England openers in record stand

After a world record opening wicket partnership by England, the Indian women fought their way back to bowl out the visitors for 314 in their first innings on the second day of the one-off Test series in Lucknow on Tuesday.

Resuming at their overnight 150 without loss, England openers Caroline Atkins and Arran Thompson went on to add 50 more runs to create a new world record for the opening wicket, surpassing the 178 by Belinda Clark and Belinda Hagget of Australia, against India at Sydney in 1991.

After Atkins, who missed her well-deserved century by 10 runs, was run-out at the score of 200, the Indian bowlers, led by Neetu David, who scalped four wickets, did well to restrict the Englishwomen to 314.

When play came to an end 47 minutes before schedule, India were 21 without loss in reply.

The English scored at a comparatively faster rate on Tuesday and made life difficult for the Indians before a good throw from Arundhati resulted in the run-out of Atkins, who was trying to steal a second run. Atkin's faced 388 balls and hit eight fours for her 90 runs.

Wickets fell at regular intervals after that as the Indians staged a comeback into the game.

The other opener, Thomson, could also not stay longer and was bowled by Bindeswhwari Goyal for 85, which came off 357 balls and included nine hits to the fence.

Immediately after that, David had J Cassar caught by Mitali. Cassar failed to score.

Barring their captain Clare Conor and L Person, none of the English batswomen could make an impression after that. Conor contributed 40 runs with the help of seven boundaries while Person scored 27.

The English innings, which lasted more than ten hours, came to an end 20 minutes after the tea break.

Indian openers Anju Jain and Amrita Shinde batted comfortably for the rest of the day and remained unbeaten on five and 14 respectively when bad light stopped play.

Shinde hit two fours in her 30-ball innings.

Coach Tarak Sinha said the team's first task on Wednesday would be to avoid a follow-on.

England captain Conor felt a result is still possible in the match even while admitting they played very slow on the first day. She was disappointed that play had to be stopped earlier than scheduled on Tuesday.

Mail Cricket Editor