Beth Mooney became first Australian woman to make centuries in all three formats with her Ashes ton at the MCG
Beth Mooney’s speciality has always been pacing an innings, so one might decide it was a smart example of that to reach stumps on day two on 98 not out. If you make a hundred on the same day as someone else’s bigger one, your effort will be overlooked. Instead of living in the shadow of Annabel Sutherland’s 163, Mooney returned on day three to notch her first Test century all on her own.
It wasn’t an easy hop from 98 to 100, with even the normally cool wicketkeeper-bat fraying as the England spinner Sophie Ecclestone teased at the thread. A ball past the outside edge, a running mix-up narrowly averted, beaten again, then finally a drive to find the two runs she needed, the milestone raised in the first over of the day.