Ten years and four days: that’s how long it had been since an England player last hit a women’s ODI century against Australia. That impossibly long drought was finally broken at Leicester by Tammy Beaumont, who hit her maiden Ashes hundred in a gloriously confident display.
Sadly for Beaumont, her effort was in vain: Australia chased down their 218-run target with four wickets to spare to go 4-0 up on points in the multi-format series, thanks to a 72-ball half-century from Ellyse Perry.
It came after a nervy start for Australia, with Nicole Bolton and the in-form Alyssa Healy departing in successive overs at the top of the order to leave them 17 for two. Had England also snaffled Perry when she was still in single figures, things might have got interesting but a third umpire review of a lightning-quick Amy Jones stumping ruled that Perry had just got her foot back behind the line in time.
As it was, by the time Anya Shrubsole’s second spell of the day yielded Perry’s wicket with a wide half-tracker that she toe-ended behind the stumps, Australia were already on course. A flurry of boundaries from Beth Mooney and Jess Jonassen was enough to finish the job.
For England, the real problem was that their 50 overs had fizzled out into a damp squib, the home side sinking from 183 for five to 217 all out – Delissa Kimmince mopping up the tail to finish with her first career five-for. So often, this England team’s success has relied on a wagging tail: here their numbers 7-11 could not muster a single boundary between them.
Earlier on, Beaumont had shared a half-century partnership with her captain, Heather Knight, but it was the former who had made almost all of the running, Knight taking 47 balls to muster 17 runs. Meanwhile Beaumont gleefully feasted runs off Perry’s shorter balls, while using the lap sweep to her advantage to create singles out of nowhere, before going big against the spinners.
“I’ve been working really hard on trying to score off more balls,” Beaumont said. “That’s the first time I’ve got 100 in 100 balls, so I’m really happy with that. I’m always trying to improve.”
“I felt good, but I probably got out at the wrong time – I should have been the one to manage the back end of that innings and get us up to 230, 240 and give us a bit more of a chance.”
