Tag: Sneh Rana

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 in Mumbai

A look back at the events that have unfolded in Mumbai over the last few days, a historic win for India Women in a test match over Australia women. Also a photo gallery.

Four days ago a test match between the Indian and Australian Women’s teams got underway in the city of Mumbai. I was only able to follow developments through cricinfo and some of my twitter and mastodon followers, so this post will be a bit sketchy, but you will see why I could not ignore it. India Women had never beaten Australia Women in a test match going into the game, but they had just won a test against England Women in Mumbai…

THE AUSTRALIAN FIRST INNINGS

The first hint that not all was going to the way of Australia came in the first innings of the match, when they managed only 219, with Pooja Vastrakar taking four wickets, Sneh Rana three and Deepti Sharma two. Vastrakar’s effort was especially significant – both because day one often sets the tone and because seamers should do well early in matches.

THE INDIAN FIRST INNINGS

India started impressively with the bat, with Smriti Mandhana, Richa Ghosh and Jemimah Rodrigues all making runs, and looked set for a massive lead when they passed 250 with only three wickets down. They then suffered a mid-innings collapse and at273-7 it looked like an opportunity to bury the match had been squandered. However, for the all their positions at numbers eight and nine in the order both Deepti Sharma and Pooja Vastrakar are competent batters, with Sharma being a genuine all rounder in any format save T20, where her relatively slow scoring rate counts against her. This pair reasserted India’s dominance, batting all the way through the final session of the second day and taking India’s lead past 150. India ultimately topped 400, finishing with 406 for a lead of 187. Sharma had the top score of the match with 78, and Vastrakar had set a new record for an Indian number nine in a test match with 47.

THE AUSTRALIAN SECOND INNINGS

Australia, as one would expect of such a strong and determined side fought hard in their second innings, but never really threatened to take the initiative away from India. Perry, McGrath, Healy and Sutherland all provided stiff resistance, but by the close of third day Australia were five down and only 46 to the the good. Had their lower order been able to conjure another 100 on the final day Indian nerves might have been jangling, but in the end they only managed a further 28, to give themselves just 74 to defend. Sneh Rana claimed four wickets with her off spin, and two other spinners, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and Rajeshwari Gayakwad claimed two scalps a piece, while Vastrakar added another wicket to four first innings scalps. Tahlia McGrath had battled her way to 73.

THE INDIAN CHASE

Shafali Verma was out cheaply to make it 4-1, but Richa Ghosh offered Smriti Mandhana good support, and by the time she was out only a further 20 were needed for victory. Rodrigues joined Mandhana and this pair were still together when India completed an impressive win, Mnadhana 38*, Rodrigues 12*. Sneh Rana’s seven wicket match haul earned her the Player of the Match award, though both Vastrakar (five wickets across the two innings and a vital 47) and Sharma (the highest individual score of the match and two wickets) must have been close, especially the former. All credit to India for winning this one – Australia were unbeaten in the format since 2014 going into this match. A full scorecard can be seen here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Time for my usual sign off…