India are in firm control of their one-off Test after bowling England out for 170 and reaching 154 for one at the close, building a substantial lead of 269. The 22-year-old seamer Kranti Gaud showed true mastery of red-ball bowling to finish with five for 37: her teasing line and length, combined with wobble seam, had England reeling at 47 for four.
This is Gaud’s second Test, after making her debut at the Waca against Australia in March, and she enters the record books as the first woman to have her name carved on the Test honours board at Lord’s.
Smriti Mandhana will have the chance to join her there on Sunday, having brought up her second half-century of the match, finishing the day unbeaten on 69. Women’s Test cricket is alive and well – the 15,432 fans was a world record for a single day at a women’s Test – but as the evening session progressed, the life slowly leaked out of this contest.
India toyed with the tired England fielders: Shafali Verma spanked Sophie Ecclestone’s first over for 13, Smriti pulled a succession of Lauren Filer short balls to the boundary, while Yastika Bhatia charged down the track to spank Mady Villiers for four and was unbeaten on 39 at the close after a rare missed stumping by Amy Jones.
Jones seemed oddly upbeat in the post-match press conference. “Today was tough but still good fun,” she said. “I’m excited for the next two days. You never know what could happen and how it could unravel. It’s a good batting wicket so it could be an exciting chase. We absolutely believe that we can win.”
Ecclestone’s summary to Sky Sports seemed a fairer summation of the day’s events: “Tough day. I’ve got no words.”
Test cricket is not easy when you play it once every 18 months; England’s first innings veered from zealous attack to inertial defence with dizzy regularity. Jones raced to a half-century in 59 balls, and looked as if she might play the kind of innings that would make up for her stuttering run of single-figure World Cup scores. But having done the hard yards to get herself in, she pinged a catch up to Richa Ghosh at short-leg just before lunch. In the afternoon session, Lauren Bell and Issy Wong batted together for 22 balls without scoring a run.
Oddly it was the Test debutant Villiers who looked most comfortable, despite being surrounded by fielders under helmets – an experience that will have been unfamiliar. She played out a patient and technically correct innings, accumulating 10 off 33 balls, and was only undone by a flighted, turning ball from Sneh Rana, which bowled her through the gate.
The tone had been set in the first halfhour as – after a random lone over of left-arm spin from Shree Charani to start the day – India’s seamers Gaud and Sayali Satghare joined forces to tear through England’s top order.
Gaud accounted for two of them: Maia Bouchier wafted high in the air and got an outside edge through to the keeper, while debutant Alice Capsey played a textbook forward defensive shot down completely the wrong line and turned to see her off-stump cartwheeling out of the ground.
India missed the chance to dismiss Heather Knight on Friday evening after Gaud rapped her on the pads and they chose not to send it upstairs. This could have been a big let-off: Knight has two Test 150s to her name. But Sayali, scampering in from the Pavilion End, angled one in to England’s No 3. Though Knight opted to review it, replays showed it would have brushed leg stump.
England did at least avoid the indignity of the follow-on. But given the ominous levels of turn extracted by Rana, batting on day four, should it get that far, is unlikely to be easy.
