Issy Wong is living the dream with two crucial wickets

Shropshire’s Issy Wong admitted she was living the dream after pulling on an England shirt for the first time and taking two crucial wickets as the home side gained momentum on a rain-affected day three at Taunton.

England s Issy Wong celebrates after taking the wicket of South Africa s Lara Goodall during day three of the Women's test match at The Cooper Associates County Ground, Taunton. Picture date: Wednesday June 29, 2022. PA Photo. See PA story CRICKET England Women. Photo credit should read: Nigel French/PA Wire. RESTRICTIONS: Editorial use only. No commercial use without prior written consent of the ECB. Still image use only. No moving images to emulate broadcast. No removing or obscuring of sponsor logos.

The 20-year-old Shrewsbury School graduate took two late wickets in the final half an hour of play as South Africa finished day three at 55 for three, needing another 78 runs on the final day to make England bat again. Wong had been added to the squad late as a replacement after Emily Arlott did not recover from coronavirus in time to be fit enough for selection, but has impressed on debut.

Wong admitted playing for England was a dream come true.

“It’s something that I’ve probably been dreaming of since I started playing cricket when I was five so just to be able to live that dream has been really special this week,” the fast bowler said.

When asked about her Test call-up, she said: “My mum had a little cry, my dad didn’t cry. It was probably something I wasn’t expecting at all.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet to be honest but I’m sure in the next couple of weeks or so I can put my feet up for a couple of days then it will begin to sink in a little bit.”

Having only taken one wicket in South Africa’s first innings, Wong looked the most dangerous of the England bowlers under the lights on day three, but she does not want to overthink her performance. “It’s been wild to be honest. We’ve had a bit of everything, we had some nice weather, we had some rain, we had some wickets and some runs it’s probably had everything so far,” Wong said.

“But I’m really enjoying it, probably didn’t think it was going to happen until a couple of days ago so just trying to – I guess not think too much about it and just enjoy it for this one, but equally trying to impact the game as much as I can.”