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Shafali Verma
Young opening batter Shafali Verma created history as she scored a fifty in the second innings at County Ground in Bristol. The 17-year-old, who smashed 96 runs in the first innings, became the youngest woman cricketer to score twin fifties in her debut match. Overall, the young Indian star became the fourth to achieve this milestone. Shafali Verma overtook Australia's Jess Jonassen, who achieved this feat when she was 22 years old in 2015. The two other women cricketers to accomplish this achievement apart from Shafali and Jess are Sri Lanka's Vanessa Bowen and England's Lesley Cooke.
Shafali Verma is the first Indian women player to get out in the 90s on Test debut
Factually, overall former Indian cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar is the only batsman to score twin fifties in a Test match at a younger age than Shafali Verma. Sachin slammed two half-centuries back in 1990 against England when he was 17 years and 107 days. On the other hand, Shafali Verma achieved the same feat at 17 years and 139 days. Shafali Verma is also the first Indian women player to get out in the 90s on Test debut. The 17-year-old has now joined former captain Rahul Dravid in this record. Rahul Dravid had scored a brilliant knock of 95 runs at Lord's on his Test debut in 1996.
Earlier, Shafali Verma announced her grand arrival in the purest format of the game after scoring 96 runs off 152 deliveries in the first innings. The youngster scored 13 boundaries and two sixes. She was well supported by Smriti Mandhana, who scored 78 from 155 balls. After the dismissal of both the opening batters, India bundled out for 231. Thus, this gave the hosts a lead of 165 runs. The England cricket team had declared their first innings on 396/9. Left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone was the pick of the bowlers for the English team. The 22-year-old scalped a four-wicket haul for 88 in the first innings. Apart from Ecclestone, England captain Heather Knight also picked a couple of wickets.
The commencement of the second day of the Test match was interrupted by rain. However, that was settled down quickly for some quality game. On the contrary, the first day of the ICC World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand was washed out due to rain.