Following her crucial unbeaten century, Tammy Beaumont described the moment she reached three figures as something she had “dreamt of since 2005”, as she became just the second England women’s player to score a hundred in all three formats of the sport.
Faced with hauling in Australia’s first-innings total of 473, Beaumont, 32, brought up her ton in the penultimate over of the day as she guided England to the close at 218 for two.
An ever present for England over the last decade, Beaumont has over 200 white-ball appearances for her country, but in just her eighth Test match, she joined Heather Knight as only the second female cricketer to have reached three figures for England in Test, ODI and T20 cricket.
“Heather said to me when I came into the changing room ‘welcome to the club’,” joked Beaumont after play. “I didn’t realise she meant the all three formats one, I thought she just meant an Ashes hundred or something. It’s always good to look back at personal milestones and nice to tick that one off - something that I thought probably might evade me as I’m coming to the latter half of my career.
Of where her Test century ranks in her career achievements, Beaumont said: “If we go on to win this Test match then it would be right up there. Let’s wait and see. It’s great to tick it off and yes, as a kid, I dreamt of scoring an Ashes Test hundred - pretty much since 2005 that has been my goal. But as I’ve gone on, it’s contributing to the team. Ask me on day five if we win and I think it’ll be a yes.”
Her century, reached off 152 balls, was dominated by pull shots, as she punished the Aussie seamers any time they dropped short, whilst she was equally dominant off the front foot when the bowlers overpitched, finding the cover boundary on a number of occasions.
“I’m a typical opening batter and love the ball coming on,” Beaumont explained. “I played a lot of men’s cricket as a kid so almost the faster it comes to me the easier I find it.’
As dominant as Beaumont was, she also had her fair share of luck when facing the Aussie spinners, who she struggled to find the same rhythm against. On 88, an edge flashed past first slip, and when she was on 61, she was caught at short-leg after the ball bounced off her foot. Australia discussed whether to review, but decided against, assuming the ball had hit the ground.
“I knew I’d hit it and it had hit my foot,” explained Beaumont on whether it had been tough to keep a poker face as Australia discussed the review. “I didn’t know if it had hit the floor as well but it’s not my decision to make. It’s hard to tell when it’s hit your foot whether it’s also hit the ground at the same time. I guess I got lucky with one but then again I’ve probably had a couple of unlucky decisions in the last month or so in regional cricket. I guess luck came at the right time.”
With England still over 250 runs adrift, England will be hoping for Beaumont to repeat her trick from the warm-up match last week and register another double-century.
“It’s quite evenly balanced,” was Beaumont’s assessment. “We’re still a long way behind but only two wickets down and the wicket is pretty flat, still. It’s pretty evenly poised and it’s pretty much anyone’s game to grasp hold of on day three.
“If you apply yourself as a batter there’s definitely runs out there to be had and so far our batters have pretty much looked at ease.”
