India spinner Deepti Sharma picks her favourite wicket in her maiden five-fer in Test against England
Dec 15, 2023
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], December 15 : India spinner Deepti Sharma revealed Sophie Ecclestone's wicket as her favourite on Day 2 of the one-off Test against England on Friday at the DY Patil Sports Academy.
Deepti singlehandedly with her spell swept away the opposition's batting line-up on a day that saw 19 wickets fall.
She finished the first innings with 5/7 in 5.3 overs, her maiden five-for, which included four maidens.
In all the five wickets, she picked Ecclestone as her favourite dismissal of the day. A tossed-up delivery that turned sharply right through the defence of the batter.
"I liked all my wickets, but Ecclestone's bowled dismissal was my favourite one. I like Test cricket very much, you get a lot of time. You can express yourselves while batting and bowling, you get plenty of time. I was having fun while batting and while bowling. Was just waiting for my turn to roll my arm. We tried to bowl in the right areas, we were having a discussion among ourselves and bowled according to our plans," Deepti said after the match.
Coming to the day, at the end of Day 2, India posted a total of 186/6 in 42 overs, with skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and Pooja Vastrakar unbeaten with respective scores of 44(67) and 17(41) respectively.
Deepti Sharma's spin spun the England team around completely as she walked away with a five-fer. She romped up the entire middle order to ensure that the hosts walked away with a healthy 292-run lead.
The visitors set out to bat and ended up getting caught off-guard twice before the Lunch. Sophia Dunkley and skipper Heather Knight were the two victims who got undone by the pace duo of Renuka Thakur and Pooja Vastrakar respectively.
After Lunch, it was a complete massacre with Deepti making it hard for England batters to spend some time on the pitch. Nat Sciver-Brunt showed some fight as she amassed 59 but got bested by Sneh Rana.
They lost their last six wickets for a mere 10 runs. Deepti was brought into the attack and produced a remarkable spell of 5/7 in just 5.3 overs. The final onslaught forced the visitors to bundle out on 136.
In reply, the hosts scored 186/6, taking a lead of 478 runs.
