It was just about getting in and trying to play every ball on its merit: Heather Knight after a well-made fifty in the Women’s Ashes Test

It was another display of an RCB star’s dominance in the ongoing Women’s Ashes as Heather Knight knitted together a half-century, and alongside centurion Tammy Beaumont, the pair put on a 115-run stand for the second wicket to put the pressure back on Australia. 

England had a sore start to the day as Australia rode high on imperious dominance from Annabel Sutherland, who blasted a century to help her team to a mammoth 473. However, on a flat track, the English batters were not taking a back seat with Tammy Beaumont stepping up when her team needed her to while Knight arrived in the centre after the fall of Emma Lamb’s wicket, steadying the ship first before eventually steering it to sunny waters.

She continued, “It was just about getting in and trying to play every ball on its merits. If you bowled straight and targeted the pads with straight fields, it was actually quite hard to score when the ball went soft. We just talked about our strengths really, trying to be really decisive on the balls that we want to attack. And it's about earning the right when the ball stops swinging to then be able to put pressure back on, like Nat did there at the end.”

Adding a thought about the surface, she said, “The pitch has probably been a little bit dry, we wanted a little bit more grass and carry. It's been a bit disappointing that the nicks haven't really carried, but I think one of the reasons for bowling first was I don't think it's going to deteriorate too much. I think it's still one where you can go big as a batter, and get really good value if you're really clinical on how you want to score."