Lord’s Test: Day One

July 11, 2026 Rob Harvey 214 Views England, India

Bathed in sunshine, an historic day at Lord’s for the first women’s Test ever to be played at the ground, fifty years after the first ODI. A welcoming crowd, a host of former England Test players and what matters most of all, a gripping day of Test cricket.

The former players, among whom were Enid Bakewell, Chris Watmough, Jan Southgate – they’re the ones I could recognise of the thirty odd, but a wonderful sight to see about ten of them gathered around the famous bell, ready to signal the start of play. Bravo to the ECB for the recognition of these stars from yesteryear.

The crowd of 10,763 was a tad disappointing when you consider that the day was sold out. 17,000 vacant seats suggest otherwise. Welcome to the new world where a crowd of 10,000+ for the first day of a women’s Test could be considered “disappointing.” Those 17,000 missing souls would be kicking themselves after what was a splendid display of cricket from both teams.

The wicket looked to have a hint of green and perhaps this is why Nat Sciver-Brunt elected to bowl first. Her attack consisted of three fast bowlers so it made sense to give them the best opportunity they would have in the game for pace bowlers.

On debut for England, Alice Capsey and Mady Villiers, for India, Sayali Satghare.

Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma opened up for India against the pace attack of Lauren Filer and Lauren Bell. Both fast bowlers struggled with the slope and the left/right combo. The crowd was ready for a display of handsome cover drives from Smriti, but the wayward legside bowling gave her an opportunity to pepper the boundary with a succession of pull shots.

Shafali went first, bowled by a ripper from Filer. It looked at first glance as though she could have simply left the ball, but it nipped back. Had she played with a straight bat, rather than angled, she would have defended the ball tamely on the off side.

Yastika Bhatia‘s entry meant the England bowlers were now dealing with two left handers, Smriti continuing to punish the leg side while Yastika played a couple of delightful strokes to the point boundary. It didn’t last however, with Yastika clean bowled by Bell. The ball did nip away from the batter but the complete lack of footwork let her down.

Jemimah Rodrigues joined Smriti and treated the crowd to some delightful offside drives as she looked to take advantage of anything loose. The pair took the score to 101 before Jemmi played on to an innocuous delivery from Issy Wong. That brought the skipper, Harmanpreet Kaur to the crease and she looked as though her intention was to stay there for the rest of the day, as one would.

Seemingly in cruise mode, at 190/3 India looked on top of the world, but Wong struck again, taking the prize wicket of Smriti Mandhana. That was the start of the downfall. India lost the next seven wickets for 95 runs.

Sophie Ecclestone weaved her magic to clean up the tail, although not before Deepti Sharma (57*) batted with the lower order to bring some respectability to the total. Of particular note, Sayali Satghare’s 1 run from 23 deliveries was just what the doctor ordered. That’s how you bat in Test cricket if you’re a tail-ender supporting a set batter.

Is 285 enough? Well it has to be… England’s innings will tell us if it is. There was some wayward bowling by the English quicks. Perhaps had they been more on song the total would have been far less. Issy Wong was definitely the pick of the quick bowlers.

England navigated their way to 21/1 stumps having lost Tammy Beaumont along the way, 264 runs in arrears.

The key for day two for India will be early wickets, particularly Heather Knight who has a habit of scoring big centuries in Test cricket. If they can manufacture a lead on the first innings then they’re in the box seat. For England, they will want to take advantage of what will be the best day for batting. Bat the whole day and take India out of the game.