The India women’s team, under the leadership of Harmanpreet Kaur, has made history, in their one-off Test match against South Africa women at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Their batting looked to be a perfect shape for the whole course of the contest, as the opponents had hardly any answer to India’s batting.
The India women are coming into the red-ball game, on the back of their 3-0 whitewash over the Proteas, who lost all three One Day International games at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. The left-handed opening batter Smriti Mandhana ended the series with 343 runs in three innings, at an average of 114.33. with a couple of centuries.
The Chennai track is always supposed to be spinning as the game progresses and the most vital prospect would be to see the batting first side blowing the opponents out of the game, with a huge first innings total, as what the exact thing the India women team did.
India women make history with the most runs scored in a day in women’s Tests
Winning the toss, the home side decided to bat first. The opening partnership of 292 runs between Mandhana and Shafali Verma made a great platform for them as both celebrated their milestones in the contest.
Also Read: Kapil Dev Praises Rohit Sharma’s Captaincy In T20 World Cup 2024
The right-handed opening batter notched up 205 runs in 197 balls, which was decorated with 23 boundaries and eight sixes. His partners, Mandhana nailed up 149 runs in 161 balls, thanks to her 27 boundaries and one six in the innings.
Jamimah Rodrigues too showed her skill with a few cracking shots to end up with a 55-run knock, tat was arranged by eight boundaries. Captain Kaur himself set up for 69 runs, while the Bengal wicket-keeper batter Richa Ghosh put on 86 runs.
Once the latter was dismissed, India women declared their first innings on 603/6, which is now the highest recorded total in women’s red-ball cricket, breaking 575/9 by Australia at the WACA in Perth earlier this year.
The host finished the first day on 525/4, which is the most runs scored by any team, including both men and women in a day’s play in Test history. The previous record belonged to 509/9 by the Sri Lanka side in Colombo against Bangladesh in 2002.
That was also the very first occasion of a women’s team getting to 500+ runs in a day’s game, as the highest aggregate of the record belonged to New Zealand during the 1935 Christchurch Test when they achieved 431/4 after England was bundled out for 44.
Shafali Verma became the first woman to score 200+ runs individually in a day’s Test play, as the record of 189 by Betty Snowball for England has been broken. The 292-run opening stand of Verma and Mandhana is the second-highest stand for any wicket in a women’s Test, after the third wicket stand of 309 runs between Denis Annetts and Lindsay Reeler in 1987.
Also Read: ‘This Is The Time To Get Behind Virat Kohli’- Harsha Bhogle
India women opener Shafali Verma’s 194-ball double century is the fastest double-ton, going past Annabel Sutherland’s 248-ball effort against the same opponent, towards the beginning of 2024.
205 is just the second-highest individual Indian women score in Tests, behind their former captain Mithali Raj’s 214 against England in 2002. Overall, it stands at number seven in the chart. At 20y 152d, she also becomes the second youngest to reach the mark after Raj, who did it in 19 years and 254 days in Taunton.
The run rate of 5.23 in Ind’s 603/6 against South Africa in 115.1 overs is the first time a team has scored over the five-run rate in a 250-run total in women’s Tests.