Mandhana, Shafali script highest 1st wicket partnership for India against England

Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma recorded the highest first-wicket partnership for team India in the Test against England. The pair has accomplished the milestone in the ongoing one-off Test against England. Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma surpassed the 22-year-old record from Anju Jain and Chanderkanta Kaul. The previous best first wicket partnership was 132 runs scored by Anju and Chanderkanta back in the year 1999.

Shafali Verma also became the second-youngest woman to smash a half-century on Test debut. Retired South African batter Johmari Logtenberg is still the youngest player to hit a fifty on Test debut. The Indian cricket team had scored more than 150 runs without losing a wicket in the first innings after England declared at 396/9. This was England's highest total against the Indian Women's and their sixth highest overall.

Shafali equaled the record for the most number of sixes hit in a Test innings

The opening pair of Mandhana and Shafali started off India's innings brilliantly. They took the visitors to 63 without losing a wicket before Tea. In the third session, the mates continued their great and put India in the driver's seat. Shafali Verma surprised everyone during her excellent knock of 96 on her Test debut against England on Day 2. On the other end, Smriti Mandhana managed to score 78 runs. However, she was dismissed right after Shafali was dismissed for 96. The teenage opener slammed 13 boundaries and 2 sixes in her 96-run knock. The 17-year-old had to miss out on a well-deserved hundred, but she has promised to make it up next time. With her 152-ball 96, Shafali Verma overtook Chanderkanta Kaul's score of 75 against New Zealand in 1995.

Notably, seven other Indian women have scored Test hundreds so far. Sandhya Agarwal and Hemalatha Kala are the only batters with more than one century in the game's longest format. Meanwhile, Shafali Verma also equaled the record for most sixes by a woman in a Test inning. She smashed 2 considerable sixes in Bristol, matching Alyssa Healy and Lauren Winfield-Hill's joint record.

India Women Squad

Mithali Raj (captain), Harmanpreet Kaur (vice-captain), Punam Raut, Smriti Mandhana, Shikha Pandey, Priya Punia, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Sneh Rana, Arundhati Reddy, Taniya Bhatia (WK), Pooja Vastrakar, Deepti Sharma, Indrani Roy (WK), Jhulan Goswami, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Radha Yadav.

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