Yastika century, seamers put India on the brink of historic win at Lord’s

Yastika Bhatia followed India team-mate Kranti Gaud in etching her name onto the Lord’s Test honours boards with a maiden international century to guide India within touching distance of a massive victory over England in their historic match. Sophie Ecclestone became the first Englishwoman named in the Lord’s Test bowling honours for her toil through 33.3 overs of India’s second innings to take 5 for 118, her fourth five-wicket haul in Tests. In all, Ecclestone bowled 55.2 overs for eight wickets, and her five-for came after Gaud won the race to be the first woman on the list with 5 for 37 on the second day. Gaud continued her outstanding performance by ending the international careers of Tammy Beaumont and Heather Knight in a whimper, as England lurched to 59 for 5 in pursuit of 457. Amy Jones’ second half-century of the match offered enough resistance to ensure England take the match into a fourth and final day, but they do so still needing 327 runs with only four wickets in hand. Beaumont, who announced two days before the match that this would be her last in an England shirt, fell for a first-ball duck to a beauty that nipped in, beat the inside edge and crashed into the top of off stump. Gaud curtailed her celebrations to join the India players in forming a guard of honour as Beaumont left the field.

Knight, who also announced that she would retire after this match two hours after leaving the field on Saturday evening, was also denied a fairytale farewell. With the match all but gone – India had set England the second-highest target in Women’s Test history – the best she could hope for was an individual innings of note. But she too fell to Gaud, caught at short leg by Richa Ghosh for 13. Gaud, Sayali Satghare and Sneh Rana took two wickets apiece as Jones and Mady Villiers staged a 67-run stand for the sixth wicket. Earlier, Bhatia had gone where fellow top-order batter Smriti Mandhana could not with her twin fifties in the match, falling 13 and 30 runs shy of her ton in each. Richa Ghosh also reached an unbeaten fifty, at which point India declared their second innings. Resuming on 39 not out with India one wicket down and leading by 269, Bhatia continued to grind England into submission. She brought up her second Test fifty with an effortless drive down the ground off Lauren Bell and she punished Issy Wong for bowling too full and too wide by picking off boundaries with ease. She struck 14 fours all up and raised her ton off 145 balls with a drive off Wong through deep extra cover, punching the air in celebration as she ran a single.

Sophie Ecclestone became the first Englishwoman to take a Test five-for at Lord’s [Cricinfo]

The performance bookended a mixed tour of England for Bhatia, which began with a half-century in the opening T20I at Chelmsford – her first appearance in the format since April 2024 after undergoing knee surgery – and ended with a Test ton. In between, she made 41 runs in three innings of India’s T20 World Cup campaign, where they failed to make it out of the group stage. Bhatia started the day surviving a failed attempt to drive at a Bell delivery which beat the inside edge and clipped off stump but didn’t dislodge the bails. She watched as Mandhana added just one to her overnight score of 69 before falling to Bell, well taken by wicketkeeper Amy Jones diving full-stretch to her right and collecting the ball millimetres above the turf. Bell then accounted for Jemimah Rodrigues with one that jagged in to hit off stump. Soon after, she left the field suffering from abdominal muscle soreness, which kept her out of action for the remainder of the innings. Cue Ecclestone, who had removed Shafali Verma on the second evening, to account for India captain Harmanpreet Kaur on this third day, although it took an England review to confirm Harmanpreet was plumb lbw.

Kranti Gaud sent back Tammy Beaumont for a golden duck to end her international career [Cricinfo]

Ecclestone had Deepti Sharma out in similar fashion, with one that turned in from outside off stump to hit Deepti on the back hip, before Bhatia holed out to extra cover. She claimed her fifth wicket bowling Sneh Rana with one that stayed low. She looked ready to collapse exhausted into her team-mates’ congratulatory embraces. Richa, who relinquished the wicketkeeping gloves to Bhatia for this match, batted with freedom and was scoring at a run-a-ball when she was dropped on 43 by Wong at long-on off Ecclestone. She brought up her fifty with a single through the covers off Ecclestone, at which point Harmanpreet declared. During the India innings, news broke of Brendon McCullum’s sacking as England Men’s Test head coach, continuing a theme of this summer where drama in those quarters has overshadowed the women’s events. Two weeks ago, Ben Stokes announced his international retirement in the middle of a Test against New Zealand, right as eventual T20 Women’s World Cup champions Australia were knocking India out of the tournament at Lord’s. On this occasion, the England Women’s team might have welcomed the distraction as they crumbled. But for India, who comprehensively outplayed them, the limelight should be theirs. Scores: England Women 170 in 59.1 overs [Amy Jones 52; Kranti Gaud 5-37] and 130 for 6 in 40 overs (Amy Jones 52*; Sayali Satghare 2-19, Kranti Gaud 2-40) need 327 runs to beat India Women 285 in 74.5 overs [Smriti Mandhana 83, Harmanpreet Kaur 58, Deepti Sharma 57; Sophie Ecclestone 3-68] and 341 for 7 dec. in 86.3 overs (Smriti Mandhana 70, Yastika Bhatia 113, Richa Ghosh 50*; Sophie Ecclestone 5-118) [Cricinfo]