IND-W vs ENG-W: "Conditions Were Extreme" - Heather Knight After Heavy Defeat In One-Off Test

England women captain Heather Knight opened up about the thrashing loss her side suffered against India at the DY Patil Stadium. She touted ‘extreme conditions’ as reason behind the team’s defeat.

India Women were all over England in the one-off Test. The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side thumped the opposition by a massive margin of 347 runs as they displayed a staggering effort with both bat as well as the ball.

Opting to bat first, India Women on account of crucial contributions from Shubha Satheesh (69), Jemimah Rodrigues (68), Harmanpreet Kaur (49), Deepti Sharma (67), and Yastika Bhatia (66) posted a gigantic first innings total of 428 runs on the board.

However, after that Deepti Sharma spun the web around the English batters and took a five-wicket haul. Her valiant with the ball helped India bundle out England’s women for just 136 runs. The Harmanpreet Kaur-led then extended their lead and declared their innings on 186 runs.

Indian spinners were yet again over the batters as they castled them for 131 runs to win the match by 347 runs. Deepti Sharma was yet again a star with the ball as she picked 4 wickets and claimed Player of the Match for her exceptional performance.

England skipper Heather Knight was not at all convinced by the conditions and said that she never saw this much turn. Speaking about the conditions, she explained:

“These conditions were really extreme; we have never seen that sort of spin before, that sort of dryness in the pitch. In the main formats we play – T20 and 50 overs – we are not going to get as much [turn] as that.

“Previously our issues against spin have been more [around] the ball not spinning. You’d look at the wickets Ash Gardner took in the Ashes, there weren’t many that spun. My dismissal that spun but a lot was outside edge and balls that didn’t spin.”

IND-W vs ENG-W: I’d be surprised if we face those conditions again – Heather Knight

Heather Knight said that she would be surprised if they would see such conditions again. She hoped that they would not have these circumstances in the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh.

England women’s captain also mentioned that the pitch deteriorated after the first innings. She explained:

“These conditions were extreme, and I’d be surprised if we face those again unless we play another Test in India in the near future, which I am not sure is in the plan. We want to get better in conditions we might face in Bangladesh. Spin does dominate in the women’s game, and if we can improve that it will give us a big advantage.

“[The pitch] probably deteriorated a bit faster than we expected. [It was] reasonably good in the first innings to bat on. The spin was quite extreme. We bowled pretty well on the first day with two wickets. A few nicks that did not carry, that can be soul-destroying for some of those fast bowlers when your best ball doesn’t carry to slips.”

England women will be leaving India high on confidence. Apart from the Test that they lost, they won the three-game T20I series by 2-1, which was ideal preparation for the T20 World Cup.