England weren’t able to pull away to a position of command despite a fine start
Izzy Westbury’s prediction of England’s XI proved as unreliable as mine: no Mady Villiers; instead Sophia Dunkley won a highly deserved first cap and Georgia Elwiss was shunted down to No 7. The way the day evolved let you question this approach.
Lauren Winfield-Hill and Tammy Beaumont composed an opening partnership that let you dream of a 300+ total by dusk, LW-H shocking everyone with two mountainous sixes before lunch. But two fine catches did for them: Taniya Bhatia flew to her right to accept an edge from LW-H (35 out of 69-1); much later Shafali Verma took an even better one under the lid, diving forward to get a hand under an inside edge of Sneh Rana’s off-spin (140-2). That is a position completely foreign to T20 and ODI cricket, so practice is almost non-existent.
Heather Knight, celebrating the hundredth time she had led her army into battle, looked her composed self. The only disappointment was that the runs dried up after lunch; with Nat Sciver at the other end this was an opportunity missed because later in the day England suffered a middle-order collapse familiar to all who watch the men’s game.
Sciver went for 45, then Amy Jones suffered the first quick dismissal (1); but the drama of the day was reserved for the captain who had moved serenely into the 90’s, only to become the third lbw victim in succession (95) – the umpire’s accuracy bringing grudging admiration.
India had five debutants in the line-up; they were responsible for every wicket to fall on this first day. Now it was the turn of England’s debutant Sophia Dunkley to show what she was made of; the game had swung firmly towards India. Georgia Elwiss didn’t last long, though she had the pleasure of running a four (5). Dunkley held firm with the determined presence of Katherine Brunt as partner to help her.
At the end of the day it was astonishing to observe Jhulan Goswami roaring in to bowl her eighteenth over at Brunt; the two met in combat nineteen years ago.
The game can move on in any direction you care to mention, but the success of India’s off=spinners makes you wonder how wise England were to enter the game with a single front-line spinner. Knight can turn her arm, but with time of the essence it’s going to need heroic efforts from the England bowlers to roll the opposition over twice.
On this pitch the ball is more likely to pass under the bat than over it.
Close of Play: England 269-6 (Knight 95, Beaumont 66; Rana 3-77)
