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]

Defending champions Argentina will face England in the semifinals of FIFA World Cup 2026 after beating ten man Switzerland 3-1 after extra time thanks to a decisive long-range effort by Julian Alvarez.

Alexis Mac Allister headed in a 10th-minute cross by Lionel Messi to hand Argentina the lead at Kansas City Stadium on Saturday.

It was far from the dominant display that the South Americans would have hoped for thereafter, and the Europeans deservedly levelled in the 67th minute when Dan Ndoye slotted home from close range.

The Swiss controversially lost Breel Embolo to a second yellow in the 72nd minute for simulation. VAR had to intervene, however, to request the referee to review whether the booking given to Argentina’s Leandro Paredes was a case of mistaken identity – a new VAR rule for this tournament.

Embolo appeared to dive to win the free kick and Portuguese referee Joao Pinheiro changed his decision, which resulted in an inconsolable Embolo given his marching orders.

Argentina pressed for the winner in normal time and nearly found their reward with virtually the last kick of the period when Lisandro Martinez flung himself at a loose ball in the box, but his scissor-kick didn’t have the power to beat the keeper.

Messi had himself come close when through, one-on-one, but his chip was saved. The referee’s assistant raised his flag to suggest the effort would have been offside anyway, although replays show a goal may well have stood – it would have been Messi’s ninth in six appearances at the tournament.

It was Alvarez who stole the show on this occasion, however, with a fizzing effort from 25 yards which rifled into the top right corner of the goal in the 112th minute

As the Swiss threw bodies forward in the dying seconds, there were huge holes left at the back and Lautaro Martinez capitalised deep into stoppage time in extra time to slot home a third after a counterattack led by Thiago Almada, whose initial shot deflected kindly into his teammate’s path.

Argentina will now face England in the semifinal on Wednesday in Atlanta. Spain play France, the team Argentina defeated in the final at Qatar 2022, on Tuesday in the other last-four clash.

Only two nations have previously defended a World Cup title, Italy and Brazil.

The taxing nature of the competition, which saw Argentina also pushed to extra time in the round of 32 by Cape Verde, may play a part.

England, though, also needed extra time to beat Norway on Saturday, and 39-year-old Messi seems determined to defy time and can’t be ruled out from finding yet more magical moments.

(Aljazeera)

Jude Bellingham was England’s hero once more by scoring twice as the Three Lions came from behind to end Norway’s historic run and reach the World Cup semifinals with a 2-1 win after extra time.

In their first-ever quarterfinal, Andreas Schjelderup fired Norway into a shock lead in the searing Miami heat on Saturday.

But Bellingham, who also netted a double in a memorable 3-2 over Mexico in the last 16, produced a moment of magic to equalise just before half-time.

Norway had a second goal controversially disallowed after a VAR review in the second half for a foul by Erling Haaland as both sets of players were pushed to their physical limits by going to extra-time.

Bellingham came up with another big moment for the winner as he pounced on an error by Orjan Nyland to sweep in his sixth goal of the tournament.

England will face Argentina or Switzerland  on Wednesday for the chance to reach a first World Cup final in 60 years.

Haaland’s spectacular run of scoring in his last 14 competitive matches for Norway came to an end against the land of his birth, with Norway’s exhausted talisman replaced at half-time of extra-time.

Having failed to win a World Cup knockout game after conceding first since the final of 1966 before this tournament,zeera England have now done so twice in three matches

The 5pm local time (21:00 GMT) kickoff in Florida meant that temperatures remained above 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) throughout, with intense humidity making for draining conditions for the players.

The heat looked as if it would spoil the spectacle in the first half.

Thomas Tuchel’s men were rattled as England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford saved low from Martin Odegaard before Alexander Sorloth wasted a glorious chance when he failed to feed Haaland and instead went for goal himself.

Almost immediately, Bellingham pulled his team out of the mire once more.

Bellingham had been well marshalled until he collected Anthony Gordon’s pass, burst into the box at speed and then slotted home on his weaker left foot.

Momentum was suddenly in England’s favour and they nearly went into the break ahead.

Bellingham was this time the creator for Kane, who dinked the ball coolly over Nyland, but had just drifted offside.

Tuchel introduced Bukayo Saka and Eberechi Eze at the break for the ineffective Noni Madueke and Declan Rice – the Arsenal midfielder had been suffering with illness earlier in the week.

But those changes left England light in midfield, and they were left hanging on at spells in the second half.

Torbjorn Heggem made the most of some sloppy defending to turn in at the back post, but Haaland was penalised for a push on new Manchester City teammate Elliott Anderson before the corner had been taken, and the goal was disallowed.

Norway were inches away from a winner again when Kristoffer Ajer hit the bar after England failed to deal with another dangerous corner.

Both sides visibly wilted in the energy-sapping conditions late on but were forced to endure an extra 30 minutes.

Nyland had been Norway’s supporting act in the last 16 win over Brazil with a series of saves before Haaland struck twice late on for a landmark victory.

This time the Sevilla goalkeeper was the villain as he spilled substitute Morgan Rogers’ shot from distance and Bellingham pounced and scored.

England were awarded a penalty moments later, but this time VAR intervened in Norway’s favour to deem Djed Spence had initiated contact inside the box.

Yet, Norway’s spirit was already crushed, epitomised by a slouched Haaland watching on from the bench with nothing more to give.

Tuchel said his side was “lucky” to emerge with the win.

“We made life very, very difficult for ourselves today. The result is fantastic. We are in the last four. It’s amazing but not happy with the performance,” he told ITV.

“The commitment is there, but we made life difficult for ourselves in the way we played – sloppy, a lot of technical mistakes, not fast enough, not repetitive enough. We were lucky today.

“It’s about the quality – we need to play better. We will get better [in the semifinal]. We need to.”

(Aljazeera)