It took a split second after Anna Harris raised her finger to give Darcie Brown out lbw for Sophie Ecclestone to take off running.
You can bet on the 2023 Ashes with our Match Centre partners, bet365.
She sprinted away from her teammates and kept going even as Kate Cross managed to sling an arm around her shoulders. It might have been a coincidence that she was running in the exact direction of the Trent Bridge Inn, but it’s safe to say no one would have begrudged her if she had run straight off the field and into the pub. The importance of the part she’s played for England over the last four days means that she could have drunk the place dry and not paid for a single pint.
Throughout this Test match, Ecclestone has bowled 77 overs and one ball. She has sent down almost an entire day’s play worth of overs, turning her arm over a whopping 463 times. On every single day of the Test so far, she has been required to bowl, and while she can give her arm a rest, at one point this evening, she wasn’t that far off having to bat.
Only on six other occasions has a player bowled more than 77 overs in a women’s Test, and Ecclestone is the first to do so this century. The only other England player to have bowled as many overs in a match was Gillian McConway in 1987. On that occasion, another Ashes Test – played at Hove, McConway sent down almost 50 overs in the first innings without taking a single wicket. She had better success in the second, taking two wickets in her 38 overs, but the match itself was a dull draw. It didn’t even get into a fourth innings.
On all fronts, compared to McConway’s thankless toil, Ecclestone’s will be remembered as more meaningful. In the afternoon of day two, seemingly a lifetime ago, the final wicket of Australia’s first innings gave her a maiden Test five-for. That marked a break in her long hard slog and the start of an uphill battle for England to reach parity with the bat. Today, she ripped through Australia’s tail to give England more than a chance at a famous victory.
Australia had finished yesterday on 82-0 and, after the celebrations of Tammy Beaumont’s monumental double-century, the atmosphere after play was flat. It was as if England were powerless to stop Australia from dictating the terms of play. There were doubtful speculations over whether the pitch would break up enough for spinners on either side to run through an order, and already talk was turning towards how Australia would play an almost inevitable declaration.
[breakout id=”0″][/breakout]
England’s seamers might have chipped away at Australia this morning, but it wasn’t until Ecclestone got going that the game came alive. She dealt with Jess Jonassen and, crucially, Beth Mooney closing in on a century within 20 runs of each other. Three balls later, Kate Cross bowled a beauty to see off Ash Gardner, and Ecclestone added her third by getting rid of Annabel Sutherland. In six over period after Lunch, Australia lost four wickets for 20 runs. Without that period of play, England would have been set a target above 300. It’s thanks to Ecclestone that they weren’t.
She more than earned the luck of the filthy full toss that Alyssa Healy bumped straight to Emma Lamb, not least from the drops her teammates had racked up earlier in the day. It was also integral that she pinned one on Brown’s back leg when she did, as both she and Kim Garth looked likely to survive six balls from Lauren Bell at the other end.
With that wicket, Ecclestone became the 11th bowler to take a ten-for in a women’s Test, the sixth spinner. She is already ranked the No.1 T20I bowler in the world, and No.1 in ODIs. In six Tests, she’s taken 27 wickets for England. For context, only two other players in the top 30 wicket-takers for England have played equal or fewer matches than she has.
In every facet of the game, Ecclestone stands out. She is the one Heather Knight turns to in every scenario, whether that be tying up an end, taking a much-needed wicket or forcing a collapse. Today, she did all three. How much her marathon effort will affect her going into the limited-overs leg of the series is yet to be seen. As is whether England can recover from their evening capitulation to close out the game. If England are without her in the white-ball formats, their chances of winning the required points to regain the Ashes will plummet.
From day one of this Test, Ecclestone was England’s only realistic hope of manufacturing a win. She is relied upon to an almost unparalleled extent compared with any other side in the world. Going into a five-day Test match, the first of its kind in the modern women’s game, any other side would have shared the spin duties between two front-line bowlers, especially against Australia’s terrifying batting lineup. Whether England should have, or indeed could have, done that is evident from the number of overs Ecclestone bowled. But that they even felt they could count on her in the first place to put in the kind of performance she has this week, is the greatest illustration of her excellence anyone could give her.
