Five-star Deepti in seventh heaven

Thanks to their bowlers especially offspinner Deepti Sharma 57 hosts India found themselves in the driverrsquos seat in the oneoff womenrsquos Test match against England at the DY Patil Stadium here on Friday At the end of Day Two India enjoyed an overall lead of 478Though England were bowled out for just 136 and despite having a lead of 292 skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and head coach Amol Muzumdar decided not to enforce the followon choosing to bat in the second innings as well India reached 1866 with Harmanpreet and Pooja Vastrakar remaining unbeaten on 44 and 17 respectivelyIt took 118 minutes for Harmanpreet to think about calling Deepti to bowl as the visitorsrsquo scoreboard read 1083 After she was introduced in the 26th over as a fifth bowling option the English women lost seven wickets for a mere 28 runs inside an hourAlso Read India vs South Africa One day International series 2023 Team India reach Johannesburg ahead of threematch ODI series WatchAllround showDeepti 26 who had scored 67 extracted more turn than the others and troubled the England batters with her variations She sent back Danni Wyatt 19 through a short leg fielder Jemimah Rodrigues in her very first over She struck again in her third over dismissing Amy Jones 12 who pulled one that deflected off short leg fielder Smriti Mandhanarsquos helmet for Shafali Verma to take an easy catch at leg slip Deepti ended her over by sending back Sophie Ecclestone for a duck In her fifth over Deepti caught Kate Cross 1 off her own bowling to register her best Test bowling performance Her previous best of 365 was also against Englandmdashin the Bristol Test of 2021 Deepti achieved her maiden fifer in her sixth over when she clean bowled Lauren Filer 5 off a straighter delivery Her bowling figures read a remarkable 53475 Debutant pacer Renuka Singh Thakur 132 who was smashed by opener Sophia Dunkley 11 for two consecutive fours got rid of the batter with an inswinging delivery which disturbed Dunkleyrsquos furniture Pacer Vastrakar 139 who replaced offspinner Sneh Rana 225 in the eighth over trapped English skipper Heather Knight 11 leg before in her very first overNat a hit with the batNo 4 Nat SciverBrunt 59 10x4 was the only English batter who displayed some temperament on a turning pitch which witnessed 19 dismissals on a single day She opened her account with a copybook ondriven four off Vastrakar and then executed a couple of cover drives off pacer Renuka Singh which raced to the boundaryFor England offspinner Charlie Dean returned figures of 468 in Indiarsquos second innings Deepti playing her third Test understood the need for patience to get a bowl amidst other bowling options ldquoI was waiting for a chance to bowl and when I got it it felt good The wicket was helping the spinners I was just trying to bowl in the right areas She Rana was bowling before me so we spoke about which areas we need to bowl and how much flight we need to give That helped me And as I was fielding in the slips I was reading the pitch as well which helped toordquo said Deepti during the postmatch press conferenceWhen asked about the reason behind not enforcing followon she said ldquoOur plan was to bat more and give them a good target as we have two more days We batted in the second innings with that mindsetrdquoBrief scoresIndia 428 amp 1866 H Kaur 44 S Verma 33 C Dean 468 S Ecclestone 276 v England 136 all out N Brunt 59 D Sharma 57 S Rana 225