Australia’s Gardner battled finger injury in record-breaking blitz

The 26-year-old had taken a blow to her bowling hand during slips practice in Australia’s three-day warm-up match and did not bowl before the test.

“My finger obviously bent backwards where it’s probably not supposed to. It’s almost stretched that ligament a little bit,” Gardner said.

“Adrenaline does funny things and I completely forget about it as soon as the ball was in hand.

“So as soon as I wasn’t bowling (at Trent Bridge), I put a splint straight on it, just to protect it because in the field is where I’m more likely to get hit.

“It was quite frustrating but because I didn’t get that match practice in before the test.”

Gardner, who had dismissed key players Tammy Beaumont, Heather Knight and Natalie Sciver-Brunt on the penultimate day, said she spent a largely sleepless night visualising how she was going to remove England’s remaining five batters.

“I was awake at 3 am thinking about bowling, which was a bit tragic,” Gardner said. “I was wide awake, literally thinking about how I was going to get the batters out and I’ve never done that before.”

Australia earned four points in the multi-format series as they bid to retain the Ashes. The teams next meet in a three-match Twenty20 International series beginning on July 1 at Edgbaston.