India vs England One-Off Test: Pooja Vastrakar delivers punches on Day 3 as Harmanpreet Kaur & Co register record-breaking win

“The first 40 minutes were very important and as a team, we thought we could get 3-4 wickets, we could put England under pressure and that would help us win. I know I will get more chances to score half a year and a half later but winning the match was more important,” added the Indian captain, who is leading the country for the first time in Tests.

It showed how India were from the first ball of the match till the end. There was a fair amount of attacking targets with the bat in the first few innings after winning the toss, posting 410 on the opening day, not to be outdone. The bowling was consistently accurate in both innings, and the game helped at crucial times.

For a team playing Tests after two years, and one at home for the first time in 9 years, they didn’t miss a beat.

Pooja Vastrakar star

The morning began with England seemingly taking a page from India’s book, trying to maintain a good scoring pace for the first half hour. India’s first victory was a beautiful one. Renuka Singh Thakur has been in good form since his injury and has been providing early wickets. Today it was Tammy Beaumont’s turn to be bought as the Indian pacer delivered an inside delivery that tried the edge of the leg-slicer from either side of the crease to the forward to bring down the off-stump.

England’s chances of qualifying will depend on Heather Knight and Nat Sciver-Brunt. Enter, Pooja Vastrakar. The seam-bowler has been hot and cold in recent times, but he stepped up on Saturday to bowl what would have been a match-winner.

Her first wicket was a length ball outside off which Sophia Dunkley cut straight. But the next two, excluding England’s main beliefs, were surprisingly given.

Sciver-Brunt likes to start his innings as if he has been batting for a while, but he got the peach first. The ball landed at a good length outside the off stump and came back in to surprise the batsman who ended up defending outside the line. The result was a sight to behold for any runner: the sight of the stump moving on the cart. One of the best hitters in the business was dealt a peach for the second time in two days.

Then, just as Renuka set up Beaumont, Vastrakar got Knight with one that caught his line after making a few inside. Outside edge went to the keeper. With three players, Vastrakar broke the back of England’s batting and from there it was a matter of how quickly England would be chased.

‘India was victorious’

The answer would come less than an hour later as England lost the next six wickets for 63 runs in 57 minutes. Deepti Sharma, arguably the man of the match, came into the attack and added four more wickets to her name. Rajeshwari Gayakwad, who had waited a long time to get his first wicket of the match, took the last one to fall, as India celebrated a huge victory.

“Well, India played very well,” was Knight’s description of how the last two-and-a-half days went. “He deserves a lot of credit for that. It made it difficult for us today. The way he fought in the first round against the defense is something we can learn a lot from. If there was another Test here, I feel we would have been well placed. Mainly the record of how they played, India played better today than they did in the first innings. Pooja was very good at finding the movement of the stitch. “

One thing to note is that this Test is not meant to be pass-and-done in India. Women’s teams don’t usually play back-to-back Tests and Harmanpreet & Co will be keen to take part in the upcoming match against Australia. “We have a repeat match for the first time, as we are playing Australia soon. I believe many players will be confident because of this, we are looking forward to this,” said coach Amol Muzumdar.

This win will also mean a little more than giving them a start against the best in the world.