Daily Times

Deepti Sharma and Pooja Vastrakar produced a bowling masterclass as India skittled out England for just 131 runs on Saturday to claim victory by a record margin of 347 runs in their one-off test match in Navi Mumbai.

The previous highest winning margin of runs in women’s test cricket was 309, recorded by Sri Lanka against Pakistan in 1998.

India captain Harmanpreet Kaur, who opted to not enforce the follow-on on Friday after England were dismantled for 136 in their first innings, declared on 186-6 before the start of play on day three, giving the visitors a massive target of 478.

England’s batters buckled under the pressure and Vastrakar struck three times in as many overs to leave them on 68-4, before Sharma picked up four more wickets in a whirlwind spell to finish the job.

“Everything went to plan and credit goes to every member of the team. It was our plan to bowl to England like that, we had prepared accordingly. Every player performed their role,” Harmanpreet said. England captain Heather Knight, whose knock of 21 was England’s highest score, hailed India’s “outstanding” performance.

“The main thing is credit to how they played. The conditions is something we’re not used to, we were trying to find a way to score runs,” Knight added.

“We were better today in our tempo but it was still tricky. A lot of learnings for us and think of the kind of toolbox you need to play here.”