Courtesy: BCCI
The Indian women’s cricket team registered their first win in Test cricket at home in nine years on December 16, 2023, defeating England by 347-run margin at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai. This is the highest victory margin by runs in women’s Test cricket history, surpassing Sri Lanka’s 309-run win over Pakistan at the Colts Cricket Club Ground in Colombo in 1998. Deepti Sharma was the player of the match for India with her nine wickets across both the innings of England, apart from scoring a valuable fifty in India’s first innings.
After winning the toss, Harmapreet Kaur, the captain of the Indian women’s cricket team, had no hesitation to bat first on a very good batting pitch, which was expected to help the spinners as the game went on. Following the two early wickets for England, dismissing openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma relatively cheaply, the Indian middle order took control of the Test match. Four of the five batters from No. 3 to No. 7, including the names like Shubha Satheesh, Jemimah Rodrigues, Yastika Bhatia, and Deepti Sharma, scored fifties, but they couldn’t get past the 60s.
India defeated England in Test match with help of Deepti Sharma's all-round heroics
Ultimately, India were bowled out 428 runs in 104.3 overs in their first innings as Lauren Bell and Sophie Ecclestone took three wickets each. But, when the English batting lineup got the chance to bat in their first innings, it finished as quickly as it began with them getting bowled out for just 136 runs in 35.3 overs despite an exceptional fifty from Nat Sciver-Brunt. As far as the Indian bowling was concerned, Deepti Sharma was quite incredible in her spell, taking five wickets for just seven runs in 4.3 overs, which included four maidens, to help dismiss the visitors for a low total.
Harmanpreet Kaur didn’t enforce the follow-on, and India declared their second innings on 186/6 in 42 overs after some quick-fire innings from their batters, while Charlie Dean picked up four wickets. With a massive target of 479 runs in front of them, England’s batting lineup folded in their second innings in just 27.3 overs for 131 runs, to suffer a heavy defeat by 347 runs. Deepti Sharma backed up her exceptional bowling spell in the first innings of England with a four-wicket haul in the second innings, to help the Indian women’s cricket team take the win in the Test format at home in quite some time.
