Meg Lanning opens up after close shave in Ashes

Australia women’s skipper Meg Lanning revealed that the decision to declare early could have cost them the game as England women were at cruising 218 for 3 on the final day in a chase of 257y. The only Ashes Test turned out to be one of the humdingers with England putting up a spirited effort against Australia and nearly clinched an unbelievable victory. However, wickets going down in bundles for the England team ensured that they played out for a draw.

Australia were in a spot of bother of losing the Test, and they needed wickets to pull back things. They got in plenty with six wickets falling for just 26 runs and England women needed 13 runs in the end with one wicket left. However, there weren’t many overs left on the final day and Heather Knight led side managed to keep out the remaining overs.

It was still a pretty good wicket: Meg Lanning

Lanning mentioned that she was a bit baffled with the things happening on the field as her decision to declare with a target of 257 for the England women almost backfired. She noted that she was much confident about taking ten wickets and credited the England women for their approach in the fourth innings.

“My mind’s a bit frazzled to be honest, there’s a lot going on there,. We declared thinking we had enough runs there and thought it was enough time to bowl them out. We thought it gave us an opportunity and England batted really well, it was still a pretty good wicket to be honest” Lanning told in the post-match conference.

Lanning was delighted by the turnaround in both instances of the game, first by England in pulling off a dramatic chase and later by Australia as they made brilliant come back by picking up heaps of wickets in the end. The top five England batters had all made enough contributions to keep their side in the hunt of winning the Test.

“And they sort of put us under pressure and then yeah, it was nice to be able to flip it around a little bit towards the back end, just to be able to fight back like that as a group. I think it was really impressive and it was a pretty amazing game in the end. I’m not quite sure what to make of it,” she added.