(Reuters) – India’s Deepti Sharma once again proved to be a major challenge for England, capturing five wickets for seven runs in a remarkable spell during their one-off test match in Navi Mumbai on Friday.
Last year, Sharma caused a stir by running out England’s Charlie Dean with a “Mankad” move, but this time it was her bowling that made headlines.
The off-break bowler, who also contributed 67 runs to India’s first innings total of 428, tore through England’s middle and lower order as the tourists dramatically collapsed from 126-5 to hand Harmanpreet Kaur’s side a 292-run lead.
Sharma’s haul from 5.3 overs were the second-best bowling figures by an Indian woman in an innings against England, behind Neetu David who took 8-53 in Jamshedpur in 1995.
She got Danni Wyatt caught in the second ball of the 26th over and removed Amy Jones in a strange manner, as the batter’s pull hit Smriti Mandhana on the head at short leg before being caught by Shafali Verma.
Sharma then shattered Sophie Ecclestone’s stumps to dismiss her for a duck and took a return catch to get rid of Kate Cross for one, before castling Lauren Filer for her fifth victim.
India’s batters will aim to extend their lead over England when they bat in their second innings, after choosing not to enforce the follow-on.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
