Image Credit- ECB
On the first day of their Test match against England,
India amassed a respectable first-innings total behind the impressive debuts of
two young players at opposing ends of the experience spectrum.
With their respective half-centuries on an
accommodating pitch in Navi Mumbai, Satheesh Shubha, making her debut for her
country, and Jemimah Rodrigues, playing her maiden Test match after 113
white-ball appearances for India, helped India post 410 for 7, the
second-highest total by a team on the first day of a women’s Test match behind
England’s 431 for 4 against New Zealand in Christchurch in 1935, after bowling
their opponents out for 44.
The first evening session of this four-day match was
underway, and the hosts’ run rate had not fallen below 4.5 per over. With three
Test caps between them going into the match, Yastika Bhatia and Deepti Sharma
each scored fifty runs and were involved in important partnerships: Bhatia with
Harmanpreet Kaur, who narrowly missed a half-century in an odd but familiar
run-out, and Deepti Sharma with Sneh Rana.
Shubha surprised us with her choice. Due to a paucity
of opportunities following her move from Karnataka, she barely played for
Railways this season. However, Royal Challengers Bangalore selected her for the
WPL. And after opting to bat, the 24-year-old left-hander easily reached 69 off
76 balls, arriving at No. 3 with her side 25 for 1, providing more than a hint
of what her team can anticipate.
Before Smriti Mandhana cut Lauren Bell off with her
stumps, she could only muster 17. Then, with a delivery that went just far
enough to beat the bat, Kate Cross sent Shafali Verma off stump cartwheeling,
leaving India 47 for 2.
Subsequently, however, Shubha and Rodrigues
established a 115-run combination that not only balanced the innings but also
maintained the home team scoring at a remarkable clip, with Rodrigues, who is
23 years old, apparently finding gaps at will while Shubha looked completely at
home. A half-century was just one more stroke away when the latter easily cut
Cross through backward point, exploiting the pace of the ball for one of her 13
fours. After three balls, she produced that, driving so smoothly on the ground
that it appeared as though she had been doing it forever.
England’s fielders were left to lament those wasted
opportunities, and their bowlers lacked penetration. Later in the day, Deepti
achieved her third fifty in as many Test matches when she hit a four off Bell
through square leg.
That was before Pooja Vastrakar negotiated a tight
final over from Ecclestone on the opening day of the first women’s Test hosted
by India since 2014 and the first England had played on these shores since
2005, which finished very much in the home team’s advantage. That was before
Sciver-Brunt tore out Rana’s leg stump.