India dominate England with bat at start of women’s Test despite bizarre run out

England’s first day of Test match cricket in India in 18 years left their bowlers frustrated after India piled on 410 runs, despite seven wickets falling throughout the day.

India jogged along at a canter for much of the afternoon and evening sessions to rack up their highest ever innings total in a home Test, thanks to half-centuries from Yastika Bhatia and Deepti Sharma, as well as Test debutants Jemimah Rodrigues and Satheesh Shubha.

England took the new ball as soon as it became available, but Deepti appeared untroubled, flicking Lauren Bell through square leg to bring up her her third fifty in as many Tests. She remains unbeaten on 60 overnight.

“You can’t prepare for a Test match until you play it,” Bell said. “The second phase of the game was tough, but we’ve got a close-knit team and we got through it together.”

India captain Harmanpreet Kaur was denied a Test fifty of her own in bizarre circumstances, after being run out backing up on 49. Harmanpreet had initially celebrated the milestone after the direct hit from Danni Wyatt ricocheted off the stumps at the non-strikers end and she ran a single, but replays showed that she had not managed to ground her bat in time, appearing to get it stuck in the crease. Even more oddly, the dismissal mimicked her run-out in the World Cup semi-final in February, which also appeared to be the result of getting her bat stuck.

England missed out on the chance to see off Bhatia early in her innings, when she top-edged Charlie Dean to mid-on on 15, and Bell put down a straightforward catch. Bell was able to atone for her mistake, holding onto a chance in the same position off the same bowler, but not before Bhatia had smashed a six off Lauren Filer to bring up her fifty in style.

It was also a day to remember for two of India’s three debutants. Denied the chance by the selectors to play in India’s two previous Tests, Rodrigues - who has become a mainstay of Northern Superchargers in The Hundred - took to the longer form like a duck to water, adding 68 runs to the total before Bell pegged back her middle stump.

Meanwhile Shubha, making not just her Test debut but her maiden appearance for India in any format, repaid the faith of the selectors handsomely with an innings of 69 played either side of lunch.

The 24-year-old Shubha, who was a surprise call-up to the Test squad on the back of scores of 99 and 49 in India’s four-day practice match, brought up her half-century just before the break with an exquisite drive down the ground for four.

Sophie Ecclestone followed up her 10 wickets in June’s Ashes Test by having the young Indian batter caught - Nat Sciver-Brunt doing the honours with a diving effort at midwicket - but that was, surprisingly, her only scalp of the day.

Earlier, Bell and Kate Cross had begun with a successful continuation of the new-ball partnership they established at Trent Bridge against Australia in June - England’s most recent red-ball encounter. The pair removed both openers within the first 40 minutes of play, after India chose to bat first in their first Test on home soil since 2014.

Bell could actually have had Smriti Mandhana with her second ball of the morning, but Tammy Beaumont at short leg was hampered by her helmet and misjudged the skied catch. Bell responded in the sixth over by angling the ball to the left-hander, who tried to cut but succeeded only in dragging it onto her own stumps. Three overs later, Cross’s consistent probing line to Shafali Verma was at last rewarded when she moved the ball late off the pitch and took out Verma’s off stump.

But with Shubha and Rodrigues joining forces in a 115-run partnership and the runs flowing freely for India, the first day belonged to the hosts.