Tag: Kranti Gaud

India Dominate Historic Match

An account of how the first women’s test match to be staged at Lord’s panned out and a photo gallery.

Just after 12:30 UK time Sneh Rana bowled Sophie Ecclestone who had fought hard to complete her maiden international half century and England were all out for 186 in their second innings, giving India victory by 270 runs in a match they had dominated pretty much from start to finish. This post looks back at the developments in the later stages of the match.

THE INDIAN SECOND INNINGS

India led by 115 on first innings, and by the end of day two had extended that by a further 154 runs for the loss of Shafali Verma. Although Sophie Ecclestone toiled hard for England and was ultimately rewarded by becoming the first English woman to gain a place on the test match honours board at Lord’s India were always in control, and Yastika Bhatia became the first woman to get on the batting honours board at the ground when she reached her maiden international hundred. Later, when the only question was exactly when India would opt to declare Richa Ghosh racked up a rapid half-century. It was her getting to that landmark that heralded the declaration at 341-7, 456 ahead. This was over 200 more than any side had made in the fourth innings to win a women’s test match, and 38 more than the men’s all time record of 418. Ecclestone’s final figures deserve a mention: 33.3-4-118-5. Lauren Bell was highly economical, but Lauren Filer leaked runs at over five an over while going wicketless, and Issy Wong, also wicketless, was nearly as expensive.

TWO BADLY TIMED ANNOUNCEMENTS

This day saw two announcements that for my money should not have been made at such a time. I have some sympathy with Heather Knight’s snap decision to join Tammy Beaumont in international retirement, but the announcement of this decision was definitely mistimed. The other big announcement was inexcusably timed on the part of the ECB: they chose the penultimate day of this historic women’s test match to reveal that they had axed Brendon McCullum as coach of the men’s test side. This was an announcement that should definitely have been held back until after this match had been completed. We should have been hearing about this on Wednesday, no matter that it happened on Sunday.

THE REST OF DAY THREE

The England innings had a shocking start when Tammy Beaumont in her last international innings suffered the only golden duck of her great career, bowled by an absolute beauty from Kranti Gaud. The Indians gave Beaumont a guard of honour as she left the field for the last time in international cricket. That brought the other retiree, Knight, to the crease. It was the other opener, Maia Bouchier, who was next to go, pinned LBW by the other Indian new ball bowler Sayali Satghare for 2. Off spinner Sneh Rana clean bowled England skipper Sciver-Brunt for 11 to make it 23-3. Fourth out was Knight, caught by Ghosh off Gaud for 13. Alice Capsey and Amy Jones showed signs of fighting spirit until Satghare found a way through Capsey’s defences, bowling her for 21. That brought in Mady Villiers, whose off spin had certainly been less effective than Charlie Dean’s would have been. Villiers did bat decently, but just before the close a freak catch by Ghosh did for her. Villiers hit a ball from Rana fiercely, Ghosh, close in at mid off, grabbed at the ball as it was passing her and it stuck. That was 126-6, and by the end of day three Jones and Ecclestone had added another four runs to the score.

THE LAST RITES

The powers that be had got one thing right yesterday: they had announced that admission would be free today, which meant that decent numbers showed up for what could end up being very little cricket. That eventuality gained in probability when Amy Jones was caught by Verma off Rana for 54 to make it 135-7 very early on. Jones had scored two fifties in the match, the first keeper to do so in a women’s test match, and at the time she was out they were the only two fifties for England in the match. Wong, who had had a poor time with the ball in this match, showed some heart by holding out for 33 balls in support of Ecclestone until Deepti Sharma bowled her for 1. That was 157-8, and not very long later it was 159-9, with Lauren Bell bowled by Sharma for a ten ball duck. Lauren Filer was in serious jeopardy of losing her wicket three times in her first five balls, but settled in to support Ecclestone who was batting well. Ecclestone’s innings included that rarity, an all-run four. This meant that when she reached 50 off her 61st ball care was needed – although there were seven fours in her 50 runs only six of them were actually boundaries (veteran commentator Alison Mitchell, from whom mistakes are usually rarer than hens teeth, was caught out by this detail). Then came Sneh Rana’s match ending delivery, and it remained only to settle Player of the Match. There were three candidates: Gaud for her five cheap wickets that tore apart the first England innings plus the scalps of Beaumont and Knight early in the final innings to put England right on the back foot; Bhatia for that century and her wicket keeping, and Mandhana who had scored twin fifties opening the batting for India. It was Kranti Gaud, who, rightly in my opinion, got the verdict.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

History at Lord’s

A look at developments in the first women’s test match ever to be played at Lord’s, a video and a photo gallery.

Yesterday morning a test match between the England and India women’s teams, at Lord’s, the first time a women’s test match has been played at that ground (a mere 89 years behind the other big London ground, The Oval, which staged the final match of the 1937 Women’s Ashes). With many ex-players present for the great occasion (from former world cup winner Alex Hartley, in her 30s and part of the commentary team as well to Enid Bakewell, some five decades older and still in full possession of her faculties) England won the toss and opted to bowl first. This post looks at developments so far in this match.

THE INDIAN INNINGS

For much of the day it looked as though India were headed for big score, but in the end they were held to 285. Sophie Ecclestone took the last three wickets in the space of six balls, in the process going past Katherine Sciver-Brunt to become England’s leading all format wicket taker. She is also the leading test wicket taker among current England bowlers, and sits third in the all time all format wicket takers list behind two Indians, the retired Jhulan Goswami and Deepti Sharma, also playing in this match (contributed a 50 to the Indian cause). Goswami’s record will be going in the not too distant future to one or other of these contemporary greats. Ecclestone is the younger of the pair, 27 years old to Deepti Sharma’s 28.

THE ENGLAND REPLY

By the end of day one England had lost veteran opener Tammy Beaumont, whose last international match this will be. They started very badly today, with overnight batters Bouchier and Knight departing quickly, and being followed in short order by Capsey. Amy Jones struck an aggressive 50 before being caught by Ghosh off Sneh Rana. Then Kranti Gaud, with three wickets already to her name already pinned England skipper Natalie Sciver-Brunt plumb in front. Because of the desperate situation the decision was sent upstairs, but it was definitively out – crashing into middle stump. That was 142-6. Ecclestone was eighth out caught behind off Sayali Satghare for 11. Shortly after that Gaud was recalled to the bowling crease, and became the first woman to claim a place on a test match honours board at Lord’s when a superb catch by Shafali Verma accounted for Lauren Bell. Her figures at that juncture were Gaud 15.2-6-33-5. Had she taken the tenth wicket of the innings and conceded 12 or fewer runs doing so she would have had the best innings figures by a woman in any international match at Lords, beating the 6-46 taken by Anya Shrubsole in the 2017 ODI world cup final. As it happened the final wicket, that of Lauren Filer, fell to Deepti Sharma, so Shrubsole’s record figures stand for now (when it comes to bowling figures in cricket the number of wickets is considered paramount, and it is only when considering hauls of the same number of wickets that the number of runs conceded becomes relevant). As it was Gaud, with final figures of 17-7-37-5 had been instrumental in securing her side a first innings lead of 115, which is likely to prove a match winning lead. Kranti Gaud is 22 years old, and as recently as 18 months ago she was not even on the Indian selectors’ radar. The other England v India match today, a men’s T20 at the Hampshire Bowl near, but crucially not actually in Southampton. got underway half an hour behind schedule due heavy traffic causing the Indian team to arrive late. That match is in its early stages, but not showing any great sign of ending the Indian men’s horror tour which has seen them reach this point with five defeats and a no-result to show for their endeavours.

PHOTOGRAPHS

We start with a short video of a small hedgehog which was in the grass at Kettlewell Lane Park this morning:

Now for the photos…

A demoiselle with a slender dark blue body and wings that are half translucent and half black sits right on top of a nettle plant.
A robot in Morrison’s yesterday (two pics)
The pontoon jetty being well used – eight boats, of which two are survey boats that are regularly there and one is the old cockling boat the Baden Powell, but five are bona fide visitors.
This cormorant has secured itself a decent breakfast (it was about 9AM when I took this one).
The gallery ends with the hedgehog (five pics)