Mystery spin in the Womens Game

This article first appeared in my column "Seamstress" for Wisden India.

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Last year, Maya Sonawane was a member of the  Maharashtra team that were joint winners of the women's domestic U-19 competition. She was only 14. For her, it would have been easy to say that she was happy just being a part of the squad of fifteen. She carried the drinks,clapped hard, and cheered her team mates from the sidelines in a tense final, and enjoyed the moment when she could call herself a part of a champion team. It could have been enough. After all, she was just 14.

 It wasn't.

Today, at  just 15 years of age, with 23 wickets from nine matches, she is the 2014-15 season's highest wicket taker in the U-19 competition.

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A few years ago, a local corporator in Sinnar - A town some 30 km from Nashik, the wine capital of India-  built a cricket pitch in his backyard. He wanted his young school-going  daughter to learn to play cricket. No, this school-going girl was not Maya. Maya was the girl who would watch them play on her way home from school, and  hang around and pick up any stray balls that rolled in her direction. Maya didn't really find cricket. Cricket found Maya.


 Her disarming smile and outspoken innocence meant that soon enough, she befriended the girl and her father, and started bowling to the child, occasionally having a go with her bat after she was done.  Maya's older brother soon started accompanying her, in part because he recognised that his little sister had a talent at this, but mostly just to keep an eye on his little sister. A few girls from her locality also started coming along, in part to help the corporator's daughter play, but mostly because they occasionally got a ride in the corporators car afterwards.


Soon, a few boys who represented Nashik District, learned that a pitch existed in their backyard, and started training there instead of making their daily commute to Nashik. They passed on advice on the basics of the game to the girls, and that became the first rudimentary coaching that Maya received.

At some distance from  this makeshift coaching center of excellence, stood one of Sinnar's  major attractions, the Gargoti Museum. It houses a collection of  Zeolites (mineral stones native to the area.) ''They are the stones we use to start a fire'' says Maya, when I asked her what Gargoti meant.

And already, a few stones in Sinnar had started rubbing against each other, kindling sparks of cricket-fire in their young minds.

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It is impossible to miss Maya. Standing just a shade over five feet tall, you couldn't pick her out of a line up.  But give her a ball in hand, and any lay man watching her bowl will tell you that she is different. Her unique bowling action, with her head pointing downwards when she releases her wrist spinners, is what sets her apart. Her arm speed, revolutions, and bounce off the pitch will make a few quick bowlers envious.  Watching her, one immediately thinks of Paul Adams, whom Mike Gatting immortalised in the imaginations of audiences by likening his bowling action to "A frog in a blender". Except that Maya bowls right handed, not left handed like Adams did. Ask Maya about him, and she coolly replies that she has never seen him bowl! "I've heard of him, but only recently. People told me that his action is like mine!''

So popular was Maya's bowling in her hometown, that girls from Sinnar found their parents telling them  to bowl like her! And so, more than one young girl from Sinnar was trying to send down deliveries- a la Paul Adams- at the Maharashtra U19 trial nets. It didn't matter that the girls bowled off spin and medium pace, they made sure they did it like Maya!

Maya in the middle of her ''frog-in-the-blender'' action in her hometown of Sinnar

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 After attending the Maharashtra state U-19 trials as a 14 year old, Maya made her first appearance for the state in the 2013-14 season, though she only played in one match. Her fitness levels, bred naturally by a childhood spent in the great outdoors of Sinnar, impressed her peers and her coaches. But her inaccuracy meant she could not force a place in the starting XI that year. Her heterodox action - the fact that she used her little finger to spin the ball, instead of her ring finger which wrist spinners generally use- meant that standard coaching manuals were of minimal help. So it came down to sheer practice and repetition.

Back home in Sinnar, Maya applied herself to trying to hit the same spot over and over while bowling. The same little finger that she used to give the ball a rip now gave testimony to the amount of hard work she had put in. A large  nodule of raw skin protrudes from the knuckle of her pinky, looking gruesomely like a parasitic growth that does not belong there.

''The seam cuts open the skin every time I bowl'', she says of the wound in the belly of the nodule, an occupational affliction that many spinners share. "Now I have learnt to take care of it with tape."

When the 2014-15 season finally dawned, the pain she had endured in her many sessions of spot bowling bore fruit. In the first match of the season, against Baroda U-19, she took 6-17 in eight overs. Her flight , dip and variations in turn mean that opposition batsmen were afraid to use their feet against her, allowing her to dominate them. Against Gujarat, she returned figures of 4-6 in three overs, including a hat trick.

She continued to shine in the All India leg of the U-19 tournament, taking nine wickets in five matches, including three in the semi final, which Maharashtra lost. The diminutive tweaker though, could hold her head up high, finishing on top of the wicket takers list, her closest competitor a full six wickets behind.

A grinning Maya proudly modelling her first  Maharashtra Sr. team kit

Now as the youngest member of the Maharashtra Sr. squad, Maya faces the prospect of having to raise her game a notch to match the faster,fitter standard of play in senior cricket. Not happy with just being the travelling baby in the team, she wants a place in the starting XI.  But she knows she will have to earn it. Her young age and diminutive frame hide the courage and hunger that she has inside her, and she isn't afraid of taking on the older girls in duels in the nets, even if it means getting hit for six once in a while.


Along with state captain Smriti Mandhana and Devika Vaidya - both still in their teens - Maya will most likely form a core of young talent that Maharashtra is nurturing. She should be a regular in the side in the  years to come. But she can think about that later. Right now she spends her energy trying to land the ball in the right areas consistently, and worries mostly about not being able to watch Chota Bheem while on tour.

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Sr. Domestic season 2014-15 Preview

The 2014-15 one day season will begin on the 6th of December at various venues across the country. For a look at the teams and fixtures,  have a look at my previous post (Plate division group A fixtures have changed since then, with the reintroduction of Rajasthan). The format is unchanged from last year. 

Elite Division Champions Railways have strengthened their squad with the addition of  current internationals Harmanpreet Kaur, Poonam Yadav, besides Priyanka Roy, and Shravanti Naidu. The Elite A pool could well be called the Group of Death. Giving Railways company, are Jhulan Goswami led Bengal,  who won the plate division last year, and whose U19 team recently lifted the national championship.  Then there is Hyderabad,  who are led by a new young captain, M. Shalini.  They ran Railways close in both their T20 encounters last year, and will look to go one better this time. And lastly Uttar Pradesh , last year's runner's up, and Delhi, who will be bolstered by the return of veteran Reema Malhotra. 

Elite group B also promises some close encounters,  with four of the five teams more or less equal in strength, boasting at least one player who has represented India. Underdogs Tripura will be keen to spring a surprise or two as well. 18 year old Smriti Mandhana will lead Maharashtra for the first time in the one day format, and will look to establish her captaincy credentials. Her young team also includes the U19 season's highest run scorer Devika Vaidya, and highest wicket taker, 15 year old Maya Sonawane.

In the Plate division, there are never any clear favourites, and all teams will hotly contest for the top spot in their pools, as this could mean a chance for promotion into the Elite Division next season. Shikha Pandey and Thirushkamini, fresh from strong performances in the recent home series against the Proteas, will look to carry that form into the domestic season. Their teams, Goa and Tamil Nadu respectively, along with Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh are the teams I would watch out for. Karnataka in particular, with Veda Krishnamurthy returning to their ranks, will be hard pressed not to reach the last two.

The Rise and Rise of the West Indies

This article first appeared in my column "Seamstress" for Wisden India.

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Anisa Mohammed (R) became only the sixth player to breach the 100 ODI wickets club, while Stafanie Taylor is currently No. 1 allrounder in ODIs. © Getty Images

My first memory of a women’s cricket team from the West Indies is watching a series they played in India in 2004. My recollection of that time is a bit fuzzy (although that might have something to do with DD Sports’ picture quality) and I cannot recall much except that Asmi Jewellers was sponsoring India Women at the time, which was big news. As for the cricket, an Indian team that was peaking brushed aside the Windes women 5-0 in the One-Day Internationals. It was, for India, a good build-up to the 2005 Women’s World Cup around the corner. For West Indies, I imagine every day was a new step on a steep learning curve for a team just finding its feet.

Fast track to 2009. It’s the ICC Women’s World Cup in Australia, and India would play the West Indies again after a gap of four years. India were not about to take this team lightly, and I watched from the sidelines as our bowlers gave nothing away to shoot out West Indies Women for 84. The total was dealt with easily enough, and another West Indies challenge to one of the ‘big four’ teams was duly brushed aside.

Jump ahead to 2011: the West Indies tour India for five ODIs and three Twenty20 Internationals. I had just made a comeback into the Indian team and played in the customary warm up match. We lost, but not before stretching the visitors a bit. The Indian team was brimming with confidence, but we were in for a rude shock, as we went down in the opening game in Mumbai to a dominant and, truthfully, surprising display from the tourists.

If we thought the slow turning pitches of Baroda would give us the advantage – which they did, we beat them in the second game, only just – it was short lived as the West Indies took the leadin the third match. The fourth game at Rajkot went down to the wire despite a timely ton from Mithali Raj on a featherbed in Rajkot, but we kept the series alive.

It was down to the final match of the series, and in a tense, low-scoring game, chasing 188, West Indies couldn’t hold their nerve and collapsed for 131. The celebrations in the Indian dressing room began, but were muted, for we had just about managed to best an opponent we had never lost a duel to. For this opponent had come back with a stronger body, sharper sword and better armour.

The 2013 World Cup. India, the hosts, and West Indies would face off again, this time in the tournament opener. I danced in the stands as Poonam Raut and Thirush Kamini sent them on a leather hunt and batted them out of the game to set up a crushing win. But that was all the joy Indian supporters would get in that tournament.

As for the West Indies, in the Super Six stage, they turned the tables on Australia, another Big Four team, and usurped a place in the final, edging out holders England. Though they could not repeat their Houdini act in the final, they finished with their best ever World Cup performance. They had officially arrived, and, like their male counterparts, were not afraid to show it, with Gangnam Style celebrations telling us how much they were enjoying their cricket.

Now, West Indies have just completed a 4-0 rout of New Zealand’s White Ferns in the ODIs. Three of those four wins would qualify as crushing, and the last would be called a miracle of self-belief. Currently, they are sitting pretty atop the fledgling ICC Women’s Championship charts. They are statistically the team ranked No. 1 in the world, although the road to the 2017 World Cup is long and the journey has only just begun. But tectonic plates in women’s cricket are shifting, and West Indies, in the eyes of many, have taken India’s place in the Big Four.

Their rise, to an outside observer, has been remarkable. The West Indies Cricket Board certainly seems to take their women’s team seriously, and have appointed Sherwin Campbell, the former Test cricketer, as their coach. They appear to have a clear performance road map in place. Their selectors have on many occasions shown long-term vision. Merissa Aguilleira, the wicketkeeper-captain, has led this team for more than four years now. Out of the team that played in the 2011 series in India, ten players featured in the 2013 World Cup in India. The selectors have chosen and groomed a core of talented players, who have soaked up the experience this continuity has offered them, and have emerged as match-winners.

Anisa Mohammed, the offspinner, at just 26, recently became only the sixth player to breach the 100 ODI wickets club. Stafanie Taylor, the allrounder, is currently No. 1 in the women’s allrounder rankings (ODI). Pacers Shakira Selman and Tremayne Smartt both picked up their maiden five wicket hauls in the series against New Zealand. And everybody knew Deandra Dottin could smash the ball, but watching her bat maturely to amass 271 runs in four ODIs and three T20Is, including three half-centuries and three unbeaten knocks, will give opposition captains worldwide some sleepless nights.

Their true test lies ahead. They will carry confidence from this series when they travel Down Under, where they will need it as they face the world champions, Australia’s Southern Stars. The series, beginning on November 2 with the first of four T20Is, followed by four ODIs, will pit the two biggest-hitting sides in world cricket against each other. It promises enthralling games, and if the West Indies have their way, the Australian summer may just see more Gangnam Style celebrations.

The Format Specific preparation of Sri Lanka and South Africa

This article first appeared in my Column "Seamstress" for Wisden India.

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Chamari Atapattu, the new Sri Lankan skipper, has her work cut out.

Early this year in January, when I turned out for India A in a warm-up game against the touring Sri Lanka Women, I got a good look at most of their players. We almost squeezed out a victory in that game, and I was confident our senior squad would win the One-Day International and Twenty20 International series convincingly. Then, someone in our team insightfully observed: “They aren’t here to play the one-dayers. It’s the T20s they have their sights set on.”

That was prophetic. India easily made a clean sweep of the ODIs, with Gouher Sultana, the left-arm spinner, doing most of the damage. But with their nemesis not part of the Indian T20 squad, the Sri Lankans clinched the three-match T20I series, their first-ever series win against India.

‘’It’s the T20s they have their sights set on.’’ This made sense considering that the ICC World T20 in Bangladesh was just a couple of months away, while the next 50-over World Cup was slated for 2017. This focus on the T20Is reappeared during England Academy’s tour of Sri Lanka in February 2014. The home side fielded a full-strength squad for the 20-over games, but an inexperienced one for the ODIs. Sri Lanka women’s cricket officials had a plan for their team, that much was clear, and it most likely involved at least a last four finish in Bangladesh, if not higher.

And they had the firepower too. Chamari Atapattu and Yasoda Mendis were providing the kind of hammer-and-tongs starts they needed, with Mendis doing most of the hammering. The all-round capabilities of Achini Kaushalya and Sanjeewani Weerakoddy gave them flexibility and strength in the middle order. Led by the experienced Shashikala Siriwardene and boasting an athletic fielding unit, they were more confident as a T20 side than a one-day one.

Alas, the World T20 in Bangladesh was the archetypical anti-climax for Sri Lanka. After pocketing the first group game by handing India a third defeat in four matches, the Islanders proceeded to lose their next three games, and hopes of a more substantial takeaway than a participation certificate were erased. The subsequent resignation of Siriwardene as captain completed the sinking of their proverbial Titanic, which, at the start of their journey, was unthinkable. And last week, the board launched an initial investigation into worrying allegations of sexual abuse of the players reported in a local publication.

While Bangladesh proved the unravelling of Sri Lanka’s dreams, it was the springboard into the limelight for another upcoming side, South Africa. Inhabiting the same pool as favourites Australia and strong challengers New Zealand, few would have predicted that South Africa would be the ones to make a last four appearance. They managed to beat the White Ferns in a T20I for the first time ever to force a three-way tie in the group, and thanks to big wins over Pakistan and Ireland, edged ahead on run rate. Although they ran themselves out in the semifinal, they had announced themselves on the global stage. In making only their second last four appearance in a global tournament, they had repaid the faith their administration was showing in them – Cricket South Africa had recently introduced contracts for six of their women’s players and team sponsor Momentum was backing them in a big way).

So, it was only a matter of time till South Africa pulled something like this off. Just like India’s style of play is suited to Tests, T20 best suits South Africa’s brand of cricket. To give you an idea, the team’s opponents in the semifinal, England, had been unable to hit any sixes in their group games. South Africa hit ten. The power-hitting game that the England (and India) team so covet is well established in the South African unit. When they can extend it consistently to longer, calculated innings, they could post totals that stretch the top teams. Contracts to eight more players in August was just reward for their toils and spoils in Bangladesh.

South Africa and Sri Lanka have more in common than might appear. Both appear to enjoy good support from their home boards. Both teams are looking at T20s as the battleground to announce their ascendancy. And both teams, both “T20 specialists’’, recently faced off in a one-day and T20I series in Sri Lanka, also comprising three ICC Women’s World Championship ODIs. South Africa Women were carrying the momentum of their World T20 appearance and the experience of a T20 series against England. Sri Lanka were hoping for a recrudescence of the wave of optimism with which they rode into the World T20, under their new skipper, Atapattu. So it was not surprising that the series was a closely fought one, with Sri Lanka eventually surrendering the home advantage and South Africa picking up dual series wins.

I can’t wait to see both teams in action in the 2016 World T20 in India. But the truly mouth-watering prospect is seeing how they evolve in time for the ICC Women’s World Cup in England in 2017. Will they be able to build strong ODI teams? There is time aplenty, and both teams need to use it wisely. South Africa Women can take a cue from how England built up to the 2009 World Cup. If they give their core unit of players consistent international exposure, they might see their promising youngsters bloom into match-winners, and peak in time to challenge the best in the world. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, will need to rebuild under a new captain, whose biggest test will be off the field: to hold the team together through the disturbing allegations being made within their board, threatening all the progress so far.

Sr. Domestic Schedule 2014-15

The fixtures for the new season are out, and apparently therre are NO t20 games this year. Here are the groups for the one day competition:

ELITE  A

1. BENGAL
2. HYDERABAD
3. UP
4. RAILWAYS
5. DELHI

ELITE B

1. MAHARASHTRA 
2. MUMBAI
3. ORISSA
4. PUNJAB
5. TRIPURA

PLATE A

1. GUJARAT
2. TAMIL NADU
3. J&K
4. KERALA
5. GOA

PLATE B

1. ANDHRA PRADESH
2. BARODA
3. ASSAM
4. KARNATAKA
5. HARYANA

PLATE C

1. HIMACHAL PRADESH
2. MADHYA PRADESH
3. JHARKHAND
4. SAURASHTRA
5. VIDARBHA

The venues are still to be decided. these are the fixtures. The second round of matches for both division will be held from 1st to 5th jan 2015

DATE	ELITE A	ELITE B	PLATE A	PLATE B	PLATE C
06-Dec	BENGAL VS HYDERABAD	MAHARASHTRA  VS MUMBAI	GUJARAT VS TAMIL NADU	ANDHRA VS BARODA	HIMACHAL PRADESH VS MADHYA PRADESH
	UTTAR PRADESH VS RAILWAYS	ORISSA VS PUNJAB	J&K VS KERALA	ASSAM VS KARNATAKA	JHARKHAND VS SAURASHTRA
08-Dec	BENGAL VS UTTAR PRADESH	MAHARASHTRA VS ORISSA	GOA VS J&K	ANDHRA VS KARNATAKA	JHARKHAND VS HIMACHAL PRADESH
	DELHI VS RAILWAYS	MUMBAI VS TRIPURA	GUJARAT VS KERALA	ASSAM VS HARYANA	MADHYA PRADESH VS VIDARBHA
10-Dec	BENGAL VS RAILWAYS	MUMBAI VS ORISSA	GOA VS TAMIL NADU	ASSAM VS ANDHRA	JHARKHAND VS MADHYA PRADESH
	DELHI VS HYDERABAD	PUNJAB VS TRIPURA	GUJARAT VS J&K	BARODA VS HARYANA	SAURASHTRA VIDARBHA
12-Dec	BENGAL VS DELHI	MAHARASHTRA VS PUNJAB	GOA VS KERALA	ANDHRA VS HARYANA	HIMACHAL VS SAURASHTRA
	HYDERABAD VS UTTAR PRADESH	ORISSA VS TRIPURA	J&K VS TAMIL NADU	BARODA VS KARNATAKA	JHARKHAND VS VIDHARBHA
14-Dec	DELHI VS UTTAR PRADESH	MAHARASHTRA VS TRIPURA	GOA VS GUJARAT	ASSAM VS BARODA	HIMACHAL VS VIDARBHA
	HYDERABAD VS RAILWAYS	MUMBAI VS PUNJAB	KERALA VS TAMIL NADU	HARYANA VS KARNATAKA	MADHYA PRADESH VS SAURASHTRA

the Inter zonals will be held from 1st to 14th march 2015. Judging by the dates, these will be played in a two day format. 

1 mar       east vs north

                 south vs west

4 mar        central vs east

                 north vs south

7 mar        central vs south

                  north vs west

10 mar      central vs north

                  east vs west

13 mar      central vs west

                   east vs south

Write up 

More TESTS, more WINS..

More tests will mean more joy for India women.

Test cricket may be the best way to move Indian women's cricket forward.

You heard me right. Test cricket.  Not the swashbuckling abridged version of cricket that is T20. I have just surprised myself by saying that. Until recently, I was a big proponent of T20s as the best medium to promote women's cricket in India. But after the Wormsley test, I gave it some thought, and I have changed my mind. Here's why.

As of today, Test cricket is the Indian women's cricket teams strongest format. 

Every team has a preferred or natural format. The Indian men's team just showed that, with table turning wins against England in the ODIs (after having had to hide under the same table in the tests). The English women's team themselves are a really good ODI side, but in T20s, you have got to give it to Australia's Southern stars. For India women, its gotta be tests.

Reasons?

To win a test you must be able to bowl the opposition out twice. Assuming that the wickets for women's tests would most likely be result oriented, there would be some seam, swing, bounce ,or turn . And India have the bowling options for all of the above. In Jhulan Goswami, India have an experienced pace spear head, who hits the deck hard. And Niranjana, Shikha, and Shubhlakshmi proved at Wormsley that they have the skills to exploit favourable conditions. Add the loop of  Gouher Sultana (who missed this tour due to illness) and unpredictable turn of Ekta bisht, and India have spinning options aplenty. 

But most importantly, test cricket provides the perfect cocoon to nurture India's batting strengths and, more importantly, nestle it's weaknesses. Indian batting is currently more about timing and placement than power hitting. Thats fine for tests. The longer format allows Indian batsmen to take their time to settle down, without the run rate causing any panic. They can wait for the lose ball, and the skill to put it away was always there. They can turn down those cheeky runs and bide their time. They can wage a war of attrition, and make merry when the bowers tire. For dot balls matter less in tests.

Now to fielding. After the first ODI against England this series, former Aussie all rounder Lisa Sthalekar tweeted ,''India has never given time to fielding and it shows". In the next game, the Indian girls fielded brilliantly. That's often the case with Indian fielding. Inconsistently brilliant. These small factors count for a lot in the shorter formats, but again in tests, with more spread out fields, the odd misfield is less likely to cost a team a win.

So coming back to the theory that opened the innings for this post. test cricket might be the best format to promote women's cricket in India. 'cos lets be honest. This is sport. There are no prizes for coming second. No one remembers you, no one commemorates you, and the opposition only half mean it when they say "well played" at the end of a game. They are too busy planning their party.

Nothing promotes a game better than a team that wins. A win demands to be seen. England women got the attention with back to back Ashes wins.The Southern stars won three consecutive world T20 titles, and became the highest paid female sports team in Australia. India have won back-to-back tests in England, albeit eight years apart, and I strongly feel they will win more in this format. And those wins will help the game grow. But how many will they get to play?

There has long been a perception that the BCCI will only pay attention to the women's team if and when they win. Its happened in a test, and it will happen more often if the BCCI cajole the other willing bedfellows; England and Australia; to schedule  frequent test matches. Clare Connor, visionary head of women's cricket at the ECB, recently said that the future of women's tests is hanging by a thread. India have a lot to gain by moving to preserve that future.

Of course this is not to suggest that if we do play tests, we shouldn't raise our standard in the other formats. Globally, T20 cricket is the vehicle that will drive the growth of the women's game, so India must become a world class T20 team. Athleticism and agility need to be long term occupants, not frequent guests. And sustainable power hitting must marry form and timing. This onus lies on us, the current crop of domestic players, to raise the bar.

But alongside that, the BCCI must realise what it's women's team's strengths are, and play to them.

Flashback! : The Triumph of 2006

2006.

That was the  last time the Indian Women's Team played a test match.

They played two actually. At Leicester and Taunton.

Against England. A team who had just blanked them in the ODI series 4-0.

But they had some history by their side. The last time they played a test against England in England, Mithali Raj scored an unbeaten 214, then a world record.

More records would be broken. More history would be made.

Mostly, by Jhulan Goswami.

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Leicester

The first test played there seemed destined to end in a draw. As a Cricinfo report at the end of the second day said "this test has got bore-draw written all over it."

India managed a lead of 75 in the first innings, only for Claire Taylor to wipe it out, stroking 115 in her second dig. England led by 270, with just under a day left for India to bat out.

India had batted laboriously in the first innings. The pitch was slow. It didn't seem too much of an ask, until India lost three of the top four for ducks. At 74-6, India seemed to have gifted England a series lead. Then all-rounders Amita Sharma and Rumeli Dhar banished all such thoughts with fighting half centuries. Along with Jhulan goswami, India's pace trio would combine to cause England much grief with both ball and  bat.(Jhulan Goswami had scored 69 in the first innigs, after a surprise promotion to bat at no. 3)

England 0, India 0.


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Taunton

2006 was the year that Taunton, venue for the second test, was christened the Home of Women's Cricket in England.

Jhulan Goswami certainly felt at home there.

India batted first and used two wicketkeepers to open the innings (although only Karuna Jain later donned the gloves.) The wicketkeepers gave India a watchful start. 38 runs and a blunt new ball later, Sulakshana Naik fell. Two runs later, so did Jain. 40-2. Suddenly not such a watchful start.

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Anjum Chopra and Jhulan Goswami had been team mates at Air India since Jhulan was a wayward teenage  tearaway. They were two of the handful of women cricketers who Air India offered permanent jobs, and combined to script many a victory for Air India against arch rivals Railways. So it seemed fitting that Anjum  shine with the bat in this match, even if her showing was to be eclipsed by Jhulan's with the ball. Anjum Chopra made 98, agonisingly short of a richly deserved century. By the time she was dismissed, India had recovered from being 40-2 and eventually crossed the psychological barrier of 300.

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The pitch was not a bowler's paradise. In India's 1st innings, Isa Guha bowled more than 40 overs. In England's second innings, Nooshin Al Khadeer  bowled 37 overs. Preedi dimri and Amita Sharma bowled 61 overs between them. It was that kind of pitch. Which is exactly why Jhulan Goswami's 1st innings figures of 13-4-33-5 were incredible.

To say she sliced through the top order is not an exaggeration. She allowed none of the top three to reach double figures. She came back to pick up the resilient Edwards, who batted low due to illness. To get a measure of the quality of her wickets we need no highlights or eye witness accounts. We only need to read the scorecard. LBW, caught behind and bowled. Beaten, edged, and knocked over. Classic fast bowlers wickets. And she was bowling fast.

At the other end, Amita Sharma and Rumeli Dhar were doing what they did best : swinging it. Each picked up a pair of wickets, again either LBW or caught behind, and the Indian fast bolwers cartel had nine wickets between them. England were blanked out for 99 in 51 overs. For the first time ever against India, England followed on.

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Somewhere out there, I imagine,  is a benevolent spirit who watches in admiration over every record that is broken in cricket. The Indian Women had just summoned it. And perhaps it lingered on, having heard that Indians  are such good hosts, and I further imagine it would not have been disappointed.

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In the 1st test at Leicester, Laura Newton and Claire Taylor had scored more than 200 runs between them. But at Taunton, with England following on, they were both gone. England were 34-2, still 173 runs away from an innings defeat. The Indian girls may have thought they had a foot in the door of victory. The England captain Charlotte Edwards had other ideas.

She combined with Caroline Atkins to almost shut India out of the match, with a mammoth 178 run partnership, Edwards reaching her century in the last over of the third day. They tired the Indian attack, who were toiling desperately to create history. They batted out the rest of the day, even defying the second new ball. England needed to survive day four to save the test, and had eight wickets in hand.

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c Chopra b Goswami

A familiar sight on the Indian Domestic circuit. Usually at first slip for Air India, Anjum Chopra had arguably the best view of India's fastest bowler (besides maybe the batsmen ) in the  days before the BCCI took over. She was perfectly positioned to accept and edges that Jhulan's late movement drew, lest they elude the 'keeper.

Anjum's 98 runs had set up this match and given the bowlers a total to bowl at. And Jhulan's fifer had brought them this close. It seemed fitting that India's hope  be renewed on the fourth morning by Anjum taking the catch when Jhulan dismissed Edwards, after adding only five runs to her overnight score.

Edwards c Chopra b Goswami

Amita Sharma proved once again to be the perfect foil by removing Atkins, and the rest followed after some resistance, Nooshin Al Khadeer's persistent off spin claimed three well set middle order scalps, and Jhulan returned to haunt the tail.

Her 2nd innings figures read 36-21-45-5

Match figures of 49.2-25-78-10

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Its hard to keep Mithali Raj out of any game involving India. Opposition teams would love to do that. Indian teams would probably love it even more, but on only a handful of occasions has the team prevented the onus from falling on Mithali. Even more rarely has she failed to deliver.

The 2nd test was India's for the taking. The target was 98. Everyone knew England had scored just 99 in their 1st innings. Anything was possible. It was a 4th day pitch. It was last innings of the Test. It was the last innings of the series. England were giving it everything. They had absolutely nothing to lose.

The experiment of opening the innings with Rumeli Dhar had failed. But the two wicketkeepers again proved useful. Runs were scored, some confident, some nervous. Suddenly, three wickets fell within three runs of one another. But Mithali Raj was still at the crease.

She scored 22 not out. Little more than one third of her 1st innings score of 65. But three times more important. India reached 98 for the loss of 5 wickets.

India won.

In 2006.
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The Spirit of breaking records departed from Taunton as a thoroughly satisfied guest.

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The author was neither present nor has she spoken to anyone involved in these events. The above piece has been produced purely on the basis of scorecards and reports of those times.  Any accusations of national bias and rose tinted admiration for Jhulan Goswami are altogether accurate.