ENGLAND VS. INDIA WOMEN'S TEST
     

The first women's Test since 2019, and the fourteenth between England and India was played recently at Bristol and survived more of the weather than the World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand at Southampton did whilst both matches overlapped.

Below are some of the highlights of the match.

  • England's first innings 396 for 9 is their fifth-highest Test total and their highest against India. England's highest is 503 for 5 against New Zealand at Christchurch's Lancaster Park whilst their previous highest against India was 350 for 6 at Blackpool in 1986
  • England's total is their highest in Tests without a century partnership. Their previous highest was 351 for 6 against South Africa at Wanderers in 1960-61. The highest such total by any team without a century partnership is India's 404 for 9 against South Africa at Paarl in 2001-02
  • The total saw only the second occasion of an England team featuring five individual scores of over 40
  • Heather Knight became the second England captain to be dismissed in the 90s. Charlotte Edwards had previously made 94 against Australia at Bowral in 2007-08
  • Sophia Dunkley's unbeaten 74 is the second-highest debut innings score for England with only Enid Bakewell (113 vs. Australia at Adelaide in 1968-69) bettering it
  • Anya Shrubsole's 47 is the fourth-highest score by a number 10 in women's Test history. The highest remains Shelley Nitschke's unbeaten 81 for Australia against England at Hove in 2005
  • The first wicket partnership of 167 between Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma is India's highest for that wicket, surpassing the 153 between Gargi Bannerji and Sandhya Agarwal against Australia at Bombay Gymkhana ground in 1983-84
  • India's first innings 231 is the seventh-lowest total to include a century partnership. The lowest is South Africa's 165 against New Zealand at Cape Town in 1971-72
  • Based on losing eight wickets from the start of an innings to the fall of the eighth wicket, India's accumulation of 30 runs is the third-fewest by any team in women's Test history. The lowest are 24 by Australia (vs. India at Lucknow, falling from 71-0 to 95-8 in 1983-84), and 27 by Australia against England at St. Kilda in 1957-58 (from 1-0 to 28-8. During the same Test, England went from 1-0 to 35-8, and 35 all out).
  • The Indian first innings of 231 saw the first instance of a side losing all ten wickets for under 100 runs after an opening century partnership. In terms of collapses, India's loss of all ten wickets for 64 runs after the openers had taken the score to 167 is the joint-tenth lowest by any team irrespective of the number of runs scored by the openers
  • India's 231 is the lowest completed total by any team which features scores of 75 or more by two players. Previously, England's 244 against Australia at Bowral in 2008 was the lowest such total
  • Shafali Verma's 96 is the highest debut innings score for India surpassing Chanderkanta Aheer's 75 against New Zealand at Nelson in 1994-95
  • Verma became the fourth batter, and first from India, to score fifties in both innings of a debut match. The others are Vanessa Bowen (Sri Lanka vs. Pakistan at Colombo CCC in 1997-98); Lesley Cooke (England vs. India at Collingham in 1986) and Jess Jonassen (Australia vs. England at Canterbury in 2015)
  • Verma became the first Indian batter to score over 100 runs in their maiden Test
  • Deepti Sharma's aggregate of 83 runs is the third-highest by an Indian batter on debut behind Verma's performance and Gargi Banerjee's 87 runs against Australia at Delhi in 1983-84
  • Sneh Rana's unbeaten 80 is the highest score by an Indian player in the second innings of their first Test
  • Rana also became the fifth Indian bowler to take four or more wickets in their debut innings with the ball
  • Rana became only the fourth woman player to record a fifty and take four wickets in one innings of their first Test. The last such occasion was Sri Lanka's Chamani Seneviratne against Pakistan at Colombo in 1997-98
  • The unbeaten partnership of 104 between Rana and Taniya Bhatia is a record for the ninth wicket for India in their Test history and is the first century stand for that wicket for India
  • The above partnership is the only century partnership for India for any wicket where both batters have been making their debut
  • Sophie Ecclestone became the fourteenth England bowler, and the first since Isa Guha in 2007-08, to take eight wickets in a Test
  • The Test saw the third occasion of five players on debut scoring 40 or more in one or more of their innings
The first ball of the Lord's Test between England and New Zealand