India women dominate Day 1 of the Test match against England
Day 1 of the India England women’s Test played at Dr D Y Patil Sports Academy belonged to India as the hosts piled up 410/7 in 94 overs at the end of day’s play. They also recorded the highest run rate of 4.36 runs per over in a completed innings in women’s Test cricket. This was also India’s fifth 400+ score in Tests.
Winning the toss and electing to bat first, India played an attacking brand of cricket. The opening pair of Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma scored at about five runs per over. Mandhana (17) was the first wicket to fall for India in the sixth over and her partner Verma (19) soon followed her to the pavilion in the ninth over with the scoreboard reading 47/2. While it was Lauren Bell who gave England their first breakthrough, her new ball bowling partner Kate Cross got rid of the dangerous Verma.
While England could have made further inroads with a couple of Test debutants to follow in Shubha Satheesh and Jemimah Rodrigues, the Indian duo had some other plans. The left-right combination stitched a solid 115 run partnership for the third wicket playing some delightful strokes and running hard between the wickets. Both of them were looking good to hit their maiden Test century but first Satheesh (69) and then Rodrigues (68) perished to Sophie Ecclestone and Bell, respectively, in the first half of the second session.
With still 62 overs to be played in the day, captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Yastika Bhatia played with tremendous patience. Though Bhatia miscued a slog sweep of Ecclestone’s bowling, she was lucky to be given a life on 15 by Bell, who dropped a regulation catch at mid-on. She rode her luck again when she was dropped on 62 by England’s captain Heather Knight at first slip of Bell’s bowling. However, not much damage was done after that since Bhatia was dismissed for 66 by Charlie Dean in the 67th over. Just a few overs before Yastika got out, Kaur was run out on 49 in one of the most bizarre ways reminding of her similar sort of dismissal in the ICC Women’s World T20 semi-final against Australia played early this year. Kaur’s bat was jammed just outside of the crease and Wyatt hit the stumps to send the Indian captain back to the pavilion. The 116-run partnership between Kaur and Bhatia thus came to an end.
Towards the end of the day in the final session, Deepti Sharma and Sneh Rana put together 92 runs for the seventh wicket before Rana was clean bowled by Nat Sciver-Brunt on 30. The all-rounders played intelligent cricket and took India beyond the 400-run mark. Pooja Vastrakar (4*) joined Sharma (60*), who remained unbeaten at the end of the day’s play. The duo will resume Day 2 with 410/7 on board.
Apart from the four half-centuries scored during the game, Indian fans had something more to cheer about as Vrinda Rathi became the first woman from India to officiate a women’s Test. Rathi, a former cricketer herself, has already officiated in a Ranji Trophy match and Women’s T20 World Cup. The 34-year-old from Navi Mumbai has certainly a bright future ahead of her.
