Though the Indian tail did not wag and their first innings folded up at 289, the Bengal pace duo of Jhulan Goswami and Rumeli Dhar snapped up six wickets between them to swing the game in the hosts' favour, leaving England women reeling at 103 for seven on day two of the one-off Test match at the Jamia Milia ground in New Delhi on Tuesday.
At stumps on day two, Rosalie Birch (14) and Beth Morgan (1) were unbeaten and left with the massive task of avoiding follow-on, when the match resumes on Wednesday. England eves trailed by 186 runs with three wickets in hand in their first innings.
Jhulan struck an early blow by castling Laura Newton (6) and then had Claire Taylor (5) caught by Karuna Jain. One run later, she disturbed rival captain Charlotte Edwards' (12) stumps to leave England at 25 for three.
Making her Test debut, Rumeli then took over and snapped up Jenny Gunn (5) and Lydia Greenway (6) as England batters found themselves in morass with the score reading 56 for five at tea.
Debutante Shravanti Naidu then claimed the wicket of Laura Harper (10) while Jhulan claimed her fourth wicket when Arran Brindle perished caught behind after a gritty 37.
Jhulan's bowling figures read 13-6-16-4.
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Rumeli (39) could not convert the start to a big score and perished caught behind off Katherine Brunt and then Laura took the centrestage. She first removed Amita Sharma (4) caught by Brunt, then bowled Jhulan (24) and finally completed her five-wicket haul claiming the wicket of Shravanti Naidu (9).
Jenny Gun dropped the curtain on the Indian innings by castling Neetu David (1).
- UNI
