Benefits of five-day Tests showcased at Trent Bridge

Heather Knight has called for all women's Test matches to be staged over five days, as the England skipper looked at the bigger picture after finding her side on the losing side of the enthralling Trent Bridge match.

Australia's 89-run, fifth-day victory in Nottingham snapped a six-game run of draws in women's Tests and was the first game in the format to produce a winner since the Ashes Test at Canterbury in 2015.

The England and Wales Cricket Board added a fifth day for this Test in response to those stalemates, to increase the chances the game would produce a winner.

What followed was five days of history-making cricket, as England opener Tammy Beaumont hit a double century, Australia allrounder Annabel Sutherland scored a ton from No.8, and spinners Ashleigh Gardner and Sophie Ecclestone bagged 12 and 10 wickets for the game respectively.

It was also the fastest scoring women's Test on record, with the average run rate of 3.67 for the game surpassing the 3.40 run rate from the 2022 Ashes contest in Canberra, and the 3.15 from the 2019 Ashes Test in Taunton.

"One hundred per cent," Knight told reporters on Monday when asked if the outcome at Trent Bridge vindicated the decision to stage the game over five days.

"We were saying last night that if it was four days, it probably would have petered out and not been as entertaining as it was.

"But I think the fact that we've been able to see Tammy get 200, Sutherland get 100 batting at eight, Sophie Ecclestone getting two five-fers and Ash getting eight-fer ... they're really truly special performances that we might not have seen if it wasn't over five days.

"If you play four you really have to manufacture a result, and I don't think the game gets the credit it deserves if that happens.

"I'd love to see five days but that's a decision that's well above my head I'm afraid."

Australia's next home Test will be played over four days next February against South Africa at the WACA Ground, with an allowance of 100 overs per day (for context, the Trent Bridge result was achieved in 373.3 overs). In 2022 Cricket Australia's Head of Cricket Operations and Scheduling Peter Roach told cricket.com.au women's Tests in Australia would remain at four days, although consideration would be given to including a reserve day in the event of wet weather.

Both England and Australia's next Tests will be played in India in December, but the schedule for those series have yet to be confirmed.

The next Ashes Test will be played in Australia in 2024-25.

Australia captain Alyssa Healy was less bullish on the necessity of a fifth day, but said she supported the inclusion of a reserve day to account for poor weather.

"It is what it is, we've also had results in a four-day Test match before so I'm not going to sit here and say five days is the way forward … but we saw today that the result didn't need to be manipulated, it was always going to finish one way or the other and I think that's really exciting," Healy said.

"If we keep talking about wanting a result, then potentially (five days) might be the way moving forward."

The six draws in women's four-day Tests between 2017 and 2022 were heavily influenced by either poor weather or flat pitches, or a combination of the two.

There was one brief rain delay at Trent Bridge on day two, but the overs were made up.

What the fifth day in Nottingham did do was allow the match to play out naturally, taking the onus off the captains to declare and manufacture an exciting finish.

That had been the case in 2022 in Canberra when then Australia captain Meg Lanning gave England a target of 257 off 48 overs, and Knight decided to go for it.

It set up a thrilling finale that ended in a draw, but with England nine down and 12 runs short of victory.

While much of the discourse in Nottingham has still revolved around five-day Tests, the conversation had moved in a new, more positive direction.

"(I'm relieved) because I'm sick of talking about a draw and how we (should) stop having draws when there's draws in men's Tests all the time," Healy said.

"Even if we had lost the Test match, I still would have been happy that we got a result and know that we could fight back in the white-ball games to hopefully get ourselves back in the contest."

Despite the result, Knight nonetheless hailed the Trent Bridge game a significant success.

The game attracted an overall attendance of 22,203 across the five days, smashing past records, and a match-high 6951 were in the stands to watch Beaumont bring up her historic double-century, the first by an English woman, on day three.

"(While) we're on the losing side, I think the fact that we've had five days has led to the great cricket that we've had ... I'm proud of how we've tried to set out to entertain and inspire," Knight said.

"I was just thinking back to the spell that Lauren Filer bowled before lunch on Sunday and just had a little moment to kind of look around at the crowd getting really engaged.

"At that moment I was like 'ah, can I bottle this? This is awesome'.

"That's what we want to do as a team, we want to get people watching Test cricket, we want to get people excited about women's cricket.

"And I think that moment kind of made me realise that actually we've done our job here."

CommBank Ashes Tour of the UK 2023

Australia squad: Alyssa Healy (c), Tahlia McGrath (vc), Darcie Brown, Ashleigh Gardner, Kim Garth, Grace Harris, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Phoebe Litchfield, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Georgia Wareham

England Test squad: Heather Knight (c), Natalie Sciver-Brunt (vc), Tammy Beaumont, Lauren Bell, Kate Cross, Sophia Dunkley, Sophie Ecclestone, Lauren Filer, Danielle Gibson, Amy Jones, Emma Lamb, Issy Wong, Danielle Wyatt

Australia lead the multi-format series 4-0

Test: Australia won by 89 runs

First T20I: July 1 at Edgbaston, Birmingham, 6.35pm (3.35am July 2 AEST)

Second T20I: July 5 at The Oval, London, 6.35pm (3.35am July 6 AEST)

Third T20I: July 8 at Lord’s, London, 6.35pm (3.35am July 9 AEST)

First ODI: July 12 at The County Ground, Bristol, 1pm (10pm AEST)

Second ODI: July 16 at The Rose Bowl, Southampton, 11am (7pm AEST)

Third ODI: July 18 at The County Ground, Taunton, 1pm (10pm AEST)