Five-star Deepti in seventh heaven

Deepti Sharma displays the ball after claiming a five-wicket haul against England yesterday. Pic/PTI

Thanks to their bowlers, especially off-spinner Deepti Sharma (5-7), hosts India found themselves in the driver's seat in the one-off women's Test match against England at the DY Patil Stadium here on Friday. At the end of Day Two, India enjoyed an overall lead of 478.

Though England were bowled out for just 136 and despite having a lead of 292, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and head coach Amol Muzumdar decided not to enforce the follow-on, choosing to bat in the second innings as well. India reached 186-6 with Harmanpreet and Pooja Vastrakar remaining unbeaten on 44 and 17 respectively.

It took 118 minutes for Harmanpreet to think about calling Deepti to bowl as the visitors' scoreboard read 108-3. After she was introduced in the 26th over as a fifth bowling option, the English women lost seven wickets for a mere 28 runs inside an hour.

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All-round show

Deepti, 26, who had scored 67, extracted more turn than the others and troubled the England batters with her variations. She sent back Danni Wyatt (19) through a short leg fielder Jemimah Rodrigues in her very first over. She struck again in her third over, dismissing Amy Jones, (12) who pulled one that deflected off short leg fielder Smriti Mandhana's helmet for Shafali Verma to take an easy catch at leg slip. Deepti ended her over by sending back Sophie Ecclestone for a duck. In her fifth over, Deepti caught Kate Cross (1) off her own bowling to register her best Test bowling performance. Her previous best of 3-65 was also against England - in the Bristol Test of 2021. Deepti achieved her maiden fifer in her sixth over when she clean bowled Lauren Filer (5) off a straighter delivery. Her bowling figures read a remarkable 5.3-4-7-5.

Debutant pacer Renuka Singh Thakur (1-32), who was smashed by opener Sophia Dunkley (11) for two consecutive fours, got rid of the batter with an inswinging delivery which disturbed Dunkley's furniture. Pacer Vastrakar, (1-39) who replaced off-spinner Sneh Rana (2-25), in the eighth over, trapped English skipper Heather Knight (11) leg before in her very first over.

Nat, a hit with the bat

No. 4 Nat Sciver-Brunt (59, 10x4) was the only English batter who displayed some temperament on a turning pitch, which witnessed 19 dismissals on a single day. She opened her account with a copybook on-driven four off Vastrakar and then executed a couple of cover drives off pacer Renuka Singh which raced to the boundary.

For England, off-spinner Charlie Dean returned figures of 4-68 in India's second innings. Deepti, playing her third Test, understood the need for patience to get a bowl amidst other bowling options. "I was waiting for a chance to bowl [and] when I got it, it felt good. The wicket was helping the spinners. I was just trying to bowl in the right areas. She [Rana] was bowling before me, so we spoke about which areas we need to bowl and how much flight we need to give. That helped me. And as I was fielding in the slips, I was reading the pitch as well, which helped too," said Deepti during the post-match press conference.

When asked about the reason behind not enforcing follow-on, she said: "Our plan was to bat more and give them a good target as we have two more days. We batted in the second innings with that mindset."

Brief scores
India 428 & 186-6 (H Kaur 44', S Verma 33; C Dean 4-68, S Ecclestone 2-76) v England 136 all out (N Brunt 59; D Sharma 5-7, S Rana 2-25)