Australia’s Ashleigh Gardner guided her team to defeat England to help the visitors win the one-off Test by 89 runs on Monday in Nottingham.
England were all-out for 178 runs on the final day of the Ashes Test while chasing 268.
By taking 12 wickets in 45.2 overs over two innings and scoring 40 runs in the first inning for Australia, Gardner was awarded the Player of the Match for her heroics.
She ended the first inning with a remarkable figure of 4/99 while in the second inning, she took it to the whole next level with 8/66 ending all of England’s chances to chase the target on the final day.
The 26-year-old cricketer picked up all five final-day wickets after England started with the score of 116-5 with Danni Wyatt and Kate Cross still on the crease. Garnder also took three important wickets on day four.
"I wouldn't have dreamt of it but I guess it just shows that having five days in the test match is incredibly important," said Gardner.
"As a bowling unit, we just said to keep the stumps in play as long as possible. It was just awesome to put a performance on for the team."
England’s Wyatt, who hit her maiden Test fifty on debut, also expressed her disappointment in a post-match interview saying she thought that they (England) were going to chase the target.
"I really thought we were going to do it this morning, so I'm pretty disappointed," Wyatt said. "It was pretty hard to bat out there. There is a sense of missed opportunity, we will have a chat in the changing room about it. There are a lot of positives so we have to try to dust this down and smash them in the white ball stuff. "There's a few tired bodies out there and now we just need to dust ourselves off and get ready for the next challenge.”
Australia earned four points with this Test victory. The current holders need to now win just two of the six remaining white-ball matches (three T20 internationals, three ODIs), with two points on offer per win, in order to retain the Ashes.