Gunn becomes England all-time leading wicket taker
20th August 2013Jenny Gunn became England Women’s all-time leading wicket taker in the first of three NatWest Women’s International matches in the Women’s Ashes Series at Lord’s today.
Despite Gunn’s milestone and another disciplined performance from the England bowlers, Australia claimed a 27-run victory. Australia owed much of their 203 for eight to 56 from Meg Lanning as Katherine Brunt and Laura Marsh impressed with 3-29 and 2-27 respectively.
Charlotte Edwards led the England chase with 61 before off-spinner Erin Osborne made the breakthrough for Australia. Edwards nicked one to Jodie Fields behind the stumps leaving England 142 for four in the 38th over. Jess Jonassen, who returned limited-overs-best figures of 4-38, and Osborne who took 3-39 claimed the England wickets. Last week’s Test centurion Heather Knight (25) was the only other double-figure score besides Edwards’ and Sarah Taylor’s 22 as the hosts were bowled out for 176 in the 48th over.
The victory moves Australia to four points while England have two, with 10 still available from two more ODIs and three NatWest International T20s in the Women’s Ashes Series.
Laura Marsh said: “At the half way mark we were very confident with the run chase and set a good platform at the start, but unfortunately lost some key wickets at crucial times.
“We need to step up and take responsibility, there were some good contributions at the top of the order but I think we can all hold our hands up and say we can do much better than that.
“Katherine Brunt led the attack well and everyone contributed with the ball which was great. We would back ourselves to chase that total and everyone is very disappointed. We will assess what went wrong but we will also take the positives, we bowled really well and we’ll be looking to move on to Hove and perform much better there on Friday.”