Knight pleased as England take draw
England Women’s captain Heather Knight says she continues to be pleasantly surprised and impressed by her side’s fighting spirit after they held out for a crucial draw in the day-night Test against Australia.
Knight’s tourists went into the final day at the North Sydney Oval trailing Australia by 128 runs following a chastening third day in the field and knowing defeat would end their hopes of winning the Ashes.
Resuming on 40 without loss, England lost openers Lauren Winfield (pictured, 34) and Tammy Beaumont (37) in the morning session to slip to 89 for two, but Knight (79 not out) and Georgia Elwiss (41no) joined forces to frustrate the hosts.
They put on an unbroken 117-run stand to guide England to 206 for two when Australia captain Rachel Haynes agreed to call it a day.
Knightsaid: “There’s a lot of character in this team, they keep surprising me and impressing me with how much fight they’ve got and how much work they put in for each other.
“And that’s great for us and obviously today we fought hard again and made sure we’re still in with a chance.”
Knight scored her second half-century of the match but she was quick to praise Elwiss, who in her first game on tour made a stubborn 27 off 95 balls on day one before proving an immovable object on Sunday as she took up 190 balls for her unbeaten 41.
Knight said: “Obviously we had a really tough day yesterday and it was important we came back today and really dug in and fought hard and showed some character - and myself and Georgia I think did that really well. She’s the perfect person for that situation. She’s got a lot of character, she’s a really tough cricketer and really stuck to her game plan and I’m really pleased I put on a partnership with her.”