Canberra, Jan 29 (IANS): Australian batter Beth Mooney's daring dive to save a certain boundary on the third day of the women's Ashes Test on Saturday has gone viral with her fans lavishing praise on the 28-year-old cricketer, who had suffered a broken jaw and had to undergo surgery 11 days back.
A video posted by 7cricket.com shows Mooney leaping in the air and successfully stopping a four inches from the ropes before falling on the other side of the boundary with a thud. The website captioned the video: "Playing with a broken jaw and Beth Mooney is still throwing herself around in the field."
Mooney had suffered a broken jaw during the team training session on January 18 ahead of the Ashes T20I match at Sydney on January 20. The batting stalwart was hit by a ball under the grill of her helmet which required immediate surgery.
While it seemed like the injury had all but ruled Mooney out of the multi-format series and had also put the left-hander in doubt for the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup in New Zealand, she declared that she was fit to play the one-off Test at the Manuka Oval from January 27.
The batter had three plates and wires inserted into her jaw to hold it together. The batter reportedly is on a liquid-only diet with Australia captain Meg Lanning saying that the medical staff in the team was working around ideas to feed Beth through liquid diets.
On Saturday, England captain Heather Knight and senior pacer Katherine Brunt led the tourists' fight-back before rain forced early stumps on day three.
At stumps, after Australia bowled out England for 297 with Heather remaining unbeaten at a career-best 168, Katherine took two early wickets to reduce Australia to 12/2 in 4.5 overs. Australia had declared their first innings at 337 for 9.