England’s batter Heather Knight
| Photo Credit: PTI
England captain Heather Knight on Saturday conceded India showed them how to play in testing circumstances after Harmanpreet Kaur’s facet notched up the biggest-ever win by runs in ladies’s Test cricket.
Despite taking part in on dwelling soil after 9 years, India crushed England by 347 runs inside three days throughout their one-off Test right here on the DY Patil Stadium.
On the third day, England misplaced all 10 wickets in a barely prolonged first session as off-spinner Deepti Sharma and pacer Pooja Vastrakar shared seven wickets amongst them.
“It probably deteriorated a little bit faster than probably we expected. I think it was a reasonably good (pitch) in the first innings to bat on,” Knight advised the media right here after the conclusion of the sport.
“Today (Saturday) they bowled outstandingly. They showed exactly how to play in these conditions, as you would expect.
“They just managed to get a little bit of nibble. It was the seam movement this morning when you hit a good area (and) that made it quite tough. That accounted for obviously a few wickets in our top-order,” Knight added.
Knight praised India seamer Vastrakar (3/23) for rattling England whereas taking the wickets of Sophie Dunkley and Nat Sciver-Brunt on successive deliveries.
“I thought PJ (Pooja Vastrakar) in particular was outstanding…the late seam that she got off the wicket,” Knight mentioned.
“(A) good lesson to our bowlers about how to bowl in these conditions. Obviously, with the spin, it was quite extreme,” she mentioned.
The England skipper didn’t overlook to point out India’s strategy with the bat on the primary day, whereby they scored 410/7 at round 4.5 runs an over.
“We learned a lot from how India played in their first innings — how they found that right level between attack and and defence and trying to put pressure back on the bowlers,” Knight mentioned.
“We learned a lot from that (and) tried to take it into today a little bit, but (the way) India bowled. They had an outstanding day and really suited these conditions in how they executed their plans,” she mentioned.
Knight mentioned it was ‘soul-destroying’ for England pacers as there was not sufficient keep it up the pitch.
“There were a few nicks that did not carry, which can be quite soul-destroying for some of those fast bowlers when your best ball does not carry to the slips,” Knight mentioned.
“We identified that the wobble ball was really effective and were trying to get as much out of that as we could.” Knight said playing Test cricket in India can expose a cricketer to shortcomings.
“Very, very extreme conditions for us. Something that India does (to you) as a cricketer.
“When you do face these extreme conditions, it really challenges you and exposes areas in your game that you need to be better and different skill sets that you need to have in different conditions,” she mentioned.
