During the third day of the one-off women’s Ashes Test between England and Australia on Saturday at Trent Bridge, Tammy Beaumont became the first Englishwoman to achieve a double hundred.
She also shattered an age-old record in the process. The match was for the Ashes.
England’s total score in their innings was 363 after Beaumont hit 208 runs off 331 balls. They were all out. Earlier on day two, Annabel Sutherland made 137 runs without being out, putting her name in the record books. At the same time, Australia was bowled out for 473 runs.
The previous top score for Beaumont was 70; she exceeded Betty Snowball’s 189-run knock, which had been the greatest solo score achieved by an Englishwoman for the preceding 88 years and four months.
In what was just the fourth Women’s Test match ever played, Snowball hit 189 runs for the United States versus New Zealand in Christchurch on June 16, 1935. The final score was an innings and 335 runs in favor of England.
After her fellow Australian, Heather Knight, Beaumont became just the second female cricketer in the world to ever post a three-figure score in any of the three versions of the game. Ellyse Perry of Australia now holds the record for the greatest individual score in Women’s Ashes, which was almost missed by the 32-year-old competitor. Perry, who is now participating in the test that is currently being played, achieved an unblemished score of 213 in 2017.
The last opening to record a double century was Pakistan’s Kiran Baluch, who made 242 runs off 584 deliveries against the West Indies in 2004. Beaumont also became the second opener to score a double century.