“Only the ball colour changes and we play in whites, otherwise the process remains unchanged,” were captain Harmanpreet Kaur’s words when her side was preparing for the one-off Test against England that eventually ended in little over two days, with India hammering the visitors by 347 runs to walk away with the winners’ trophy at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Saturday.
On Saturday, when Deepti Sharma and Pooja Vastrakar combined to ensure England didn’t make it past lunch in an extended third day’s morning session, there was a sense of relief in Kaur’s words, ‘everything went to plan’ as she credited every member of her team.
Deepti, whom new coach Amol Muzumdar jokingly terms as “Stokesy”, lived up to the billing, spearheading India’s massive victory, with an all-round show, taking nine wickets in all to add to her first-innings half-century for Player-of-the-Match honours.
It was the Indian women’s team’s first Test win at home against England in six attempts, the margin of victory the largest by runs in women’s Tests.
Deepti, whose remarkable 5 for 7 had sent England into a tailspin on the second day, was once again on the money, returning with figures of 4 for 32 after India had batted a second time and declared on 186/6 to leave the visitors with a monumental 479-run target.
Medium pacer Pooja Vastrakar started the onslaught in England’s second innings by getting rid of the top order with the key wickets of Sophia Dunkley, skipper Heather Knight and Nat Sciver-Brunt before Deepti and fellow spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad (2/20) architected India’s victory with their spin magic.
In a brilliant display of guile and control, Deepti started the procession with the wickets of Danni Wyatt and Amy Jones to get at the England tail. She removed Kate Cross with one that turned ferociously from outside off to crash through her defences and lured Lauren Filer down the pitch with the flight on one that kept low after turning in and pinged middle stump.
In between, Rajeshwari got rid of Sophie Ecclestone and induced a simple catch off tail-ender Lauren Bell which Jemimah Rodrigues completed at silly point, sparking wild celebrations for the home side, who will be looking to carry on the momentum as they prepare for a sterner Test against Australia, next week.
In his first assignment as head coach, Muzumdar is happy with the outcome, and echoed the words of the skipper while pressing on the subject of preparation.
“No Test match is easy. But the efforts the girls put in before the Test match – the players who came in five-six days before, we had a nice solid group that was working at the Wankhede Stadium. The preparation was nice, and it resulted in a Test match win,” Muzumdar said.
Muzumdar feels the feat will hold them in good stead ahead of the Test against Australia, starting December 21.
“Good signs for Indian cricket. All of them who made their debut (Jemimah Rodrigues, Shubha Satheesh and Renuka Thakur) batted and bowled well. England is a top side but at the same time, these youngsters got a taste of what Test cricket is about,” he said.