New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1 ><\/a><\/p>\nThe elegant Mandhana made 83, with captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma both contributing fifties as India made 285 against England on the opening day of four after losing the toss. <\/p>\n
India seemed on course for a first-innings total in excess of 300 while Mandhana (83) and captain Kaur (58) were sharing a fourth-wicket partnership of 89. <\/p>\n
But Mandhana\u2019s exit, with wicketkeeper holding a fine catch standing up to the stumps after the left-handed opener edged fast bowler Issy Wong, sparked something of a collapse from 190-3. <\/p>\n
Kaur was out to what became the last ball before tea when bowled by a superb off-break from England debutant Mady Villiers.<\/p>\n
India lost their last four wickets for 11 runs as left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone (3-68) polished off the tail.<\/p>\n
Sophie Ecclestone of England celebrates after dismissing Kranti Gaud during the 1st Women’s Rothesay Test Match between England and India at Lord’s Cricket Ground on July 10, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Philip Brown\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Before stumps, England opener Tammy Beaumont, who will retire from international duty after this match, was lbw to fast bowler Kranti Gaud\u2019s inswinger for just two. <\/p>\n
England were 21-1 at the close.<\/p>\n
After 142 years \u2014 and 150 matches \u2014 of men\u2019s Test cricket at Lord\u2019s, this fixture represents another landmark in the evolution of the women\u2019s game. <\/p>\n
This Test is taking place 50 years after the first major women\u2019s match at the London ground, a one-day international between England and Australia. <\/p>\n
Members of the England team that day gathered on the outfield Friday to ring the five-minute bell signalling the start of play. <\/p>\n
In contrast to their 1976 predecessors, England were playing their second match at Lord\u2019s in under a week following theirdefeat by arch rivals Australia in Sunday\u2019s T20 World Cup final \u2014 with India knocked out of the tournament by the eventualchampions in a group-stage game at the \u2018Home of Cricket\u2019. <\/p>\n
Fifty years ago, women were not allowed to walk through the Long Room and still decades away from becoming members of Marylebone Cricket Club, the owners of Lord\u2019s. <\/p>\n
On Friday the teams were cheered to the echo as they made their way through the centrepiece of the pavilion before takingthe field for the pre-match anthems. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is an amazing feeling to play a Test match here,\u201d Sharma told reporters after stumps. \u201cWomen\u2019s cricket has grown a lotin the last four to five years.\u201d <\/p>\n
In a feat women cricketers of the amateur era could scarcely have envisaged, Friday\u2019s matchmeant Mandhana became the youngest women to feature in 300 international games across all formats at the age of 29 years and 357 days. <\/p>\n
India’s players celebrate as England’s Tammy Beaumont is trapped LBW (leg before wicket) by a ball from India’s Kranti Gaud on the first day of the first Women’s cricket Test match between England and India at Lord’s cricket ground in London, on July 10, 2026. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS \/ AFP) \/ RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. NO ASSOCIATION WITH DIRECT COMPETITOR OF SPONSOR, PARTNER, OR SUPPLIER OF THE ECBSource: AFP<\/p>\n
After England won the toss, Shafali Verma fell for a duck, caught by a diving Jones off Lauren Filer.<\/p>\n
Mandhana cover-drove Lauren Bell for several fours and later slog-swept Ecclestone for six during a run-a-ball fifty.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think she batted really well,\u201d said Sharma of Mandhana. <\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes a few players got out early and someone has to take that responsibility. I think she showed her character today.\u201d <\/p>\n
Wong, who took 2-41 in 12 overs, said England had had a decentday too. \u201cWhen you win the toss and bowl, getting yourself into a position where you bowl the opposition out before the end of play is a really good effort,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Kaur \u2014 in just the eighth Test of her long career \u2013 carved Bell through point for four and swept Villiers for another boundary.<\/p>\n
In the build-up, the 37-year-old India great said a women\u2019s Test at Lord\u2019s was \u201clate but not too late\u201d and Kaur marked the occasion with a well-made fifty off 99 balls including six fours. <\/p>\n
When Ecclestone struck for the first time to have Sayali Satghare lbw, that passed the previous England record of 335 multi-formatinternational wickets set by retired fast bowler Katherine Sciver-Brunt \u2014 the wife of current England skipper Nat Sciver-Brunt. <\/p>\n
Only the India duo of Sharma (357 wickets) and Jhulan Goswami (355) are ahead of Ecclestone in the all-time list<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"India opener Smriti Mandhana fell agonisingly short of becoming the first woman to score a Test century at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-792427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}