At Shenley in July 1999, Purnima Rau became the first Indian woman to take a Test five-for in England. Seven years later, Jhulan Goswami repeated the feat at Taunton, and it seemed India would not have to wait long for a third. Had they played more than two Tests in England in the past two decades, perhaps they wouldn’t have. It is, however, a debate for another day. Today, the prolonged wait finally came to its conclusion as Kranti Gaud became only the third Indian female cricketer ever to take an overseas Test fifer.
It took her only four deliveries to open her account. A wobble-seam delivery tailed in late, and Maia Bouchier was caught by Yastika Bhatia. It was only Gaud’s third wicket in Test cricket, but the celebration was muted, as if she knew there was more to follow.
And so it did, only three deliveries later, but not off her bowling. Sayali Satghare trapped Heather Knight lbw with a late outswinger. Gaud soon joined in again, shaping another away from Alice Capsey to uproot the debutant’s stumps. This time, she let out a roar.
Reeling at 47/4, England were staring at an unpleasant record. They were still 45 shy of their lowest ever Test score on home soil, which incidentally came against India. But when her team required her to lead by example, captain Nat Sciver-Brunt did precisely that. The pair stitched together an 84-run fifth-wicket partnership, scoring 52 and 44 respectively.
With the seamers extracting little after the opening burst, Harmanpreet Kaur committed to a two-pronged spin attack of Shree Charani and Sneh Rana. Charani endured a quiet day, but Rana’s experience proved decisive. The English resistance was broken when the offie found Jones’ inside edge, which bounced off the pads and found Ghosh masterfully placed at short leg.
It happened to be England’s solitary partnership of note. The pacers returned in the second session of the game, and replicated their craft from the first. Gaud trapped Sciver-Brunt with another late inswinger before Satghare’s movement accounted for Sophie Ecclestone.
Kaur’s captaincy came under scrutiny during the recent Women’s T20 World Cup, perhaps with reason. Here, however, she scarcely erred. Rana was re-introduced immediately after Ecclestone’s departure, and she extracted enough turn off the pitch to thread the cherry through the gap between the bat and pad of Mady Villiers.
Gaud was one wicket away from the fifer, but the milestone nearly did not happen. Lauren Bell edged a fuller delivery towards the slips. Sneh Rana could not hold on at second slip, but Shafali Verma, diving to her right at first slip, completed a stunning one-handed catch to hand Gaud her maiden Test five-wicket haul. Deepti Sharma then wrapped up the innings, trapping Lauren Filer lbw for her third duck in a Test career spanning five matches, England folding for 170 in 59.1 overs. Gaud finished with 5 for 37, the youngest Indian woman fast bowler to take a Test five-for, surpassing a record that had stood in Jhulan Goswami’s name.
India, who had made 285 all out on the first day, ended the second day at 154/1, with their lead being 269 runs. After scoring 83 in the first innings, Smriti Mandhana is currently unbeaten on 69, with her partner, Yastika Bhatia batting on 39. Shafali Verma departed after scoring 33.
After a disappointing T20 World Cup in which she went wicketless across three matches, Gaud returned to the fundamentals: bowling the same line and length with unrelenting consistency. There was nothing gaudy about her bowling, only simplicity. It earned her a fifer, and more. At the coveted honours board of Lord’s, the first female name belongs to a fiery bowler from Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh.
Brief scores: India 154/1 (Smriti Mandhana 69*; Sophie Ecclestone 1/46) & 285 (Smriti Mandhana 83; Sophie Ecclestone 3/68) lead by 269 runs vs England 170 (Amy Jones 52; Kranti Gaud 5/37).
