Spinners Sneh Rana and Deepti Sharma fashioned India Women’s comeback by triggering a batting collapse in the final session, but England Women still managed a decent 269 for six on the opening day of the one-off Test.
Playing a Test after nearly seven years, India were struggling, but Sneh (3/77) and Deepti (2/50) brought the side back by accounting for two batters each in the final session. From a comfortable 230 for two, England were reduced to 251 for six as an old pitch being used for the match assisted the Indian spinners.
The Indian bowlers looked rusty and toiled hard for most part of the day before the spinners came to the party. For England, Tammy Beaumont (66) looked solid at the top apart from skipper Heather Knight (95), who missed out on a hundred.
At stumps, Sophie Dunkley was batting on 12 while Katherine Brunt was on seven. Knight paced her innings to perfection and notched up her third Test fifty just after tea.
The Indians were sloppy on the field initially as Deepti dropped a straight-forward chance given by Natalie Sciver (42) at midwicket off Harmanpreet Kaur’s bowling. But she made up for the mistake soon, dismissing Sciver leg-before with the batter adding just eight more runs to her score.
Brief scores: England Women 269/6 (H. Knight 95, T. Beaumont 66; S. Rana 3/77) vs India Women. At stumps, Day 1
