Women’s Test: India beat England by historic margin
Mumbai: India created history in the Women’s Test after defeating England by the highest margin of 347 runs, riding high on Deepti Sharma’s a match haul of 9/39 on Day 3 of the one-off match at DY Patil Stadium here on Saturday.
Deepti bagged 4 for 32 in the second innings and Pooja Vastrakar scalped three as England were bowled out for 131, after they were skittled for 126 runs in the first innings.
Up against a herculean task of overpowering 479 runs target, England openers Sophia Dunkley and Tammy Beaumont started with a flurry of boundaries, but pacer Renuka Thakur opened the floodgates by cleaning up Beaumont with a beauty.
Vastrakar took over and wreaked havoc by picking up three wickets in a hurry, reducing England to 68/4. She first had Dunkley caught at gully by Harleen Deol for 15. The very next ball, she shattered the timbers of Nat Sciver-Brunt off a nipping delivery and then got the big fish Heather Knight nick one outside-the-off to Yastika Bhatia behind the stumps for 21.
Captain Harmanpreet Kaur brought in Deepti, who had snapped up a dream figure of 5/7 in the first innings and precipitated the English collapse. She removed Dannielle Wyatt caught at slip by Rajeshwari Gayakwad for 12, and in her next over got Amy Jones caught at mid-wicket by Shafali Varma for 5.
Kate Cross (16) and Lauren Filer (0) were cleaned up by Deepti before Rajeshwari hit the final nail by getting Lauren Bell caught by Jemimah Rodrigues for 8.
Chasing 479 target was a big ask, given that 245 is the highest total achieved in the fourth innings of Women’s Tests. And India registered the win after etching their name in the history books.
Brief scores: India Women 428 & 186/6 decl. (Harmanpreet Kaur 44*; Charlie Dean 4-68) beat England Women 136 & 131 (Deepti Sharma 4-32, Pooja Vastrakar 3-23) by 347 runs.