India Women will clash with England Women in the one-off Test at Bristol starting tomorrow, the 16th of June. The Women’s team does not play a lot of Test cricket and their last match in the format dates back to November 2014 when they clashed with South Africa in Mysore. The last Test they played in England was also a victorious one - another one-off at the picturesque Wormsley in August 2014. We look back at the memorable encounter.
The Mithali Raj-led side had as many as 8 debutants going into the Test at Wormsley. These included some of the big names of today like Harmanpreet Kaur, Shikha Pandey and Smriti Mandhana. It was also India’s first match in the format in as long as 8 years. The odds were heavily stacked in favour of the home team.
Sudha Shah, former India Test player and head coach of the team when India last toured England for a one-off Test in 2014, in an exclusive to Cricketnext had spoken about the inexperience of the Indian side touring England in 2014.
“The last time the team played a Test in England, only three of them had previously played in Tests (Mithali, Jhulan, Karuna Jain)."
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Mithali Raj won the toss and put England in. Little did any one know what was in store. Niranjana Nagarajan - the right-arm medium pacer- made use of the conditions and ran through the England line-up. She saw the back of Heather Knight, Winfield-Hill and the great Charlotte Edwards within the first hour of play. England could never really recover and were routed for 92 shortly after Lunch in the 42nd over. Nagarajan returned with magical figures of 4-19 in 14.2 overs.
India did not fare well with the bat in the first innings either and were reduced to 87 for 6 at the end of the first day’s play. Thirush Kamini and Mandhana had given the visitors a solid start adding 40 for the opening wicket but then India ran into the right-arm medium-fast England seamer - Jennifer Gunn - who ran through the top and middle order. India were bowled out for 114 early on Day 2 as Gunn returned with a fifer.
Significantly it was Nagarajan who top-scored for India registering 27 from number 8. Jhulan Goswami got India the early breakthrough in the second innings getting rid of Knight for a duck. Winfield-Hill tried to forge a partnership with skipper Edwards before a timely intervention by Shikha Pandey who trapped the opening batsman lbw. That triggered a collapse and the home team were reduced to 110 for 6 at the end of Day 2.
England’s fightback on Day 3 was led by their star with the ball, Gunn who along with Anya Shrubsole crafted a half-century stand before Goswami returned and bagged a couple to end with four for the innings. England had posted 202 and set India a challenging 181.
Once again, it was the opening combination of Kamni-Mandhana who laid the platform for a memorable Indian chase defying the likes of Shrubsole, Gunn and Cross and adding a defining 76-run stand for the opening wicket. Mandhana scored a patient 51. However, India lost four quick wickets and were in a spot of bother as play ended on Day 3 with the visitors at 119 for 4 still needing another 62 for a win. All their hopes were pinned on their star batsman and captain Mithali Raj.
And she did not disappoint on Day 4. She read the conditions and the wicket brilliantly and in Pandey found an able partner as the pair put together a match-winning unbeaten stand of 68 for the fifth-wicket. Raj remained unbeaten on a fine 50 off 157 deliveries while Pandey was undefeated on a defiant 28 off 106 balls.
India batted almost 96 overs and romped to a historic six-wicket win against England. Surprisingly, Gunn was awarded the Player of the Match when Raj and Nagarajan were the more deserving candidates.
Sudha Shah recalled the win fondly, ““England said they would win the toss, bat first, put up a good score and beat India by an innings. But as it turned out, we won the toss and I told the players to set small targets, take it over by over and not look at the final outcome. Niranjana Nagarajan had a dream debut, picking up four for 19 as England were bowled out for 92. We replied with 114, Niranjana top-scoring with 27. I told the girls not to look at the final score. The girls played really well to beat England by six wickets in the end."
She added that England would have thought of beating an inexperienced Indian team by a big margin but the collective effort of the young side triumphed at the end.
“Considering the fact that there were so many debutants, that’s what England would have thought – to beat India big. But we had different ideas. Apart from Niranjana’s dream debut, Shikha gave Mithali a stand (68 unbeaten for the fifth wicket) and hit the winning runs that saw India home by six wickets. It was a match everybody really contributed to the win.”
Ironically, it was none other than Mithali Raj who had scored the winning runs at Taunton in 2006 - which was India’s first win against England in Test cricket. Overall, Wormsley was only the 4th win in Test cricket for the women’s team.
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