Bristol, Jun 16: Spinners Sneh Rana and Deepti Sharma fashioned India’s comeback by triggering a batting collapse in the final session but England Women still managed a decent 269 for six on the opening day of the one-off Test here on Wednesday.
Playing a Test match after nearly seven years, India were struggling badly but Rana and Sharma brought the side back by accounting for two batters each in the final session.
From a comfortable 230 for 2, England were reeling at 251 for six as an old pitch being used for the match assisted the Indian spinners.
The Indian bowlers looked rusty and toiled hard for most part of the day before the spinners came to the party.
For England, Tammy Beaumont looked solid at the top apart from skipper Heather Knight, who missed out on a hundred. At stumps, Sophie Dunkley was batting on 12 while Katherine Brunt was on 7.
Knight paced her innings to perfection and notched up her third Test fifty just after tea.
The Indians were sloppy on the field initially as Deepti dropped a straight-forward catch off Natalie Sciver at midwicket off Harmanpreet Kaur’s bowling.
But she made up for the mistake soon, dismissing Sciver leg before with the batter adding just eight more runs to her score.
The Indians struck again three overs later, this time off-spinner Rana sending back Amy Jones, who was adjudged leg before wicket as the batter went for an unsuccessful review.
But it was Deepti who got the big breakthrough in the form of Knight, who was also trapped leg before. Knight scored her runs off 175 balls with the help of nine boundaries.
Rana soon picked up her third wicket of the day when she induced an edge from Georgia Elwiss to Sharma at slip as England slumped to 251 for 6.
Earlier, England lost Beaumont in the second session but managed to consolidate their position by reaching 162 for two at tea.
After getting rid of Lauren Winfield-Hill in the first session of the day, India toiled hard before Rana picked up her maiden Test wicket.
She got rid of in-form of Beaumont, who was brilliantly caught by Shafali Verma at short leg.
As many as five players made Test debut for India, including Verma, Sharma, Vastrakar, Rana and Bhatia, while for England Sophia Dunkley was the lone player to earn a Test cap.
India eves had last played a Test match in late 2014 against South Africa. (PTI)
Brief Scores:England 1st Innings: 269/6 (Heather Knight 95, Tammy Beaumont 66; Sneh Rana 3/77, Deepti Sharma 2/50)
