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Indian Women’s Cricket Team Breaks Record as They Defeat England
Indian women clinched a humungous 347-run victory over the greatest margin in the history of women’s tests and that too over England. The one-off Test took place at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Saturday, 16 December 2023. Player Deepti Sharma amplified the match with a 9-wicket haul, bringing the team towards victory. The previous record was held by Srilanka who beat Pakistan in a 309-run win at Colombo in the year 1998. This is India’s first win over England in their homeland in 15 Tests. They had already claimed victory in other games twice back in 2014 which provided them with a big boost ahead of the one-off Test against Australia which is happening this week.
Deepti thrashed the line-up of the England cricket team after a 113-ball 67 during the first innings of India with a total of 428. Deepti, with a sensational 5.3-4-7-5 spell, helped the hosts take a massive 292-run lead. After her stellar performance in both batting and fielding in the first innings, Deepti got the England batters in a tangle once again to finish with figures of 4/32 in the second innings. She narrowly missed out on being the second Indian female cricketer to register a 10-wicket match haul after the legendary Jhulan Goswami.
Deepti, after the match, in an interview stated that, “I was just waiting to bowl and keeping myself warmed up, got a lot of help from the wicket and I backed myself. Harry Di (Harmanpreet) was saying to bowl in your areas and the turn will help you. We want to continue this in the next Test.”
The England cricket team got bowled out on Day 3 of the Test match for 131 runs in 27.3 overs. India completely washed out the other team by taking out all the wickets in the first session of the third day. The Heather Knight-led side lasted only 63 overs in the entire match. They were bowled out for 136 in just 35.3 overs in the first innings. India captain Harmanpreet Kaur declared the overnight score of 186/6 to set England a daunting target of 479. Nonetheless, England got off to a better start compared to the first innings with openers Tammy Beaumont and Sophia Dunkley looking solid in front of Renuka Singh and Sneh Rana. But the deadlock was broken when Renuka produced a delivery that pitched on off and straightened slightly to send Beaumont’s off stump flying.
Later on, a double strike in the first over was successfully delivered by Pooja Vastrakar who played as a game-changer in the match. She got Dunkley caught at Dully which was followed by a beautiful in-swinger to leave Nat Sciver-Brunt clueless. The half-centurion of the first innings lost her off stump for a golden duck. The partnership between England captain Knight and Danny Wyatt only lasted for a while before Pooja delivered with another strike sending the former packing. The ball pitched just outside the off stump and swung away just enough to get the outside edge of Knight’s bat.
After this, Deepti was the one who took the spotlight. The off-spinner who teamed up with left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad to beat England. After this, England continued to face misery when Wyatt edged a delivery securing a wicket for Deepti in the innings after making 12.
Deepti then bowled Amy Jones pulling one straight to short midwicket and in her 7th over she took out two batters, Kate Cross and Lauren Filer by hitting the stump twice. Moreover, Deepti became the first Indian Women’s player who took most of the wickets in the game succeeded by Rajeshri Gayakwad (2/20) who enjoyed some fame in the same frame.
Rajeshri Gayakwad, the left-arm spinner had her first success by taking the wicket of Sophie Ecclestone when she missed to cross the line and connecting while taking a sweep. The other one, she took it out while Lauren Bell was caught by Jemimah Rodrigues at a silly point for the final wicket of the game.
This was a perfect outing for India especially for the debuted players in the game, Shubha Sateesh, Jemimah Rodrigues, and Renuka, who all tasted success. It was unfortunate for Shubha who due to her fractured finger, was missing in action on the second and third days. Indian Women’s Cricket team displayed an enormous amount of energy in the Test match despite not having played Test cricket matches in over 2 years.
