Pooja Vastrakar’s eyes lit up when she saw that ball from Heather Knight. All caution forgotten, she went for an ungainly hoick, and somehow managed to finish her shot ages before the ball arrived. A ghastly end to her promising cameo meant that India Women slumped to 189/7. They had saved the innings defeat but led by only 24 runs, and had to bat over a session to save the Test match.
England Women had their hands on the Test match, but for No. 8 Sneh Rana, who decided to take control. Rana, one of India’s five debutants in the match, had bowled almost 40 overs for her 4-131 in the first innings. She played and left with conviction, handled Sophie Ecclestone (4-118) with confidence on a wearing pitch, and stayed at the crease for over three hours for an unbeaten 80.
England had sniffed a chance when Amy Jones dove to her left to catch Shikha Pandey (18) off Nat Sciver (2-21), but Taniya Bhatia (44 not out), another debutant, batted out time with Rana. Rana and Bhatia added an unbroken 104 in 178 balls before Knight shook hands with them.
India started the day on 83/1, still 82 away from saving the innings defeat. Shafali Verma, yet another debutant, had missed her hundred in the first innings by four runs. Now, on 63, she tried to hit a full-toss from Ecclestone over the long-on boundary but mistimed. Katherine Brunt, two weeks short of her 36th birthday, sprinted in to take a superb diving catch.
Deepti Sharma, also a debutant, then finally had a brain-fade on 54. Ecclestone tossed the ball up, Sharma went for a wild slog, bottom-edged, and was bowled. After taking 3-65, Sharma batted 241 balls in the Test match for her 83 runs.
Ecclestone also spun one across Mithali Raj’s bat to bowl her, and had Harmanpreet Kaur top-edging a slog-sweep. At one stage she threatened to run through, but the edge went out of her bowling as the day wore on, presumably because she is not used to bowling spells of this duration anymore. Her match figures – in consecutive innings, for India followed on – read 64-15-206-8 across over two days of cricket.
Brief scores
England Women 396/9 decl. (Heather Knight 95; Sneh Rana 4-131) drew with India Women 231 (Shafali Verma 96; Sophie Ecclestone 4-88) and 344/8 (Sneh Rana 80*; Sophie Ecclestone 4-118). Player of the Match: Shafali Verma.