India strengthened their grip against England on Day 2 of the one-off women’s Test at Navi Mumbai on Saturday. Led by Deepti Sharma’s stunning show with both bat and ball, India bundled out England for just 136, thus storming to a 292-run first-innings lead. Earlier in the day, India, who finished on an overnight score of 410/7, were all out for 428 with half-centuries from debutants Shubha Satheesh and Jemimah Rodrigues, and Deepti and Yastika Bhatia. In reply though, any hope of an England fight was extinguished inside 36 overs as Deepti’s incredible figures of 5/7 spun them out with Natalia Sciver-Brunt’s 59 of 70 proving to be the only knock of substance.
Deepti became only the second India batter to score a fifty and grab a five-for in a women’s Test. The first and only other Indian to do so was Shubhangi Kulkarni, who achieved this feat way back in 1985 against New Zealand. She had scored 79 and picked up 6/99 in a Test that ended in a draw. Considered a pioneer in women’s cricket, she turned up for 19 WTests and 27 WODIs for India between 1976 and 1991, scoring 2316 runs and 98 wickets.
Deepti, who came to bowl in the 26th over, needed less than 6 overs – 5.3 to be precise – to get the entire England innings undone. She wiped out the middle lower order as England, from 108/3, crumbled to lose seven wickets for 28 runs. The moment the two set batters – Danielle Wyatt and Amy Jones – departed, the wheels fell off. Deepti raced to a five-wicket-haul in just 33 balls handing Deepti a remarkable feat. Completing a five-wicket haul in just 5.3 overs marks the shortest spell in women’s Test innings – the previous record was held by Gargi Banerjee, who achieved a six-for against New Zealand in 1985 with 9.4 overs.
With two sessions done with inside two days, the WTest is heading towards a result for sure, and the way the game is poised at the moment, it’s tilted in India’s favour. However, despite India surging ahead, and nearly 250 overs to go, Harmanpreet Kaur decided not to enforce the follow on – which has become a trend given the tiredness that creeps within players. The Test is moving at a rapid speed with India motoring along to reach 92/3 in 20 overs. As the lead is set to swell past 400, India could wind this up rather quickly unless England bat out of their skins to make a game out of this.
