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India defeated England by 270 runs in the one-off Test here, a famous victory that will go some way to making up for their failure to reach the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup this month. The first women’s Test to take place at the ground broke the world record attendance figure, attracting a crowd of 37,846 across three-and-a-bit days.
England batted for long enough on the fourth morning to allow Sophie Ecclestone to reach her first half-century in an England shirt.
To get there, Ecclestone had been forced to appeal to DRS, overturning a leg-before decision that went against her on 44, and was saved when UltraEdge revealed she had got a very faint bottom edge off the bowling of Deepti Sharma.
There was some tension, too, as despite Ecclestone’s best efforts to farm the strike, England’s No 11, Lauren Filer, was forced to play out 17 balls without scoring, surviving a leg-before review by India with Ecclestone on 49.
But Ecclestone was bowled by Sneh Rana shortly afterwards as England finally succumbed to the inevitable 20 minutes before lunch, and were all out for 186.
The former England captain Heather Knight, who announced her retirement midway through this Test, said: “Life isn’t perfect, cricket isn’t perfect, and it wasn’t the perfect ending. But I’m so happy to be involved in a Test match at Lord’s. It’s been an amazing occasion, despite the result.
“I’m so grateful for the journey I’ve been on, but also the journey the sport has been on. It’s been crazy how much it has changed. My first Test at Wormsley was a whole different world to being here at Lord’s.”
The day had started with a team talk by Sachin Tendulkar and whatever he told Harmanpreet Kaur and her players, it worked. England lost Amy Jones, their one remaining established batter, in the third over of the morning, pulling to Shafali Verma at midwicket. Issy Wong continued her first-innings immovability, surviving for 33 balls before Deepti Sharma bowled her, Lauren Bell becoming the off-spinner’s victim in her next over.
This match was not the send-off England would have wanted for two of their leading batters, Tammy Beaumont and Knight; but more worryingly, it is their fourth loss in the five Tests they have played since June 2022. There was a time when all we did was bemoan the lack of time available to secure a result in women’s Test cricket, but England might well have preferred a bore draw to another humiliating defeat.
The scheduling always worked against the hosts – many of this team are exhausted after playing in the World Cup final eight days ago – but it is also true to say that England’s front five looked incapable of the discipline required to carve out a Test innings.
“When I was a kid it was hammered into me to value your wicket,” Knight said. “Now girls come in and have grown up on T20, and they have to learn that side of it, being able to build an innings or shape a spell with the bowling side of it. It is really hard.”
Knight also repeated her previous calls for a domestic red-ball competition in England. India do possess one of these – an inter-zonal trophy played over three days – but many of their top players do not participate. How, then, to explain the contrast between England’s waywardness and the discipline of India’s batters?
India’s coach, Amol Muzumdar, described their approach as “aggression mixed with patience”.
“Test cricket is the ultimate format of the game and our group knows it,” he said. “Test cricket is something that we really pride ourselves in.”
England’s next Test is not until next April in the Caribbean and the head coach, Charlotte Edwards, has promised a full team review at the end of the summer as she considers how England best fill the enormous holes left by Beaumont and Knight.
As for when we might see another women’s Test at Lord’s? The 2027 Women’s Ashes Test has been allocated to Headingley, so the next possible opportunity – according to the Future Tours Programme – is England’s Test against South Africa the following summer.
Lord’s is known to be keen on hosting, but it is the ECB who will make the final call.
