The 2023 Women’s Ashes promised drama and delivered in spades as Trent Bridge hosted the first ever women’s five day Test Match on British soil.
Ultimately, it was Australia who triumphed by 89 runs to take a 4-0 lead in the multi-format series - but the game is remembered for so much more than points on the board, while the fixture rubber-stamped Trent Bridge’s reputation as a world-leading international cricket venue for both men and women.
Indeed, 23,207 people passed through the gates for the Women’s Ashes opener - a record attendance for a women’s Test in England.
It earned Trent Bridge the title of Best International Women’s Spectator Experience at the 2023 Business of Cricket Awards, while day three of the fixture was rated as the best major matchday that year by attendees across domestic and international cricket.
On the field, Ash Gardner and Sophie Ecclestone both proved their class, accounting for 22 of the 40 match wickets, while The Blaze's Tammy Beaumont rose to the challenge of performing on her home ground with a magnificent 208 in England’s first innings.
Meanwhile Nat Sciver-Brunt and Danni Wyatt-Hodge - both of whom are in contention to play in the Women’s IT20 against India next year - both scored half-centuries, with the latter on Test debut.
Records tumble at Trent Bridge
Nottingham is no stranger to staging exploits never seen before - just look at England Men, who twice broke the world record for biggest One Day International score - and this Ashes Test was no different.
Despite a venue famed for short-format run-scoring and nip off the pitch for seamers, spinner Gardner claimed the second-best innings figures in women’s Tests with her 8-66 in the final innings.
Her wicket of Sciver-Brunt, whom she would later play alongside for the Trent Rockets at Trent Bridge, turned the tide of the game with momentum well and truly on the side of the Australians.
Meanwhile all-rounder Annabel Sutherland, whose spot at eight in the order belied her ability, mustered the fastest Test century scored by an Australian woman, with her hundred coming off just 148 balls.
That cameo put her side in the driving seat with a first innings score of 473, albeit Beaumont did her utmost to wrestle the hosts back into the contest.
Her 208 was the highest all-format score in England Women’s history, and she became just the second player at the time to have scored centuries in all formats, joining her captain Heather Knight, who is set to lead out the Three Lions at Trent Bridge next summer.
A series for the ages
That 2023 Women’s Ashes has been dubbed the ‘series that caught fire’ as England almost fought back to win the Ashes despite the lead gained by Australia at Trent Bridge.
That game lit the touchpaper for the summer, with a back-and-forth encounter setting the tone for how the series would play out.
The visitors took a 6-0 lead (with the Test accounting for four points, and all six subsequent white ball fixtures returning two each) after the first IT20, before England rallied to win at the Oval and Lord’s.
Wyatt-Hodge was named player of the T20 series, with her 46-ball 76 the highest score across the three games.
She now has in excess of 3000 IT20 runs, and is England Women’s all-time top T20 run-scorer - and is set to take to Trent Bridge turf again in June.
The remainder of the 2023 series saw the Three Lions complete their highest run chase in Women’s ODIs in Bristol to square the series, before Australia won the penultimate fixture and retained the Ashes.
