Five-wicket Gaud stars before India run riot in women's Test at Lord's / Photo: JUSTIN TALLIS - AFP
Five-wicket Gaud stars before India run riot in women's Test at Lord's
Kranti Gaud took five wickets before Smriti Mandhana once more piled on the runs against England as India continued to dominate the inaugural women's Test at Lord's on Saturday.
Seam bowler Gauad led the way with a miserly 5-37 in 17 overs to become the first woman to gain a coveted place on the Lord's dressing room honours board for a Test performance as England were dismissed for 170 in reply to India's first-innings 285.
Come the close of the second day of four, India were 154-1 in their second innings -- a huge overall lead of 269 runs.
Elegant left-hander Mandhana, carrying on from her sublime first-innings 83, was 69 not out after sharing an opening stand of 88 with Shafali Verma (33).
The hosts will need to rewrite the record books if they are to achieve an unlikely win, with the highest successful fourth-innings chase in a women's Test the 198 posted by Australia against England at Sydney's Bankstown Oval in 2011.
After 142 years of men's Test cricket at Lord's, this fixture represents another landmark in the evolution of the women's game.
And the 22-year-old Gaud will join the likes of Indian men Bhaghwat Chandrasekhar, Bishan Bedi and Kapil Dev on the away dressing room honours board at Lord's that lists bowlers who have taken five or more wickets in a Test innings at the ground.
- England collapse -
England, who resumed on 21-1, lost two wickets for no runs in four balls as they collapsed to 32-3.
Their only significant resistance on another sunny day at Lord's came from a fifth-wicket stand of 84 between captain Nat Sciver-Brunt (44) and Amy Jones (52).
India's seamers settled into an accurate line and length far more quickly than their England counterparts.
Maia Bouchier, 17 not out overnight, pushed loosely outside off stump to Gaud and was caught behind for 23.
And 32-2 became 32-3 when ex-England captain Heather Knight was lbw to Sayali Satghare for six.
The collapse continued when Gaud produced a superb delivery that slanted in and then swung away to bowl Alice Capsey for nine, with England now in dire straits at 47-4.
Sciver-Brunt, fresh from her 58 not out in England's T20 World Cup final defeat by Australia at Lord's last week, found an ally in Jones, who put a run of low white-ball scores behind her with a well-made fifty.
But the wicket-keeper fell before lunch when she gave a simple bat-pad catch to short leg off the bowling of off-spinner Sneh Rana.
Sciver-Brunt had only added five runs to her interval score of 39 when Gaud had her plumb lbw.
Gaud completed her five-wicket haul in dramatic fashion when Lauren Bell's edged drive flew to the slip cordon, where it was parried in front of her throat by Rana before a diving Verma grabbed the rebound.
Mandhana, who on Friday became the youngest women to feature in 300 international games across all formats at the age of 29 years and 357 days on Friday, was again in excellent touch .
She punished Bell for pitching short with languid pull shots and the runs kept coming as Verma, out for nought in the first innings, struck the seamer down the ground.
Mandhana, dominant against the quicks, lofted left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone -- who on Friday became England's leading wicket-taker in all international formats -- for a magnificent straight six.
Verma eventually holed out off Eccclestone, but by then India were already more than 200 runs ahead.
K.Ruwaili--al-Hayat
