Express & Star

Gritty Georgia Elwiss helps see England to safety

Wolverhampton’s Georgia Elwiss played a crucial role in keeping England Women’s Ashes hopes alive with a stubborn 41 not out to help draw the match.

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Elwiss and captain Heather Knight shared an unbroken stand of 117 runs to see England to safety in the only Test match of the multi-format series at the North Sydney Oval. They must now win all three T20 matches to win the Ashes.

And 26-year-old former Wolverhampton Girls’ High School pupil Elwiss spoke of her happiness in grinding out a draw thanks to her 190-ball, three hour and twenty-minute knock.

“We knew the importance of the first session and we had to really break it down, over by over,” she said.

“Heather and I kept saying to each other, ‘ball by ball, ball by ball’, just trying to take it one step at a time.”

“The way the game was set up was all about us fighting and keeping our wickets in hand.

“We needed to really value them and we’ve done that brilliantly. The resilience we’ve shown over the whole Test match has been amazing.

“The innings that Ellyse Perry played was outstanding but for our bowlers to keep plugging away and churning the overs out was great. We never let our standards slip in the field either and we can take great heart from that. I think it shows that we fought all the way through this Test, hopefully we can take some momentum going into the T20s.”

It was an important innings for Elwiss who has to bide her time waiting to come into the side.

“I’m happy to contribute. I was quite nervous going into the match because I hadn’t played for a while,” she told ecb.co.uk. “For me it was about valuing my wicket and making sure the team was going nicely. It was all about batting with Heather and getting to those small targets.

“It’s an easy wicket to bat on once you’re in so that was really important. I’m pleased to make a contribution but I’m more happy about the team.”

And captain Knight paid tribute to Elwiss, adding: “It was important we came back 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. Obviously it’s a shame she couldn’t get her first Test 50 but pleased with how she went and the selections we made.”

Knight hopes their battling draw in Sydney will give them momentum.

She said: “Hopefully we’ve taken a little bit after we fought really hard out there and we made sure they didn’t have a sniff of getting that win.”