England captain Heather Knight on Saturday said she was ‘really peaking’ like a batter after standing tall in the first innings score of 297 with an unbeaten 168 on day three of the lone Ashes Test at the Manuka Oval.
Heather’s career-best Test score rekindled her affinity of making a truckload of runs at the venue, with her now scoring 534 runs in her last six innings on the ground, including two centuries (all T20Is before this Test).
“I feel like I’m really peaking as a batter. I feel like I’ve progressed a lot. I’ve made a few technical changes since then. I’m really confident in my batting at the moment, and I feel like I can adapt to different situations,” Heather was quoted as saying by The Cricketer after the day’s play.
“One of my strengths has always been my mental resilience and being able to grit it out and concentrate for long periods of time. In that respect, I think I’m quite well suited to Test cricket, so I’m really pleased that I’ve been able to put in that sort of innings, particularly when the team needed it the most,” added the 31-year-old.
Before rain forced early stumps to be taken on day three, England had managed to reduce Australia to 12/2. Alyssa Healy bagged a pair while Rachael Haynes was limited to a single-digit score. Heather was pleased with Australia being pushed to backfoot, especially with senior pacer Katherine Brunt taking both wickets.
“I think we put ourselves in a really nice position. The way we came out just before lunch was just what I asked of the girls. Anya (Shrubsole) and Katherine (Brunt) were brilliant — Brunty’s having a brilliant Test match. The way she bowled, the aggression, the skill.”
Heather hoped that with just one day left in the Test match, England will give it they’re all to skittle out Australia for a low score and give themselves a chance to clinch an improbable win.
“Just hunting Australian wickets — to pick up those two wickets, it felt like we could really break the game open and try to get them out for a cheap score and set up a chase.
“We’re still holding out a little bit of hope – we’ve got 109 overs tomorrow, so a little bit extra and a little bit of time left in the game. We’re going to have to bowl absolutely out of our skin to try to take early wickets and put the Aussies under the pump and set up a chase.”
Heather signed off by saying that five-day Test matches in women’s cricket will do a lot of good. “I’ve said it before that I think five-day cricket would be slightly better, particularly when you lose some time to rain. If we’re playing one Test per year, I think five days is a bit of a no-brainer. If we’re playing more regularly, then potentially four days. That would be my view.”
