Deepti Sharma’s magical performance puts India-W in the driver’s seat at Stumps on Day 2

The Indian women’s team enjoyed another positive day of cricket at Navi Mumbai as they called the shots handsomely, in fact, to a certain extent magically, mowing the England batting down like ninepins, courtesy of an unplayable Deepti Sharma.

Starting the second day at 410/7, the Indian women failed to counter the English belligerence as they were skittled out for 428. Sophie Ecclestone and Lauren Bell claimed three wickets each while for the Indian women, Deepti Sharma was the last recognized batter to fall for a fine 67.

England had early trouble to deal with after Sophia Dunkley (11) and Heather Knight (11) were sent back to the pavilion. Renuka Singh claimed her first Test wicket in the form of Dunkley, sneaking through her defences, while Vastrakar got the better of the England skipper.

Tamsin Beaumont’s long residence at the center came to an abrupt halt after Vastrakar struck again, this time through an act of razor-sharp fielding, getting rid of the former for 10 from 35 balls.

Dani Wyatt (19) chipped in with an added hand of assistance alongside Nat Sciver-Brunt but once Deepti Sharma removed the former, England crumbled like a house of cards caught in the eye of the storm.

England lost their last seven wickets in a span of 28 runs, with the final five wickets accounting for just 10 runs, a collapse that left the visitors in unprecedented misery. Barring Sneh Rana’s dual strike of Sciver-Brunt (59) and Charlie Dean (0), Sharma mopped up the rest of the English batters, knocking them over for 136.

Deepti Sharma’s figures of 5.3-4-7-5 stood out for India, and despite a massive lead, Harmanpreet Kaur had no intentions of imposing follow-on as India came out to bat.

The openers looked in fine touch as Smriti Mandhana (26) and Shafali Verma (33) started on a feisty note. The duo added 61 runs for the opening stand, allowing the platform for a sturdy finish later in the day. Things looked good for India as Jemimah Rodrigues (27), Deepti Sharma (20) and Harmanpreet Kaur’s unbeaten 44 kept the hosts well on track to set up a massive target.

Brief scores:

1st innings – India – 428 (Shuba Sateesh – 69, Jemimah Rodrigues – 68, Lauren Bell 3/67)

1st innings – England – 136 (Nat Sciver-Brunt 59, Deepti Sharma 5/7)

2nd innings – India – 186/6 (Harmanpreet Kaur – 44*, Charlie Dean – 4/68)