England W vs India W one-off Test: Rana, Sharma help visitors make a comeback after Beaumont, Knight fifties

Bristol, June 16: India spinners Deepti Sharma and Sneh Rana removed two batters each in the final session as India Women reduced England Women to 269 for six on the opening day of the one-off Test here on Wednesday (June 16).

Having toiled hard for wickets in the first two sessions, the visitors came back strongly in the final session of the day's play when they picked up wickets of Natalie Sciver (42), Amy Jones (1), English skipper Heather Knight (95) and Georgia Elwiss (5).

India captain Mithali Raj made use of her spinners brilliantly in the post-tea session as the hosts found it difficult scoring against them. Sophiya Dunkley (12) and Katherine Brunt (7) will resume England's innings on Thursday.

Rana - who is making a comeback to the national side after a long gap - returned with impressive figures of 3/77 while all-rounder Sharma 2/50 brought the tourists back in the game. Deepti even took a sharp catch at slip cordon off Rana to dismiss Elwiss. Pooja Vastrakar picked up a wicket too. However, team's senior pacers Jhulan Goswami and Shikha Pandey remained wicketless on the opening day.

Earlier in the day, the Indian side picked up the crucial wicket of Tammy Beaumont (66) in the second session but England Women consolidated their position by reaching 162 for two at tea.

After getting rid of Lauren Winfield-Hill (35) in the first session of the day, the Mithali Raj-led side toiled hard for the most part of the post-lunch period before debutant off-spinner Sneh Rana picked up her maiden Test wicket. She got rid of the in-form of Beaumont, who was brilliantly caught by Shafali Verma at short leg.

Beaumont faced 166 balls and decorated her innings with six fours en route to her second Test fifty. Skipper Heather Knight (47 not out) batted cautiously and remained unbeaten in the company of Natalie Sciver (11 not out) as England made 76 runs off 28 overs in the second session.

A classy @Tammy_Beaumont 5️⃣0️⃣

Scorecard & Videos: https://t.co/AJk5wAq0tt#ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/rCGERVCEzj

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) June 16, 2021

Earlier, the hosts made a solid 86 for one in the opening session. The Indian pace duo of veteran Jhulan Goswami and Shikha Pandey made a promising start, doing just enough to trouble the English batswoman on more than one occasion.

In the seventh over, Goswami induced an edge from Winfield-Hill as the batter went for an extravagant drive but Smriti Mandhana dropped the chance in the slip cordon despite getting both hands on the ball.

In the next over, Winfield got lucky again. Debutant Pooja Vastrakar induced a thick edge from the batter but the ball flew between second slip and gully to the boundary. After a slow and cautious start, England picked up the pace.

Winfield was the more positive of the two batters as she lofted Pandey over the mid-wicket to hit the first six of the innings and in the process brought up England's fifty in the 17th over. An over later, Winfield hit another maximum, this time over backward square leg off Vastrakar.

Vastrakar eventually had the last laugh as she had Winfield caught by wicketkeeper Taniya Bhatia, giving India the breakthrough. As many as five players made Test debut for India, including Verma, Deepti Sharma, Vastrakar, Rana and Bhatia, while for England Sophia Dunkley was the lone player to earn a Test cap.

Indian women team is playing its first Test match in seven years. It last played the traditional format of the game in November 2014 against South Africa in Mysuru.

(With PTI inputs)