Key events
83rd over: India 379-6 (Deepti 38, Rana 25) Rana edges to slip, but played with soft hands and the ball bounces before it reaches the fielder.
82nd over: India 375-6 (Deepti 38, Rana 21) With a skip at the top of her mark, Lauren Ball takes the new ball at the other end. And there’s inswing straight away, two boomers, that Rana negotiates.
81st over: India 374-6 (Deepti 38, Rana 20) And Kate Cross, headgirl discipline shining out of her careful action, does the job immediately. Just two from it.
80th over: India 372-6 (Deepti 37, Rana 19) Better communication this time! They manage a single, and there’s the four-ball at the end of the over, a short wide one and Rana says yes please. Ecclestone kicks her cap – and its time for the NEW BALL. Knight will hpoe for a little more control from her seamers.
79th over: India 367-6 (Deepti 36, Rana 15) Deepti suddenly very hungry. After swatting Ecclestone for six, she starts Dean’s next over by panning her through extra cover for four more to bring up the fifty partnership and a very effective rebuild since the dismissal of Harmanpreet. She and Rana then somehow manage not to run off a sweep that definitely offered one.
78th over: India 362-6 (Deepti 31, Rana 15) Four byes, as Ecclestone sends one down leg side, surprising Jones. Then Deepti pings her into the sun, taking her hand off the bat to squint and check whether it has gone for six. It has. Quite the shot.
77th over: India 351-6 (Deepti 24, Rana 15) Dean wizzes through her over, the last fizzing off the pitch and a strangled appeal.
76th over: India 350-6 (Deepti 23, Rana 15) Five dots from Ecclestone, then a short one is bashed through the coers by Rana.350 up, at more than a trot.
75th over: India 346-6 (Deepti 23, Rana 11) Filer continues, running in wiht admirable enthusiasm on a hot day from five foot eleven. Deepti is tested, but steals a four. They take drinks – and I may have got my timings wrong here. Perhaps this is the final hour.
74th over: India 341-6 (Deepti 19, Rana 10) Deepti sweeps Ecclestone with style for four. The second new ball is in sight.
73rd over: India 337-6 (Deepti 15, Rana 10) Filer is back, quick, awkward. Rana picks up four, but its an edge and not completely convincing.
72nd over: India 333-6 (Deepti 15, Rana 6) The shadow from the flood lights has now stretched over the pitch. Deepti licks her lips and tucks into Ecclestone’s first ball, dinking it for four. Then there’s a pause as Deepti gets hit on the helmet at chin height – and she gets checked out. Finally. Ecclestone is very keen on an lbw shout– Tammy Beaumont fielding close doesn’t look convinced, but Knight goes for the review. But the cameras aren’t kind, there’s a definite edge onto the bat. England now only have one review left
71st over: India 329-6 (Deepti 11, Rana 6) Four byes help the scores shimmy up towards 350, with an hour or so left of play.
70th over: India 324-6 (Deepti 10, Rana 6) Eccleston sticks another maiden into her pocket.
69th over: India 324-6 (Deepti 10, Rana 6) Deepti pounces on a ball from Dean drifting down leg and sweeps it away for four.
68th over: India 318-6 (Deepti 5, Rana 5) Ecclestone returns, with a maiden, and we’ve got spin from both ends.
67th over: India 318-6 (Deepti 5, Rana 5) The end of a super innings by Yastika, authoritative, stylish and with some swagger. Rana off the mark with a boundary first ball.
WICKET! Yastika c Bell b Dean 75 (India 313-6)
Dean gets her woman!But only just…. a top-edged sweep and Bell is underneath it again, as she was when Yastika had only 15. Again she looks as if she’s trying to fight it off, but this time – against all odds – she holds on!
66th over: India 313-5 (Yastika 65, Deepti 4) And just a couple of singles off Bell, as the tempo continues to dribble not bubble.
65th over: India 311-5 (Yastika 65, Deepti 4) And a maiden from Charlie Dean.
64th over: India 311-5 (Yastika 65, Deepti 4) Just one off Bell’s over, and with that wicket, plucked from emptiness, the whole momentum shifts.
This is very true from Raf:
Slip fielding is perhaps *the* key area where the women’s game remains stuck in the amateur era. For obvious reasons, but… the team that does something about it will be at a huge advantage in Test match cricket.
— CRICKETher 🏏 (@crickether) December 14, 2023
63rd over: India 310-5 (Yastika 64, Deepti 4) England cock-a-hoop after that slice of luck. Now, hold onto your catches!
WICKET! Harmanpreet run out (Wyatt) 49 (India 306-5)
Oh dear. That is one of most unfortunate/silliest run-outs I’ve ever seen. Harmanpreet is run out in a no-pressure situation because her bat gets stuck in the crease as she tries to push it through.
62nd over: India 306-4 (Yastika 64, Harmanpreet 49) An unsurprising bowling change – Filer gets a rest, and it is Lauren Bell’s chance to make the breakthrough. Bell hoping to clear the memory of that dropped catch off Charlie Dean midway through the afternoon session. Ah – that might do it, as the ball after Yastika whallops her over midwicket for four, Yastika edges to Knight – who gets a hand to it at slip … but can’t hold on. Away the ball rolls.
61st over: India 300-4 (Yastika 58, Harmanpreet 49) Ecclestone applies the cold compress.
A maiden Test fifty for Yastika Bhatia!
60th over: India 298-4 (Yastika 57, Harmanpreet 48) Not quite what Knight ordered at the tea-interval. Filer’s radar wobbles under the pressure of some superb Indian batting. First a backfoot punch for four by Hamanpreet then Yastika reaches her fifty with a shiny bauble of a pull for six followed immediately by a four through backward point.
59th over: India 283-4 (Yastika 47, Harmanpreet 43) An expensive over from Ecclestone – ten from it, the best a Harmanpreet flowing on drive. The runs, they floweth.
58th over: India 273-4 (Yastika 44, Harmanpreet 36) Filer continues to be Knight’s pace option after tea. Four leg byes past Amy Jones, who isn’t the most nimble-footed in that moment.
Evening session
57th over: India 266-4 (Yastika 43, Harmanpreet 34) Yastika starts in some style, driving Ecclestone’s first ball after tea for four to some whoops of approval. In other news, my uncle has sent me a beautiful picture of sunrise in the Surrey Hills, but if the sun has risen here in Manchester, it has done so with extreme subtlety.
We’re back!
56th over: India 261-4 (Yastika 38, Harmanpreet 34) Filer, elbows and knees run up, sends down a succession of short balls to Yastika. She picks ups a single, Harmanpreet negotiates the final couple of deliveries, the umpire knocks off the bails and that is tea. India will be happy with that I think: 136 for 2 in the morning session, 125-2 in the afternoon session. Time for me to make a quick coffee – back shortly.
55th over: India 260-4 (Yastika 37, Harmanpreet 34) Eccleston gives it some air and India are watchful. No boundary, for what seems like the first time in ages.
54th over: India 259-4 (Yastika 36, Harmanpreet 34) Another switch of the seamers, this time Filer for Cross. Yastika’s boundary comes from an edge over the leaping gully – and she overtakes Harmanpreet in the accumulation pile.
53rd over: India 253-4 (Yastika 31, Harmanpreet 33) Ecclestone replaces Dean and Harmanpreet is beaten first ball as she goes to sweep. Carefully, carefully, they watch Ecclestone until the boundary comes from the final ball ast Yastika has a short armed drive through the covers.
52nd over: India 248-4 (Yastika 27, Harmanpreet 32) Four dots from Cross, then she drifts just fractionally wide, and Yastika does the busiess, through the covers with aplomb. I’d love to hear from you with your thoughts on this Test, your Christmas plans or allsorted thoughts.
51st over: India 243-4 (Yastika 23, Harmanpreet 32) This over’s boundary comes as Yastika sweeps Dean off leg stump. A leg bye ticks off the five ffor the over.
