Deepti Sharma’s stunning all-round show, a fifty and a fifer, provided India Women a perfect launching pad to record their maiden home victory in the traditional format over England after the second day of their one-off Test here Friday.
After a patient 113-ball 67 in India’s first-innings total of 428, Deepti destroyed England line-up with a sensational 5.3-4-7-5 spell helping the hosts take a massive 292-run lead. The visitors were bundled out for 136 in their first essay despite Nat Sciver-Brunt’s composed 59.
India did not enforce the follow-on and reached 186 for six in their second dig at stumps, for an overall lead of 478.
Deepti was at the heart of India’s effort when they grabbed six England wickets for a mere 10 runs, that saw them tumbling spectacularly from 108 for 3.
As the game progressed, the DY Patil Stadium pitch offered turn and variable bounce for spinners, leaving the batters in a quandary. The day also saw 19 wickets falling from either side and 15 of them were grabbed by spinners.
Deepti, of course, was the star of the day, tormenting the English batters with her bag of tricks.
The 26-year-old off-spinner began her destruction job getting rid of Danny Wyatt (19), who began with a string of fours.
It was a classical off-spinner’s dismissal as the English batter was caught at short leg for a bat-pad dismissal, and that also sparked a shocking collapse.
Deepti soon had Amy Jones (12) caught by Shafali Verma with the ball ricocheting off short-leg Smriti Mandhana’s helmet, while Sophie Ecclestone was tad unlucky when a delivery from the Indian kept low to crash onto her wickets.
Kate Cross became Deepti’s fourth victim through a feeble return catch while Lauren Filer did not have any answer for her guile.
The Indians were also proactive in the field with constant chirping around England batters and close-in catchers were placed in unorthodox positions to keep them rooted deep into the crease.
Before Deepti came into picture, pacers Renuka Singh and Pooja Vastrakar kept England in check.
Renuka produced a terrific incoming delivery for India’s first breakthrough, sneaking one through the gate to clean up Sophia Dunkley (11).
In fact, incoming deliveries remained Renuka’s go-to weapon throughout the first spell.
Vastrakar was driven for a four by Heather Knight (11) but the right-arm seamer corrected her length to move one back into the England captain, pinning her in front of the wickets. Sciver-Brunt resurrected England’s faltering reply to some extent with a counter-attacking knock, notching up her fourth Test fifty.
Sciver-Brunt imposed herself on Indian spinners and seamers alike, unleashing powerful hits to strike 10 fours in her 59 off 70 balls before Sneh Rana castled her.
Rana surprised Sciver-Brunt with one that turned in sharply from outside the off-stump.
India’s progress in their second innings was not smooth either as off-spinner Charlie Dean (4/68) and left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone (2/76) joined forces to trouble the Indian batters on occasions but despite that India already had moved so far ahead in the game.
Mandhana (26) and Shafali (33) added 61 runs for the first wicket while Jemimah Rodrigues made 27.
Harmanpreet Kaur (44 not out) kept England at bay with an unbeaten 53-run stand with Pooja Vastrakar (17 not out) for the seventh wicket.
India also had to rejig their batting order since debutant and first-innings star Shubha Satheesh remained unavailable to bat owing to a finger injury.
Earlier, after the first day’s play saw batters making merry, English spinners came to party through Ecclestone (3/67) as her quick strikes did not allow India build big after they resumed from 410 for seven.
