Mumbai: Off-spinner Deepti Sharma ended with match figures of 9/39 as India hammered England by 347 runs, the highest margin of victory by runs in Women’s Test history, at the DY Patil Stadium on Saturday.
Deepti took 4 for 32 in the second innings while Pooja Vastrakar took 3 for 23 as England caved in on the third day to be bowled out for 131, five fewer than they managed in the first innings.
England were set a stiff 479 for victory — 245 was the highest total achieved in fourth innings of women’s Tests — and it was a matter of how quickly India wrapped up the match.
England began steadily after India declared on their overnight score of 186/6 with Sophia Dunkley and Tammy Beaumont scoring a string of boundaries. Then Renuka Singh seamed a ball away from the Beamont’s defence to hit the stumps and open the floodgates.
Player of the Match Deepti Sharma on Saturday. Twitter
India captain Harmanpreet Kaur credited head coach Amol Muzumdar for taking vital decisions for the team. Harmanpreet, who made her Test debut in 2014, led India for the first time in the format in this game.
“Our coach helped us a lot, I had zero experience in leading the team in Test,” Harmanpreet told the media after the massive win.
“I was trusting his (Muzumdar’s) decisions — be it sending Shubha (Satheesh) at one-down in the first innings or whatever ideas he gave in bowling, like the first 40 minutes were important today, the idea was to put them (England) in early and utilise the morning conditions,” she said.
“His experience really helped us and it also gave me time to decide what was the best for the team,” she added.
Muzumdar was delighted with the effort of his players.
“Absolutely brilliant stuff... No Test match is easy but the efforts that the girls put in, getting together 5-6 days before the Test and the preparation was nice to result into this win,” Muzumdar said. “It’s the confidence they carry because England are
a strong side.”
Written with PTI inputs
