test cricket #Ashes
— Marnus Labuschagne (@marnus3cricket) January 30, 2022
Switch on the cricket!!!!!! #Ashes
— Patrick Dangerfield (@dangerfield35) January 30, 2022
UNBELIEVABLE game of Test Match Cricket.
Kudos to both @AusWomenCricket & @englandcricket for the attitude to the final day. That was intense! #Ashes @7Cricket
— Trent Copeland (@copes9) January 30, 2022
If test cricket is great, women’s test cricket is greater! #Ashes
— Shikha Pandey (@shikhashauny) January 30, 2022
One of the greatest of all time #ashes
— Isa Guha (@isaguha) January 30, 2022
Simply extraordinary.
Test cricket at its finest. Well played, @englandcricket.
Scorecard: https://t.co/TTPhyHO3x8 #Ashes pic.twitter.com/wsEHJ3ImPO
— Australian Women’s Cricket Team (@AusWomenCricket) January 30, 2022
What an unbelievable game of cricket!
Four days of action coming down to the final ball, defended by Kate Cross for the draw to keep the Women’s #Ashes series alive! pic.twitter.com/3BYVpGgMFq
— ICC (@ICC) January 30, 2022
I have honestly never felt so sick in my whole entire life!
Not just any draw one of the best I’ve ever seen!
Kudos to Lanning for declaring when she did to set up an extraordinary test match.
THE SERIES IS STILL ALIVE!
LET PLAY MORE TESR MATCH CRICKET #ashes pic.twitter.com/SigKyY3hRn— Alexandra Hartley (@AlexHartley93) January 30, 2022
There are days when no team deserves to lose. And that’s why Draw is counted as a result in Test Cricket. Today was one such day. Well played both @AusWomenCricket and @englandcricket women #Ashes pic.twitter.com/Yjzhe9t7q8
— Wasim Jaffer (@WasimJaffer14) January 30, 2022
With weather playing spoilsport on Saturday, the match seemed to be headed for a drab draw. But a sporting declaration from Australia at 216 for seven brought the match back to life.
But few would have expected the match to have this sort of an ending.
Australia captain Meg Lanning certainly didn’t.
“Oh wow! I still didn’t know what happened in the last hour. We declared wanting to take those 10 wickets. Obviously, England batted really well but proud of the way we got back into the game taking wickets. We are not relying on one or two players, that’s the strength of our side. Sutherland was fantastic. I will take a few days to get over this. Looking forward to the ODI series now,” Lanning said in the post-match ceremony.
England captain Heather Knight and batting hero, who scored 168 in the first innings and followed it up with a brisk 48 in the second, said she was delighted with how her team performed.
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“Brilliant Test match and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I don’t think it deserves a draw in the end, does it? But delighted the way the girls fought and it is really pleasing. Really pleased with the fact that we got close and I think the psychology changes a little bit, we were giving it a go and suddenly we were favourites,” Knight said.
“Probably an opportunity missed, but I think we will fret on it and we will look back and think what a game to be involved in and the fact that we went toe-to-toe with the Aussies and obviously with the series still alive, pretty pleased.”
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