England v India – 2nd Day
‘Fancy a game of the Hundred? The pay’s good.’
‘No thanks, I think I’ll stick to test cricket.’
The second day at Bristol was totally astonishing. The teams took it in turns to be in total command, only to have their good intentions swept away in a spatter of cheap wickets.
England nearly achieved their unspoken aim of reaching 400, Sophia Dunkley confirming all the good opinions of her by guiding the tail through to a daunting total of 396-9 declared. She played glorious shots all around the wicket, a clip to mid-wicket and a dismissive straight drive the pick of the bunch.
Katherine Brunt went early, but Sophie Ecclestone showed her batting prowess before lofting a catch to Shikha Panday (17). With Dunkley she saw up the 300, but that proved to be just an insignificant milestone.
England didn’t hit top gear till Anya Shrubsole arrived. She made her intentions clear from the outset, adding a record-breaking 70 in just 10 overs with the imperturbable debutant. She thumped the ball over the leg-side boundary, but was equally partial to the cover shot. As soon as she was dismissed (47), Knight called her troops in. Dunkley was left undefeated with a magnificent 74*.
The Response
India’s openers, Smriti Mandhana and the 17-year-old prospect Shafali Verma, at once showed the hosts the challenge they were up against. If you are vulnerable to the vice of envy, it’s best not to watch Mandhana, the embodiment of left-handed grace and elegance. Totally different, Verma dances at the crease and wields her bat like a sabre, flashing the ball to or over the boundary with ease.
In no time they had accumulated a commanding 167, but then Verma decided she would reach her debut century with another six. The ball reached the grateful hands of Shrubsole. She was halted on 96. What a disappointment.
From there the game grew vertiginous. Mandhana took a lengthy break which did her and her team no good at all. There followed a clatter of wickets all too familiar from England’s innings. They lost four more while adding 16 runs. Mandhana lofted Sciver to Brunt (78), then Knight played her trump card: she put herself on and proved almost unplayable. She had the night-watcher Pandey caught and bowled, then Poonam Raut lbw. She finished with the unbelievable analysis 6-5-1-2.
When Ecclestone had skipper Mithali Raj caught close in by Tammy Beaumont, it looked as though India’s house had fallen in.
In a breathless final over Ecclestone had an lbw decision against Harmanpreet Kaur overturned to sighs of Indian relief.
Scores: England 369-9 dec; India 187-5
The game is no easier to predict than yesterday, except that an Indian victory is a distant prospect. England will be lucky if they can force the follow-on. Then they will look back at their own innings and wonder if they put their foot on the pedal firmly enough. With worse weather in prospect four days shrink to a small measure of time.
I hold to my opinion that England could have done worse than play three spinners. On so dead a track they hold the best options. Ecclestone wasn’t at her best against the left-hander, but gained a late reward; with Glenn and Villiers she would have provided a range of challenges to the batters, the ball turning in and away from the bat; Knight showed what was possible. The quicks took 2-120 between them.
India’s off-spinners had to work very hard, but they took seven of the nine wickets to fall. The likeliest mode of dismissal was lbw, as batters failed to allow for variable turn.
