(Reuters) – On Saturday, India’s Deepti Sharma and Pooja Vastrakar showcased their bowling skills, leading to England being bowled out for just 131 runs, resulting in India’s victory by a record margin of 347 runs in their one-off test match in Navi Mumbai.
Before this match, the highest winning margin in women’s test cricket was 309, achieved by Sri Lanka against Pakistan in 1998.
Captain Harmanpreet Kaur of India made the decision to not enforce the follow-on after England were dismissed for 136 in their first innings, and declared on 186-6 before the start of play on day three, setting a target of 478 for the visitors.
England struggled under the pressure, and Vastrakar took three quick wickets to leave them at 68-4, before Sharma picked up four more wickets to finish the job.
Harmanpreet praised the entire team, saying, “Everything went to plan and credit goes to every member of the team. It was our plan to bowl to England like that, we had prepared accordingly. Every player performed their role.”
England captain Heather Knight acknowledged India’s “outstanding” performance and commented on the challenging conditions, saying, “The main thing is credit to how they played. The conditions is something we’re not used to, we were trying to find a way to score runs.”
She added, “We were better today in our tempo but it was still tricky. A lot of learnings for us and think of the kind of toolbox you need to play here.”
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Michael Perry)
