The ball flew over the bowler's head. complete delivery. Straight bat. All intention. Four runs.
Katherine Brunt was hardly happy, but completely terrified. She has opened the bowling from the far end after tea at the Bristol County Ground - chasing a young woman from Kate Cross - and is marching towards her run-up. Shafali Verma, for her part, is far from doing what she does best with bat in hand.
Indian openers Verma and Smriti Mandhana had faced a possible opening burst from Brunt and fellow pacer Anya Shrubsole. From tea, within 23 overs, India scored 63 in England's 396 first dig hall. If the visiting team's innings were about to change gears, you could understand that this was the moment.
Not many people in women's cricket respect fast bowlers like Brunt. Few people have Verma's pluck in the game. On the experience spectrum, however, they occupy the opposite end. When Brunt made his England debut in 2004, Verma was not even seven months old. The only Test in Bristol is Brunt's 13th Test in this format. Verma, on the other hand, had played only 22 T20Is before this match.
Prior to Thursday, 17-year-old Verma had faced 35-year-old Brunt in just three balls in two T20Is (he scored only two runs but remained unbeaten). Brunt had bowled 13 balls to Verma before tea on the second day of the Test. Nine of them were points and nine were scored on the remaining.
Then came that four—after tea, at Brunt's head, driven upward, Reverie-snapping. Another came off the next ball, though this time a dab - no threat, all grace. Verma holds up, opens his three stumps, and late-cuts the ball over the lane to the third-man rope.
The cow corner was targeted for next. But Verma could not connect Akash. And the wicketkeeper could not collect the ball. Thus, for four byes, it flew behind the wickets.
The scoreboard was ticking. Brunt had stayed. And Verma's grin in Mandhana was barely the reaction the bowler was after. So he briefly banged the next one, pulling off a casual look. The power that was the trademark of Verma's game was not enough, but still, it went beyond the midwicket fielder. Safe, just about.
The face-to-face frivolity was far from being overcome.
More back-bending effort came from Brunt - another short ball, but it didn't sit much. She lost her leg at the time of release and fell on the pitch. Varma retreated, left it alone and looked at it alarmingly, thanks to some late movement, close to the top.
A typical Brunt over, whatever the format or opposition, is rarely vanilla. It makes for captivating viewing for its elemental cricket components and Brunt's heart. Her chants can also be counted among top seam-bowling performances, apologizing for the unparalleled charm of women's cricket that the uninitiated can offer.
Taking on multiple World Cup and Ashes winner Brunt, who has been capped more than 200 times in international cricket, is no child's play. For a Test debutant with no prior experience of red-ball cricket at any level, the poor English conditions at the time, could be considered even more audacious.
En route to 96, the highest individual score for an India female player on Test debut, Verma scored the most - 25 out of 24 - for Brunt's side facing five bowlers. He hit a total of 15 fours in his first Test innings of 152 balls, which included two sixes. She hit a boundary off left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone to reach her half-century in 83 balls - making Verma the youngest opener to score a half-century on her women's Test debut, surpassing Mandhana in her stroke. was one of the most powerful. The six that took him to 80 was an equally brilliant statement of intent.
In terms of impact, however, a boundary off Brunt in the 25th over of 14 runs remained unmatched. That boundary, and the overs in which it was going, showed knock-on effects of varying degrees. The costliest of the 60 overs bowled by England on the second day, the 25th over put India on the three-plus run-rate route for the remaining overs up to the stumps. That, in turn, helped push the match run rate to 3.21 by the end of the second day's play, the highest for a women's Test at that point, with quick scoring from England's Sofia Dunkley and Anya Shrubsole.
More critically, for India, Verma's pace-changing approach in the 25th over encouraged Mandhana to play with more sacrifice than just 28 off 72 balls. The difference was visible almost immediately. 12 in the 26th over off Ecclestone, Mandhana's three fours, a mix of pulls and a trademark back-foot punch cost England. His down-the-ground shots also garnered better timing, freebies along the way and even helped with some rubbing of the green.
As Mandhana's confidence grew, the pair fed each other with more ease. Their partnership increased to 167, the highest for India in Tests. It also improved their 143 stand against West Indies from a T20I in 2019, the previous highest partnership between them across all formats.
"We were only discussing about building partnerships and staying at the crease so that the team gets more support," Verma said about his on-pitch conversation with Mandhana after the day's play. "We just played our natural game, hit loose deliveries and backed each other up. It was all about staying at the crease," he said. "We always support each other and understand each other. She always supports and guides me a lot, it helps me a lot."
The nature of their dismissal also did not differ much. Left-handed Mandhana cut her innings short for 78 by cutting a net-swept offcutter. Not long ago, right-handed Verma, eyeing a big hit to reach his maiden international century, mistook the cross for Shrubsole for a brilliant take. Running at mid-off.
Verma later said of his innings, "When a batsman gets out in the 90s, it is natural for him to regret the missed opportunity." "I felt bad too. I think this innings will give me a lot of confidence. I will try to convert this 90 to 100 next time and keep contributing to the team," he said.