On a day of fluctuating fortunes, 16 sixteen wickets went down on Day 1 in the women's Test between India and England at Wormsley.
India bowled out England for 92, with medium pacer Nagarajan Niranjana bagging four wickets for 19 runs. England, however, hit back through Jenny Gunn who took four wickets, as they reduced India to 87 for six.
England were largely expected to bat for longer than they did, with the likes of skipper Charlotte Edwards, Heather Knight and Sarah Taylor in their side. They are by far the more experienced team and play more regularly than the Indian side.
Niranjana, one of the debutants, swung the ball in sharply as she had the English at sea. She pitched the ball up frequently as she trapped most of her victims leg-before. Interestingly, 10 players were lbw victims during the whole day.
Knight was one of Niranjana's three leg-before victims and the first to depart for the English eves with the score at 14. The next to fall prey to the Indian medium pacer was debutant Lauren Winfield who was caught behind, with England in a spot of bother at 24 for the loss of two.
Edwards started in a confident manner as she struck a four off the first ball but then Niranjana saw to it that she would not last for long as she struck the English batswoman on the pads and the umpire gave it.
After that it was medium pacer Shikha Pandey's turn to be amongst the wickets as she had right-hander Tammy Beaumont nick one to keeper Karuna Jain. Very soon England were reeling at 49 for the loss of five wickets as Lydia Greenway became Niranjana's fourth victim.
Thereafter, Taylor and Natalie Sciver tried to put together a partnership. Taylor, with 30 to her name, did try to put some resistance but medium pace bowler Jhulan Goswami bagged her wicket. From there on it was only a matter of time as to when England would fold up. In the end, Shubhalakshmi Sharma and Ekta Bisht, a right arm medium pacer and a left-arm spinner respectively, wrapped up the English innings for 92.
England's score of 92 was hardly anything substantial and India hoped to consolidate. They looked to be on their way as openers Thirush Kamini and Smriti Mandhana put on 40 runs.
But Gunn trapped Kamini leg before and this sparked off a collapse. Right-arm pacer Kate Cross then proceeded to get Poonam Raut out. Then Mandhana became Gunn's next scalp.
Skipper Mithali Raj could not do a great deal as Gunn had her lbw for four. Things became worse as India lost two more and were teetering at 64 for six.
Then, India's star of the day Niranjana and her bowling partner Goswami played with calm heads and saw to it that there were no further problems as India ended the day on 87 for six.
