Deepti stars as India women break world record with historic maiden home Test win against England

Deepti Sharma ran riot with a 9-wicket haul in the match as the Indian women's cricket registered a humongous 347-run victory - the biggest margin in the history of women's Tests - over England in the one-off Test at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Saturday. The previous best was Sri Lanka's 309-run win over Pakistan in Colombo in 1998. It was also India's first win over England at home in 15 Tests, having beaten them in away games twice in 2014, giving them a big boost ahead of the one-off Test against Australia starting here next week.

After a patient 113-ball 67 in India’s first-innings total of 428, Deepti destroyed England line-up with a sensational 5.3-4-7-5 spell helping the hosts take a massive 292-run lead. After her stellar with both bat and ball in the first innings, Deepti got the England batters in a tangle once again to finish with figures of 4/32 in the second innings. She narrowly missed out on being the second Indian female cricketer to register a 10-wicket match haul after the legendary Jhulan Goswami.

“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.

A hapless England side were bowled out for 131 in 27.3 overs on Day 3 of the Test match. India took all 10 England wickets in the first session of the third day. The Heather Knight-led side lasted only 63 overs in the entire match. They were bowled out for 136 in just 35.3 overs in the first innings.

India captain Harmanpreet Kaur declared at the overnight score of 186/6 to set England a daunting target of 479.

England got off to a better start compared to the first innings with openers Tammy Beaumont and Sophia Dunkley looking solid in front of Renuka Singh and Sneh Rana. But the deadlock was broken when Renuka produced a delivery that pitched on off and straightened slightly to send Beaumont's off stump flying.

Then Pooja Vastrakar took centre stage with a double strike in her first over. She got Dunkley caught at gully and then bowled a beautiful in-swinger to leave Nat Sciver-Brunt clueless. The half-centurion of the first innings lost her off stump for a golden duck.

There was a brief partnership between England captain Knight and Danny Wyatt before Vastrakar came up with another brute of a delivery to send the former packing. The ball pitched just outside the off stump and swung away just enough to get the outside edge of Knight's bat.

It was all Deepti after that. The off-spinner teamed up with left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad to choke England.

England’s misery continued when Wyatt edged a delivery to the first slip for Deepti's first wicket in the innings after making 12.

Deepti then had Amy Jones (5) pulling one straight to short midwicket, and in her seventh over of the innings, the 26-year-old hit the timber twice to dismiss Kate Cross (16) and Lauren Filer (0).

While Deepti narrowly missed taking 10 wickets in the game to become the first Indian Women’s player to do so, Rajeshwari Gayakwad (2/20) enjoyed some success.

The left-arm spinner had her first success in the form of Sophie Ecclestone (10) when the batter went for a sweep and missed to connect, while Lauren Bell (8) was caught by Jemimah Rodrigues at silly point for the final wicket of the game.

It was a perfect outing for India also given that all their debutants in the game — Shubha Satheesh, Rodrigues and Renuka — tasted success, but there also was a dampener in the form of Shubha missing the action on the second and the third day owing to a fractured finger.