India's women's cricket team created history on Saturday as they clinched a maiden home Test victory against England. India's all-rounder Deepti Sharma punished the England cricket team with first bat and then a 9-wicket haul. India's 347-run victory against England is the biggest margin of victory in the women's cricket team. The strong performance will surely provide the Indian women's cricket team with more confidence in the Test match against Australia next week.
Deepti Sharma first impressed with the bat as she played a cautious innings of 67 runs to stabilize the Indian innings and take the team to a secure place. Satheesh Shubha (69) and Jemimah Rodrigues (68) also played brilliantly well to take India to 428 runs in the first innings. Then, Deepti Sharma turned to her bowler avatar and clinched 5 crucial wickets to derail England's batting.
India walked to the second innings with a comfortable lead and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (44) asked her players to be faster this time. As the wickets kept falling, India decided to declare the innings at 186 runs, setting a 479-run daunting target for England. Soon, Deepti Sharma was back in action and this time she clinched 4 wickets to dash the hopes of English cricketers. Sharma was just one wicket away from the 10-wicket record of legendary Jhulan Goswami.
‘Just waiting to bowl’
“I was just waiting to bowl and keeping myself warmed up, got a lot of help from the wicket and I backed myself. Harry di (Harmanpreet) was saying bowl in your areas and the turn will help you. We want to continue this in the next Test,” she said after the match.
Former women players were impressed with Deepti Sharma even before the match was over as former Indian skipper Mithali Raj lauded the all-rounder for her 5 wickets during the first innings. "From her variations to tactics, Deepti Sharma turned everything to gold today! India is in a solid position to clinch this test. #INDvENG," said Mithali in a post on X.
