< >

Cricket World Player of the Week - Ashleigh Gardner

©CWM

Australian all-rounder Ashleigh Gardner claimed 12 wickets in the women's Ashes Test match to help her team win by 89 runs in a hard-fought encounter.

Ash Gardner took eight wickets in the second innings to add to her four wickets in the first innings as she registered the best-ever figures by a spinner at Trent Bridge, overtaking Bill O'Reilly's record from 1924.

Ash Gardner had taken three wickets at the close of play on Day 4 as the Test stood on a knife's edge. With England needing 152 runs to win, the match could have gone either way, but Gardner struck on multiple occasions of the last day to seal the victory for her side.

In fact, she picked up all five wickets that fell on the final day as England collapsed, losing their last five wickets for just 62 runs in their unsuccessful pursuit of 268.

In the first-ever Test in women's cricket to span five days in the modern era, Australia clinched victory by 89 runs to earn up four valuable points in the multi-format Ashes series.

That said, the match was much closer than most predicted before the beginning of the women's Ashes. With England going toe to toe against this generational Australian side, the stage is set for a thoroughly entertaining multi-format series.

Australian women to have taken 12 wickets in a Test match and eight in an innings:

Ashleigh Gardner#Ashes pic.twitter.com/La2GzU4YAL
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) June 26, 2023