Spinners turn it around for India

Bristol, June 16

The Indian women picked up four English wickets for 21 runs late in the day to come back into the game on Day 1 of the one-off Test here today.

Despite the mini-collapse, England were still in a fairly strong position at 267 for six at stumps.

England were cruising at 230 for two when debutant off-spinner Sneh Rana (3/74) and Deepti Sharma (2/40) struck, denying a deserved century to captain Heather Knight. Knight, who added 71 runs for the second with Tammy Beaumont (66) and 90 with Natalie Sciver (42), was trapped lbw by Sharma. Before that, Sharma had won an lbw decision against Sciver too, while Rana removed No. 5 Amy Jones for 1, and England were now 251/6. Knight played 175 balls and struck nine fours. Earlier, at tea, England were in a strong position at 162/2.

After getting rid of Lauren Winfield-Hill (35) in the first session of the day, India toiled hard for most part of the post-lunch period before Rana picked up her maiden Test wicket. She got rid of the in-form Beaumont, who was brilliantly caught by Shafali Verma at short leg.

Beaumont faced 166 balls and struck six fours en route her second Test fifty. Skipper Knight batted cautiously and remained unbeaten in the company of Natalie Sciver as England made 76 runs off 28 overs in the second session.

Good start

Earlier, the hosts made a solid 86 for one in the opening session. The Indian pace duo of veteran Jhulan Goswami and Shikha Pandey made a promising start, doing just enough to trouble the English batswomen on more than one occasion. In the seventh over, Goswami induced an edge from Winfield-Hill as the batter went for an extravagant drive but Smriti Mandhana dropped the chance in the slip cordon despite getting both hands on the ball. In the next over, Winfield-Hill got lucky again. Debutant Pooja Vastrakar induced a thick edge from the batter but the ball flew between second slip and gully to the boundary.

After a slow and cautious start, England picked up the pace. Winfield-Hill was the more positive of the two batters as she lofted Pandey over the midwicket fence for the first six of the innings and in the process brought up England’s fifty in the 17th over.

An over later, Winfield-Hill hit another over backward square-leg off Vastrakar. Brief scores: England 269/6 (Heather Knight 95, Tammy Beaumont 66, Natalie Sciver 42; Sneh Rana 3/77, Deepti Sharma 2/50)

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