India celebrated the return of women’s Test cricket in the nation with a record-breaking 347-run thrashing of England at Navi Mumbai.
India took just over two hours to complete the third day of their first Test match on Indian soil in nine years. England’s first innings performance (136 in 35.3 overs) looked normal but the second was even worse (131 in 27.3 overs).
After being in the field for two days and almost 10 hours in the Navi Mumbai heat, there is no winter in the Mumbai region. England tried to fight back when Sophia Dunkley and Tammy Beaumont came off the bowling from the start, 27 quick runs were added.
And Renuka Singh Thakur, one of the three players making their debut here, gave Beaumont a narrow lead. It happened at the end of a series of inswingers from Thakur. The next ball held the line and bowled out off stump.
In the post-match press conference, Harmanpreet Kaur said that India said throughout the night their seamers found help with the new ball. Thakur acknowledged Kaul’s point, but India nevertheless opened both innings with off-breaks from Sune Rana at the other end. In a press conference, Kaul explained that he doesn’t want batsmen to get used to pace or spin.
Puja Vastrakar was only replaced by Rana in the 10th over as he had already played a good Test match by that time. She was not sacked, and she struck out Beaumont on a hit and Heather Knight in the first inning. But what she did now hastened England’s end.
Dunkley, who survived Thakur’s opener for the first time in five attempts on this tour, flicked Vastrakar’s third ball to the fielder. The standout was Nat Silver-Brunt, who was Man of the Match in the first T20I, England’s opening top scorer, and Man of the Match in the final where Mumbai Indians won the first WPL. He was the one who got the match.
Vastrakar’s next ball fell just outside the off-stump. It didn’t move much, but somehow it found a gap between Silver Blunt’s butt and pad and hit the wood.
England did not relent when Vastrakar (3-23) once again caught Knight at his feet and took his third wicket in 12 balls. The rest of the batting order, on a pitch that, in Knight’s words, deteriorated faster than expected, was Deepti Sharma (not all of whom had great ball) (4-32) and Rajeshwari Gayakwad (4-32). (2 wins, 20 losses).
Sharma became the third cricketer after Betty Wilson and Catherine Shiver Brunt to score 50 runs and take two four-wicket hauls in the same Test match, and was deservedly named Player of the Match. I got it. However, despite their outstanding performance, the sheer number of Indians who appeared in Test matches was surprising.
Was the match decided on the first day?
India was loaded with weapons from the beginning. Smriti Mandhana did not slow down even after Beaumont took a wrong catch in the second over, and so did Shafali Verma. One might have expected debutants Shubha Satheesh and Jemima Rodrigues to be cautious when he combined for 2 for 47 in nine overs. Instead, they opted for a counter attack.
Both of us are now in our 50s. Shuba’s 76-ball 69 was a risky one, but it was also the most exciting of the two innings. Her debut was different from other players. Because, somewhat unusually given the rarity of this format, she had played Test her cricket before her ODIs and her T20Is. Here she started with a brilliant cover drive to the fence from the second ball she faced, eventually smashing the second-fastest Test fifty by an Indian player.
Rodriguez, who was more cautious, scored one point less than Shuba. Kaul missed the same milestone by one run – her run-out was deja vu of the T20 World Cup semi-finals – but Jastika Bhatia and Sharma also scored 60 runs, with four from 66 to 69. This resulted in a strange scorecard with two different individual returns. Contributed.
Sophie Ecclestone took a rare day off from work, making England’s long day seem even longer. India went on to collect over 400 players and in one day he became the second team in history to collect 400 players (the first in the history of this format since the first season).
In order to win the Test match within four days, India gave their bowlers enough time to take 20 wickets on a surface that Shubha described as “beautiful to bat on” after the first day. I had to give it time. Their record was 410 wins and 7 losses, almost a tie.
There could not have been more publicity for women’s Test cricket, but only a few hundred people were in the stands applauding that day or the next day. DY Patil Sports Academy shares its vast campus with universities and other institutions, but almost no one came even for her last hour. Saturday probably brought in a few more people, coupled with the prospect of a win, but the stands still looked empty.
England’s great collapse
England started the second day well. India only added 18 points to their overnight total, and despite two early losses, they were stalled at 79-2, 108-3 and then 126-4. Looked. Then in 6 overs he lost 10 runs and 6 wickets.
Kaur started bowling with pace and spin and had at least one spinner out throughout the innings, barring short spells. But once the pacer departed, Rana (2-25) and Sharma (5-7) joined forces to maintain good line and length and let the pitch do the rest.
Sharma in particular was spot on. As Shiver Brandt said at the end of the second day, she noticed that the batter was “wondering whether to come forward or back… She threw pitches that were hard to read; and she also… It attacked a tree stump.”
Additionally, some balls spun too much and some held their line. The takeoff wasn’t much different on day three, with Siver Brandt scoring a 59, but it wasn’t easy. “When you come to India to play, you expect a slightly slower surface to turn and hit. “You experienced weirdos,” she said. “The way to counter this is to move far forward or far back to make the most of your momentum.”
If it was difficult for England to come into bat, so too was India, who decided to come into bat again despite having a lead of 292 runs. Kaul wanted to be on the safe side of 500 in a format where no team had managed to chase 200 for him to win a match.
Mandana and Verma added 61 in an opening stand of 77 balls, at which point Charlie Dean followed up with a concise score of 4-68. Ecclestone also scored two goals (he scored five in the friendly match even though he wasn’t at his best). Without Shubha, who broke his finger during fielding practice before the second day of the match, India extended their lead to 186 runs at stumps.
The fate of the Test match had been decided long ago, but many would not have expected India to surpass Sri Lanka’s record lead of 309 runs. Unfortunately, very few people witnessed this feat, and despite the enthusiastic cheering on the morning of the third day, the lack of participants could not be made up.
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