As the ball popped out of Sneh Rana’s hands and looped over her shoulder at second slip, a place in history hung in the air. Shafali Verma’s attention and agility snatched it, centimetres above the Lord’s turf, and now Kranti Gaud is the first woman’s name inked on the revered Test honours board.

Gaud had removed retiring England opener Tammy Beaumont on the first evening of this maiden women’s Test at Lord’s and picked up on Saturday where she’d left off, as India’s quicks condemned their hosts to a rough start on the second day. By stumps, Gaud had taken 5 for 37 and India were well on course for a famous win in a famous match.

Resuming on 21 for 1 in reply to India’s 285, England lost three wickets inside the first seven overs of the day, then their last six for 39 runs as they were bowled out for 170. Amy Jones’  second fifty in the format – she scored her first on Test debut in 2019 – went largely in vain as England faced a first-innings deficit of 115 runs.

Smriti Mandhana  raised her second half-century of the match in front of 15,243 people at Lord’s, a world-record attendance for a single day at a women’s Test, to consolidate India’s control over the match.

Having scored 83 in the first innings, Mandhana was unbeaten on 69 at the close alongside Yastika Bhatia,  who was not out on 39, the pair having shared an unbroken 66-run stand for the second wicket to put India 269 runs ahead and looking well beyond England’s reach. The highest successful run-chase in women’s Tests is 198 by Australia against England in Sydney in 2011.

Gaud struck in the third over of the day as Maia Bouchier fenced at one outside off and sent a thick outside edge to Bhatia behind the stumps.

Heather Knight fell three balls later, failing to overturn an lbw decision to a Sayali Satghare fuller ball that bent past the outside edge and rapped Knight’s front pad in line with middle stump. Ball-tracking upheld the dismissal on umpire’s call with the ball shown to be clipping leg stump.

But Gaud’s removal of Alice Capsey was the highlight. The ball pitched on a full length and angled in before swinging away to flatten off stump, giving Gaud two wickets for five runs in the space of 13 balls.

Jones brought up her half-century off 49 balls, steering Rana through deep third and running three before Nat Sciver Brunt sent a glorious slog-sweep over the rope off Shree Charani. But Rana’s riposte broke their 84-run stand for the fifth wicket as Jones jabbed her bat down and sent an inside-edge ballooning straight to Richa Ghosh at short leg.

Gaud had just started her second spell when she removed Sciver-Brunt with the ninth ball after the lunch break, lbw for 44. Satghare and Rana then dispensed with Sophie Ecclestone and Mady Villiers in the space of seven deliveries and, after a brief change of ends to bowl down the slope for an over, Gaud switched back to going uphill and, two balls later, she had her historic five-for.

As Lauren Bell attempted to drive outside off stump, the ball shot straight at Rana’s throat and she parried it into the air, spinning in confusion while Verma swooped at first slip to save the catch. The moment Rana realised Verma had held the ball in her right hand diving forward at full stretch, she did an about-face, thrust her index finger in the air and ran to join the mob enveloping Gaud.

One day shy of a year since making her T20I debut in England during India’s tour last summer – during which she also took a six-wicket haul in just her fourth ODI appearance – Gaud could lay claim not just to a significant personal achievement but to putting her side in a winning position even before the halfway point of this match.

Bell and Issy Wong sent down three maidens between them to start the evening session after India went to the tea break at 30 without loss, but it was a short-lived break to India’s progress. Shafali struck back-to-back fours off Wong and Mandhana helped herself to three fours in a row off Wong’s fourth over, clearing point, piercing the gap to the right of gully and driving through the covers as the India pair combined for an 88-run opening stand.

Ecclestone re-entered the attack after drinks and, when Mandhana skipped down the pitch and launched one down the ground for six, she replied with the wicket of Verma, picking out sub fielder Emma Lamb at mid-on to depart for 33. Aside from a missed leg-side stumping as Bhatia toppled out of her crease to Ecclestone, it was the only real opportunity England could create.

Scores:
India Women 285 in 74.5 overs [Smriti Mandhana 83, Harmanpreet Kaur 58, Deepti Sharma 57; Sophie Ecclestone 3-68] and 154 for 1 in 42 overs (Smriti Mandhana 69*, Yastia Bhatia 39*; Sophie Ecclestone 1-46) lead England Women  170 in 59.1 overs (Nat Sciver Brunt 44, Amy Jones 52; Kranti  Gaud 5-37) by 269 runs

[Crricinfo]