ENGLAND Women's captain and Hartley Invicta batsman Charlotte Edwards has described the experience of retaining the Ashes by defeating Australia in Sydney as the best week of her cricketing career.

The 28-year-old was at the crease when England clinched their dramatic last session win over Australia in Monday's one-off Ashes Test at the Bradman Oval in Bowral.

With an unbeaten 14 to her name, Edwards and England had successfully chased down the 114 they needed to win the four-day Test with six wickets to spare.

Edwards, whose first innings 94 was England's top score in the Test, said: "It's pretty special. I don't think it has sunk in with a lot of the team right now.

"We had the belief we could do it, we knew it would be tough and knew they are a hard team, but it proved to be a great game of cricket.

"I won my 100th one-day international cap and retained the Ashes - this has been my best week in cricket and the highlight of my career.

"It tops 2005 (winning the Ashes in England) because we were really up against it out here and managed to beat Australia on their own soil, it doesn't get much better than that."

The England Women now travel to New Zealand for a five-match ODI series starting on Sunday, after which Edwards will return for squad sessions with Kent.