Key events
10th over: India 59-2 (Smriti 33, Jemimah 10) Ecclestone time! Long sleeved white shirt, long blond plait down her back, sunglasses. From the nursery end. Doesn’t find her line straight away and Smriti, with a large forward, picks up four through backward point, then another, cut with just enough finesse . An lbw appeal to finish which looks optimistic. Sue says no, and so does Sciver-Brunt to the review.
9th over: India 49-2 (Smriti 32, Jemimah 1) A more miserly over from Bell, just four from it.
8th over: India 45-2 (Smriti 29, Jemimah 1) Smriti is hitting at a run a ball here, two of the most gorgeous pulls hit with velvety sweetness off Filer.
Hello Guy Hornsby: “What a day this is, Tanya. There have been so many wonderful moments already: Anya Shrubsole greeting former team mates in the Long Room as they walked out in whites, the incredible group of former players ringing the bell (with especial mention of Enid Bakewell, still playing at 82!) from the most venerable to recent retirees like Katherine Sciver-Brunt.
“I have happy tears in my eyes. It is, of course long, long overdue, and I felt the MCC and Lords’ PR machine this last weeks grated, given they didn’t want the women playing the long form there for so much of the last 100 years. I think we can be happy and critical at the same time.”
Well said. But I think there has been real change and so much thanks goes to people like Claire Taylor and our own Emma John who have been quietly working behind the scenes.
WICKET! Yastikaa b Bell 12 (India 37-2)
7th over: India 37-2-1 (Smriti 21) A gorgeous, kalaeidoscope of a ball, full and nips down the slope straight through Yastiakaa! Relief and reward for Bell who had started to look disheartened after being struck for successive fours by Smriti.
6th over: India 28-1 (Smriti 12, Yastikaa 12) Some clouds have drifted over to give the crowd a bit of respite from the sun. Filer sprints in from the Nursery end, orange heels kicking behind her. Smriti and Yastika are wary, defensive. Interesting listening to Steven Finn on TMS saying female bowlers won’t aid the pitch’s disintegration in quite the same way as the men because they’re slower and from a different – skiddier – trajectory.
5th over: India 26-1 (Smriti 12, Yastikaa 11) Smriti, gloriously, licks her lips and trills a wayward Bell twice through the covers for four.
4th over: India 17-1 (Smriti 4, Yastikaa 11) A no ball to start Filer’s over. The rest is fast and alternatively short and pitched up.
“Good morning” – hello John Starbuck! “The fireworks are, presumably, because they’ve always (!) done it. Taking no account of the conditions (intense sunshine) is what traditionalists do best. Sad to see Freya Kemp didn’t make the team, though.” Hopefully her time will come. Shame not to see Charlie Dean too, who was rested but I think is playing for Somerset instead.
3rd over: India 15-1 (Smriti 3, Yastikaa 11) Yastikaa isn’t hanging around –clips two fours off Bell, one through square leg, one through backward point.
2nd over: India 5-1 (Smriti 3, Bhatia 1) There’s England’s future, right there, Lauren Filer firing balls down at 70mph plus. Varma done by a belter. Bathetically, Filer follows up with a full toss. It was a slow start but there is now a good crowd filling the bottom layer of the grand stand, and the pavilion is PACKED.
WICKET! Verma c Jones b Filer 0 (India 4-1)
A 72mph zinger! Shanks back in and there’s nothing a defending Varma can do about it.
1st over: India 4-0 (Smriti 3, Verma 0) Bell with the first over. She puts her marker down and Sciver Brunt runs up to give her a final pat for luck. Bell’s last outing here on Sunday wasn’t her best but she’s on the money straight away here, skimming past Smriti’s outside edge. Smriti picks up a couple through the covers and we’re off!
Of course Sue Redfern is officiating.
Oh wow, this is amazing, fifty female ex England cricketers are on the outfield to ring the bell which has been brought out on a table. Alex Hartley, Isa Guha, Lynne Thomas, Nat Sciver Brunt, Charlotte Edwards and many more. Enid Bakewell and other members of the team who first played here in 1976 do the honours.
Then two teams in whites walk through the Long Room and out through the pavilion gate. Anthems. Then fireworks and flames (a pet peeve but why?!).
India XI
India: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia Harmnpreet Kaur (c), Jemima Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Sayali Satghare, Sneh Rana N Shree Charani, Kranti Gaud
A debut for 21 year old slow left armer N Shree Charani adds to the strong spin hand.
England XI
England: Tammy Beaumont, Maia Bouchier, Heather Knight, Nat Sciver-Brunt (c), Alice Capsey, Amy Jones (wk), Maddy Villiers, Sophie Ecclestone, Issy Wong, Lauren Bell, Lauren Filer.
Excited to see Filer getting a game after carrying the drinks around the World Cup, and Villiers has been knocking on the door in domestic cricket.
England have won the toss and will bowl!
Harmanpreet Kaur and Nat Sciver-Brunt are in their blazers. England will bowl, in the heat.
“I think its a surface that has to last four days,” says Sciver Brunt. “It should be a good surface but the most we can get out of it will be this morning.” – Test debuts for Alice Capsey and Maddy Villiers.
“It feels like a great opportunity,” says Harmanpreet, “and it is amazing to be part of it.” A Test debut for Shree Charani.
Preamble
Good morning! It’s been a long road, with many screes, many dead ends, but we made it. A first woman’s Test at Lord’s: 50 years after the first women’s game at Lord’s, 92 years after the first women’s Test.
Both teams are out on the hallowed turf, while in the watching Long Room portraits of female cricketers of the past have been unveiled: Belinda Clark, Mary Duggan, Enid Bakewell, Jan Brittin, Myrtle MacLagan, and the World Cup0winning team of 1993.
The boards behind the Tavern stand have been replaced to represent female cricketing achievement and everywhere are cricketers of today and shadows of the past.
To business: England must switch gear immediately – just four days after they lost the Women’s World Cup here. Six players change from blue and red to whites – captain Nat Sciver-Brunt, Heather Knight, Lauren Bell, Alice Capsey, Sophie Ecclestone and Amy Jones. Ellie Threlkeld, Tilly Corteen-Coleman, all-rounder Mady Villiers and fast bowler Grace Potts join the squad.
And it’s a last hurrah for Tammy Beaumont, who saw the writing on the way after a magnificent England career.
India have been able to have a more leisurely week, albeit because they were knocked out of the World Cup in the knockout stages. They’ve had time to process the disappointment – my hunch is on them spoiling the party.
Toss at 10.30am BST, play at 11am – join us!