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India women defeated England women by a margin of 347 runs to record the biggest-ever victory in women’s Test. The hosts, under the captaincy of Harmanpreet Kaur, bowled out England for 131 runs in the morning session of Day 3 to register a historic win over their counterparts in a home Test. The hosts had won the toss and invited their guests to bowl first at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai.
On the opening day of the match, India batters made some valuable contributions to the total of their team, guiding their side to an overall total of 400+ runs. In return, the Heather Knight-led side was seen struggling against the Indian bowlers, especially Deepti Sharma. Sharma scalped five wickets to bowl out their rivals at 136 runs within 36 overs. With this, India women gained a lead of 292 runs, which extended to 478, after their batting on Day 2.
India continued their dominance in the second inning as well as they went on to bundle out England at 131 runs in just 27.3 overs. Deepti Sharma again emerged as the star with her four-wicket haul which was followed by Pooja Vastrakar’s three-wicket spell. Sharma was awarded Player of the Match, and after the game, she said, “We focussed on building partnerships, pleased we could execute it. Was getting a lot of help from the wicket, so tried to bowl in the right areas. Harmanpreet was advicing me to bowl in the right areas. Will try to keep doing the same things going forward.”
The winning captain said, “We had a couple of days to prepare before the start of this game. All the players took the responsibility and delivered their best. The first 40 minutes were crucial, as a team we were looking to pick wickets. I know I will get opportunities to score centuries in the future, but winning the game was important. They knew their plans and they executed them accordingly.”
