England record breaker Tammy Beaumont has declared that “no one came here for a draw” as the Ashes Test at Trent Bridge is all set up for a one-innings shootout across days four and five.
With wickets hard to come by across the first three days of the Test and a pitch that isn’t showing many signs of disintegrating, the run fest is expected to continue with both teams reluctant to be the one who blinks first.
“Can’t see why not,” was Beaumont’s response to whether England will go for the win regardless of what target Australia set. “It’s still a good track to bat on. Plenty of runs to get and we want to push ourselves and we want to try and get a result. No one came here for a draw. If they set us a target I have a feeling we’ll be giving it a good old crack.”
Beaumont has every right to feel confident. Her haul of 209 on Saturday made her the first England women’s player to score a double century in history, as she overtook the previous highest score made by an England player of 189 that was set by Betty Snowball way back in 1935.
“It’s definitely pretty cool to have done,” reflected Beaumont on her achievements. “When I hit the ball, it was announced and Sophie Ecclestone was desperate to give me a hug. But I was like ‘no, no, the job’s not done here’, so I just sent her away. I guess I was in the zone and I wasn’t thinking about records, I was thinking about the game situation.”
However, she was less composed when she brought up her 200. Tucking the ball away down to fine-leg, the big fist-pump came out and a roar towards her applauding teammates on the balcony as the whole of Trent Bridge rose to applaud.
“If you’re going to score 200 for England, you might as well celebrate properly,” laughed Beaumont. “I’d been really calm and tried to not show any emotion for two days and when I hit that run, it all came out.”
Beaumont is in a run of remarkable form, having made an unbeaten double century in the warm-up match against Australia ‘A’ only last week. When she was finally dismissed today for 208 and as the last player out, she had scored 409 runs against Australian attacks without being dismissed.
Of the record, Beaumont joked: “I have absolutely no idea how I’ve done it twice in a week. I had loads of people messaging me saying ‘double up, double up’, and I was like, ‘Shut up, you’re jinxing me here.”
Australia finished day three 92 runs ahead and no wickets down, as openers Phoebe Litchfield and Beth Mooney punished a loose hour-and-a-half of bowling from England to reassert Australia’s authority in the match. With the pitch not breaking up, the game of declaration cat-and-mouse has already begun, with both teams insisting they’ll go for the win.
At the close, Australia’s Ash Gardner said: “I would certainly say there’s probably going to be a result and that’s what we’re going to be pushing for. We don’t necessarily want to draw a Test match.”
Meanwhile, Beaumont added: “It’s so early in the Ashes, you know every single day neither team wants to be the one that cracks first and i think both teams are holding their own at the minute so I think the next two days are going to be fascinating how it plays out and you know are they going to give us a chance or not.”
History was made off the pitch as well as on, as with 6,951 tickets sold for the day, taking the match attendance to 17,149 with two days still to go, this Test became the highest attended women’s Test ever to be played in England. By way of contrast, the 2019 Test between these two teams was attended by 7,000 people in total, the same number as were in the crowd today alone.
On the record-breaking crowd, who have been in fine voice throughout, Beaumont said: “I almost wanted them to be quiet, I was trying to concentrate! But no it’s been an amazing crowd and I feel like they’ve given us a real lift. Whenever England have been on top they’ve been really loud and whenever we needed a little something there’s been some songs going on at the back end and it’s been great that so many people have come out to watch us. Hopefully the next two days brings some really exciting cricket and the crowds come out to watch.”
