Women's Test: Breakthrough Indian wickets give England relief

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Bristol, June 18 (IANS) Debutant Sophia Dunkley said it was a "crazy day" for her on Day 2 of the one-off women's Test against India, as after scoring an unbeaten 74 to guide England to 396/9 declared, the pressure to break India's opening stand was too high.

Sophia, who became the black woman to play Test cricket for England, said after the second day's play on Thursday that, "It's a very exciting day for me. (I was) just trying to get the team in a good position. To get fifty was very, very special and nice to have mum in the crowd.

"It's definitely been a crazy day today, getting a half-century on debut is definitely very special for me, and then going into the fielding innings, (Smriti) Mandhana and (Shafali) Verma got a good partnership going and gave us a few chances at times but things didn't really go our way," Sophia told cricinfo.com.

But then, India's wickets fell in a heap, and at stumps on Day 2, the visitors were 187/5 in 60 overs with almost all the scoring being done by Shafali Verma (96) and Smriti Mandhana (78).

"Then we got the breakthrough and five wickets fell and (it was) really exciting going into the evening and a lot of momentum to go into the (Friday) morning with as well," added Sophia.

India lost five wickets in the span of just 16 runs to undo all the good work in the final hour of the day, leaving the visitors 209 short of England's first-innings total.

On her batting, Sophia, who had resumed on 12 on Thursday morning, said, "I was just thinking about getting the team in a good place really. It was all a bit of a blur. I was very, very happy but my main aim was to try and get us in a good position to go into the afternoon but to get fifty on the way is a very special moment to me and I'll remember this day for a long time."

--IANS

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