Lucy Pearson Photo © ECB Lucy Pearson today became only the second woman in the history of women’sTest cricket to take an eleven-wicket haul in a match, equalling a recordwhich has stood for 46 years
ECB Media Release25-Feb-2003
Lucy Pearson
Photo © ECB
Lucy Pearson today became only the second woman in the history of women’sTest cricket to take an eleven-wicket haul in a match, equalling a recordwhich has stood for 46 years.Pearson, who took 7-51 in the first innings, and 4-57 in the second, joinsthe Australian, Betty Wilson, who took eleven wickets in Adelaide in 1957against England. Pearson was named Player of The Match.The Ashes remain in Australia following the one Test win for the home sideat The Gabba last week, as the closely contested second Test ended in a drawtoday at The Bankstown Oval, Sydney.Australia regained the initiative following a strong opening two days fromEngland, with Lisa Sthalaker and Alex Blackwell putting on a fifth wicketworld record stand of 136, which was also held by Betty Wilson and V Battyfrom the 1957 series.Once Pearson bowled Blackwell, Edwards dismissed Julie Hayes with a directhit run-out and Claire Taylor caught Fitzpatrick from the bowling of herYorkshire namesake for 11. Sthalaker finished the innings on 121 not outand Australia declared on 259-7, a lead of 206.England made the worst possible start to the run chase, losing opener SarahCollyer for 3 trapped lbw by Emma Twining in the 4th over but Kathryn Lengand Charlotte Edwards began building a platform, reaching their 50partnership in the 29th over.England Head Coach, John Harmer, reflected that many positives have comefrom this tour, not least the return to fluent form of Edwards and Leng’sresilience in opening the batting.Australia struck back either side of tea interval, Leng lbw to centurionSthalaker for 28 and Thompson trapped the same way by Player of the Series,Cathryn Fitzpatrick for just 4; still 142 runs in arrears.Whilst Edwards remained at the crease, England always had a chance as theKent batter hit out with an array of shots, including twenty runs in threeovers, driving Twining sweetly through the on-side, sweeping Kris Britt andpulling Hayes in consecutive deliveries.Edwards was unfortunate to be given lbw to Fitzpatrick with the third ballof her third spell, to a delivery which climbed sharply and struck above thepad.When Fitzpatrick bowled the seventeen-year-old Lydia Greenway for 0, ClaireTaylor, who has found some real constituency in England’s middle order,settled nerves again. Taylor frustrated the Australia bowling attack in thelast Ashes Series, reaching 137 at Headingley to ensure they batted for asecond time, and here she added 21 not out to her 48 not out in the firstinnings.England’s batting has lost much of the vulnerability which the Australian’sexploited eighteen months ago, and despite losing Captain, Clare Connor, for0, Taylor and Newton ended the match unbeaten, with a deficit of 74 runs andthree wickets in hand.Reflecting on the Series, John Harmer said “we’ve come a long way togetheras a team on this tour, and I’m proud of everything the players haveachieved. When we arrived in New Zealand for the quadrangular series lastmonth, we were ranked 5th in the world and had already been written off inthe Ashes series. Now, we’re ranked at 3 in one-day cricket and havecompeted in every session of the Test matches.The players are starting to realise they’re really not that far away fromAustralia who are ranked number 1 and we’re closing the gap all the time.We have some genuine match winners in the side in addition to some youngtalent. We’ll look forward to facing South Africa this summer at home”.
