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India are successful patient power of their one-off Test aft bowling England retired for 170 and reaching 154 for 1 astatine nan close, building a important lead of 269. The 22-year-old seamer Kranti Gaud showed existent mastery of red-ball bowling to decorativeness pinch 5 for 37: her teasing statement and length, mixed pinch wobble seam, had England reeling astatine 47 for four.
This is Gaud’s 2nd Test, aft making her debut astatine nan Waca against Australia successful March, and she enters nan grounds books arsenic nan first female to person her sanction carved connected nan Test honours committee astatine Lord’s.
Smriti Mandhana will person nan chance to subordinate her location connected Sunday, having brought up her 2nd half-century of nan match, finishing nan time 69no. Women’s Test cricket is live and good – nan 15,432 fans was a world grounds for a azygous time astatine a women’s Test – but arsenic nan evening convention progressed, nan life slow leaked retired of this contest.
India toyed pinch nan tired England fielders: Shafali Verma spanked Sophie Ecclestone’s first complete for 13, Smriti pulled a succession of Lauren Filer short balls to nan boundary, while Yastika Bhatia charged down nan way to spank Mady Villiers for 4 and was unbeaten connected 39 astatine nan adjacent aft a uncommon missed stumping by Amy Jones.
Test cricket is not easy erstwhile you play it erstwhile each 18 months; England’s first innings veered from zealous onslaught to inertial defence pinch dizzy regularity. Jones raced to a half-century successful 59 balls, and looked arsenic if she mightiness play nan benignant of innings that would dress up for her stuttering tally of single-figure World Cup scores. But having done nan difficult yards to get herself in, she pinged a drawback up to Richa Ghosh astatine short-leg conscionable earlier lunch. In nan day session, Lauren Bell and Issy Wong batted together for 22 balls without scoring a run.
Oddly it was Test debutant Mady Villiers who looked astir comfortable, contempt being surrounded by fielders nether helmets – an acquisition will person been unfamiliar. She played retired a diligent and technically correct innings, accumulating 10 disconnected 33 balls, and was only undone by a flighted, turning shot from Sneh Rana, which bowled her done nan gate.
The reside had been group successful nan first halfhour arsenic – aft a random lone complete of left-arm rotation from Shree Charani to commencement nan time – India’s seamers Gaud and Sayali Satghare joined forces to tear done England’s apical order.
Gaud accounted for 2 of them: Maia Bouchier wafted precocious successful nan aerial and sewage an extracurricular separator done to nan keeper, while debutant Alice Capsey played a textbook guardant protect changeable down wholly nan incorrect statement and turned to spot her off-stump cartwheeling retired of nan ground.
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India missed nan chance to disregard Heather Knight connected Friday evening aft Gaud rapped her connected nan pads and they chose not to nonstop it upstairs. This could person been a large let-off: Knight has 2 Test 150s to her name. But Sayali, scampering successful from nan Pavilion End, angled 1 successful to England’s No 3. Though Knight opted to reappraisal it, replays showed it would person brushed limb stump.
England did astatine slightest debar nan indignity of nan follow-on. But fixed nan ominous levels of move extracted by Sneh Rana, batting connected time four, should it get that far, is improbable to beryllium easy.
