The Harmanpreet Kaur-led India achieved a historic feat as they hammered England by 347 runs in the one-off Test at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Mumbai on Saturday (December 16). The comprehensive win over the Heather Knight-led side is India's maiden Test win against England on home soil.
England had previously participated in five Tests on Indian soil across three different tours (1995/96, 2001/02 and 2005/06). The visitors had won the three-match Test series during the 1995/96 tour 1-0 and the other two series had ended in draws.
Coming back to the game, India declared their second innings after posting 186 runs on the board for the loss of six wickets and posted a gigantic total of 479 runs for the tourists to chase down.
England's batting order fell like a pack of cards and they got bundled out for just 131 runs. Deepti Sharma who was India's star with the ball in the first innings spun yet another fine web to strangulate the English batters and claimed 4/32 in the second innings.
Deepti finished with match-winning figures of 9/38 and also scored 67 in the first innings to contribute to India's huge total of 428. She was awarded the Player of the Match (POTM).
Other than Deepti, Pooja Vastrakar and Rajeshwari Gayakwad also impressed with their bowling in the second innings and bagged a three-fer and a two-wicket haul respectively.
Meanwhile, Knight and her team would want to put the defeat behind them. Barring a few instances of individual brilliance, England had nothing to write home about the fixture. Nat Sciver-Brunt scored the only fifty for England in the game whereas Charlie Dean picked up a four-wicket haul in India's second innings and kept their run rate in check.
The win is going to boost India's morale a great deal as they prepare to play yet another Test on home soil starting December 21 against Australia at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
