England women celebrate win

Katherine Brunt starred for England women as they claimed a Test series win over Australia at New Road

The champagne flowed long into the night after England’s women clinched their first Test series victory over rivals Australia since 1963 with a six-wicket win at New Road.

It was also the first time England had beaten the Aussies in a Test match since the 1984 triumph at Adelaide and added to the euphoria currently engulfing the nation as cricket fever reaches epic proportions.

While the men were forcing Australia onto the back foot at Trent Bridge, the women struck the first blow as they completely outplayed the tourists at Worcester to spark scenes of jubilation.

A sensational all-round performance from Katherine Brunt proved decisive as the Aussies were only able to set a 75-run victory target for the hosts.

As the occasion began to get to the players, England lost a few early wickets, but a collective team spirit pulled them through and they won with a massive six wickets to spare.

“It's simply brilliant,” an ecstatic Brunt told ecb.co.uk. “Everyone has contributed and the team spirit is amazing. We have just been in the changing room, opened six bottles of champagne and poured it all over ourselves.”

Brunt confessed things did get quite nervy towards the end as four wickets fell for 39 runs, chasing the 75 needed to victory.

In fact, it shouldn’t even have been as many as that but a late tailend resurgence from Australia helped post a defendable total.

“It got very tense,” she added. “At first we were apprehensive about getting them out and didn’t know how long it would take.

“But as soon as we got one wicket we got two and it went from there. We gave ourselves a good chance and eventually knocked off the runs. The tailenders have been doing really well for both sides.”

Brunt picked up five wickets (5-47) during Australia’s first innings, as they were bowled out for a below-par 131, before going on to make 52 when England batted.

A superb 4-64 when the Aussies batted for a second time confirmed her position as player of the match, but she was magnanimous in her appraisal of how things unfolded.

“I don’t know what happened,” she joked. “I managed to bring out my best performance for England and it just happened to be in the Ashes series so I’m really pleased about that.

“I couldn’t have done it without the other bowlers like Jenny Gunn. She bowled so many overs for hardly any runs and it was all backed up by some excellent fielding. All in all it was a great team effort.

“It’s all happening for us at the moment, we know their strengths and weaknesses and it proves we have the ability to beat them.”

Winning breeds confidence but it also raises the profile of the game, especially as both men and women alike are dominating against the best in the World.

“There is definitely a feel-good factor in the game with the men also doing so well,” Brunt continued. “Support for us has been great. I think Cheltenham was the best with around 1,000 people turning up to watch and it all helps to raise the profile of women’s cricket."