India had to follow-on, fighting in the second innings
The Indian women’s team were bundled out for 231 in their first innings on the third day of the one-off Test against England and were forced to play a follow-on. England declared their first innings at 396 for nine. India scored 83 runs at stumps on the rain-hit third day and are still 82 runs behind England’s lead.
India got off to a good start in the second innings but Smriti Mandhana scored eight runs in 13 balls and was caught by Natalie Shiver off Katherine Brunt’s delivery for the team’s 29. Deepti Sharma, who scored an unbeaten 23 in the first innings, was sent to number three this time instead of number seven in her first innings. Deepti supported young Shefali Verma, who was playing her Test debut. Both took India’s score to 83 runs till tea time without causing any further damage. Young Shefali Verma, who scored a splendid 96 in the first innings, batted with maturity beyond her age to reach her half-century in the second innings as well. At the time of tea, Shefali was at the crease with 55 runs in 68 balls with the help of 11 fours and Deepti Sharma 18 runs in 66 balls with the help of two fours. Both have added 54 runs in 120 balls in the second wicket partnership. Play was not possible in the third session due to rain and the day’s play had to be declared over.
Earlier, India started playing at 187 for five in yesterday’s innings and ended their first innings at 231 runs. India started their first innings brilliantly with a 167-run opening partnership. But after the break of this partnership, India lost all their ten wickets adding just 64 runs.
Harmanpreet Kaur took four and Deepti Sharma took her score to zero. India got its sixth blow soon. Sophie Ecclestone got Harmanpreet leg before her yesterday’s score. Ecclestone got wicketkeeper Tanya Bhatia leg before on the first ball of his next over. Tanya’s account did not open. Sneh Rana became Ecclestone’s fourth victim by scoring just two runs. India’s eighth wicket fell on the score of 198. Deepti Sharma put on 32 runs for the ninth wicket with Pooja Vastrakar but Katherine Brunt broke the partnership by bowling Pooja. One run after Pooja’s wicket fell, Jhulan Goswami was bowled by another Shrubsole and India’s innings was bundled out for 231 runs. Deepti hit four fours in her innings of 29 not out off 73 balls. For England, Ecclestone took four wickets for 88 runs and captain Heather Knight took two wickets for seven runs.
