England vs India: India's Test Match domination continues as England struggle

0:01Yeah, gone! Gone! He gets his fairytale ending! An epic way to go to a Test Match 100. The London Spirit of First Time win is the most remarkable thing you'll probably ever see in cricket. 604 and final Test Wicket that's due at all. It's ended when the T20 World Cup. England's captain Ben Stokes, while he is there, England have hope. Hello and welcome. It's review time, day three of the women's test between India and England at Lourdes. It has been a day completely and utterly dominated by India and one or two events off the field as well. I'm in the company of Mel Jones and Tash Farrant. Ladies, it has been a sensational day.

0:48If you happen to be supporting India, not so much England. Yeah, no, India, they've been well on top throughout the whole test match, haven't they? They've just done things better for longer than England. I feel that they had a good test record, actually, leading into this game. They were unbeaten nine in a row before that loss to Australia in March of this year. So, you know, for some reason, they're really good at playing test cricket. They don't play a lot of it. But when they do get the opportunity to play test match cricket, they seem to take that opportunity. And yeah, England just haven't been anywhere in the game for me.

1:22There's a simplicity about the game too, isn't it? You start to wonder why that's the case. And I think they just go back to the heart of what cricket's about sort of thing. So simple in defence, get the ball into good areas, repeat over and over again. They certainly have repeated it, particularly when it comes to the bowlers. But let's start off with the batting. Indy were 269 ahead at the start of day three. Smitty Mandana at the crease. And everybody's thinking Smitty's going to get herself up on the board. Pencil it in. Yeah, pencil it in. but sadly for her she fell to Lauren Bell for 70.

2:00In fact, there was a moment at the start of the day which perhaps should have given us an indication as to how the day was going to go. Lauren Bell bowling to Yastika Batia. First ball, pitched absolutely perfectly, nipped back from outside off stump, clipped the outside of off stump and the bales remained on and things went from bad to worse from there pretty much. I mean, we've seen that so often, don't we? It happens perhaps more in the white ball game where they have the zing bales and they're slightly heavier. But there didn't seem to be any such reason for that today. And it gave it a proper clonk, didn't it?

2:33Yeah, it did. I mean, I couldn't believe it, to be honest. But yeah, you're right. I think actually we probably should have realised at that moment that it probably wasn't going to be England's day for sure. No. And after that, Yastika Batia took over the mantle from Smriti Mandana. She was eventually dismissed by Lauren Bell for 70. And perhaps it wasn't the elegant left-hander that we expected to get up on the honours board. But Yastika is some player. And after the ACL injuries and all the other stuff that she's had to contend with, it was some performance. We throw around this word quite a bit in cricket, don't we, in terms of resilience.

3:11But she is one that has gone through some trials and tribulations. Been in and out of the Indian side because of the injury. Has also been sort of the second string wicketkeeper at times to Richie Goshi. Gets that opportunity in test match cricket. They like her behind the stumps. So she's batted at three as well as wicket-kept. So the first player, wicket-keeper to bat at three and score 100 here at Lourdes and in Test Match Cricket for the women's game as well. So she was put through the ringer quite a bit. But I thought, you're right, probably not as elegant and as classy as a Smitty Mundiner, but you don't need to be.

3:41Although pretty darn close. But pretty, you're getting there. But you also don't need to be. And that's one of the beauties of cricket, isn't it? You've got your own style and she backed that. and she came in and out of breaks, in and out of injuries and the like and just kept resetting and I think that was probably the most impressive part. Actually in the T20s that we did at the start of the summer book, a couple of times she got going in the power play, didn't she? And then she just almost wanted to sort of knock it around so I think we probably should have known that actually this is going to be her format.

4:10So she batted beautifully and I'm not sure when that sort of honours board would sort of be pinging in her mind but when she got that 100, that was a beautiful moment. Not the 90s because she went 4-4 and raced away to 99. There was no nervousness about it all and then just went, well, I'll take that single there. Thank you very much. Yeah. England's tactics over the course of the morning. I mean, listen, 249 behind, only one wicket to the good for them. The game was almost done before we started for England, if we're being honest. How do you think they went about it in the field in terms of their tactics and their fields and the way that they bowled generally?

4:46Yeah, I just felt it almost looked like they weren't backing themselves as bowlers enough and sort of realising the situation that they had to get quick wickets, early wickets and wickets throughout the day. So yeah, Sophie Eckerton starting with that sort of deep point and two out on the boundary on the leg side. Sophie Eckerton is the best spinner in the world. She actually came out with a fifa today. So I just felt maybe at the beginning, I felt quite flat actually on our first stint of commentary because you felt that after that first ball that did clip the stump and the bells didn't come off, you just felt all the air was sucked out of the arena because of the feels that they had.

5:23England haven't bowled very well, so it's not like they deserve to have really attacking feels. But I just felt for Sophie Eccleston in particular, could she have been a little bit more aggressive, just had a little bit more swagger about her and say, look, I am the best spinner in the world and I'm going to try and apply some pressure. So I think maybe there they could have been a little bit more attacking. It almost felt like they were nervous about having to bat and save a test match for too long. So it was like they were in that defensive – Yeah, draw it out. So the longer that they could draw it out, the less time they'd have to bat.

5:55But that also then says if you're really thinking you're going to lose the match and you're playing for a draw, how best do you want to be remembered in this test match? And it's going to potentially peter out and people won't – will just sort of remember India were great. but you would sort of want to leave a test match going. England gave it absolutely everything. We gave it a crack, yeah. Well, Rishi Ghosh gave it a bit of a crack. She made 50 not out at the back end of the innings to go along with Yastik as 100. And in the end, India drew their innings to a close. 341 for seven declared. And what was required from England was to come out and battle, battle extremely hard.

6:35Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Tammy Beaumont playing her very last innings in international cricket, knocked over for a golden duck. The Indian fielders scrambled to give her a guard of honour on the way off, but that really wasn't the way that she wanted to go out. Oh, yeah, you know, it was gutting, wasn't it? But it was nice that the Indian players did remember to, you know, make sure they gave her a send off. Look, she's not had the test match that she would have hoped and wanted for. But, yeah, it doesn't take anything away from Tammy's career. I guess going out to one that's sort of knit back might just be, you know, it's the area that she has battled with her whole career.

7:10So, yeah, no, it was pretty, it was up, you know, it's a shame that she wasn't able to sort of battle out because she has done that over the years, hasn't she? She's managed to grind things out when England have been in tricky situations. But, yeah, unfortunately, I'm not quite sure what would be going on in her mind right now. It's probably quite a difficult situation. You sort of, you know, you get a nice sort of ovation as you're walking off the pitch, but you know that you haven't quite done what you wanted to do in this test match. But yeah, no, what a brilliant career from Tammy. Yeah, and Heather also, she was knocked over.

7:39Cranty Gowd was the one who knocked over Tammy Beaumont, very first ball. And then Heather Knight was also picked up by Cranty for 13. So two great warriors of sort of English cricket, of international women's cricket that have seen the change from sort of virtual amateurism to this professional era that we find ourselves in now. Any words for the pair of them, Mel? Oh, look, lots. I think first and foremost, I've mentioned it on air, Cranta Gowd obviously didn't get the invitation to be part of the fairy tale finish for those two, did she? Because she said, uh-uh, I'm writing my own script here.

8:11I'm on the honours board now. I'm going to keep picking up impressive holes. Look, for both of them, careers have reasonably been about the same length of time, as you mentioned, from amateur to semi-professional to professional. And they've been real fighters on and off the pitch as well. There have been so many innings for both of them in which you sit there and you go, that is what inspires the next generation of players to be coming out there. But they're also then inspiring from the way, I mean, particularly Heather Knight with the way in which she works for the PCA and the likes and all the work she's done there to make the game.

8:44So often we say this, isn't it? You want to leave the game in a better state than when you first came in. I think for both of those players, they've both been so proactive in the development of players in their teams. I'd hazard a guess that Heather Knight's probably captained about 100 players over a time as well. And I think they'll both be sitting on the balcony at the moment devastated that they couldn't contribute to a test win. There's no test win for them as well. But they'll be so super proud of what they've been able to provide the players and cricket here in England. So Heather Knight, I suppose the biggest moment would be captaining England to that World Cup win in 2017.

9:21But she was also the first English player, male or female, to score hundreds in all three formats. Tammy Bowman has a test match double hundred, of course, and was the first woman to score 100 in the 100. So magic moments for them both. And that is the last time, Sally, that we will see them both in England colours. Test matches is very much drawing towards a close here on day three. England now six down. Maddie Villiers provided a little bit of defiance, I suppose, along with Amy Jones, who's just brought up her second 50 in the match. England 127 for six as we speak. it really has been incredibly one-sided hasn't it and which is not to say that there shouldn't be more test test match cricket for women on the contrary it you know given the crowds that we've seen the way that people have come in and enjoyed it there's certainly an appetite for more women's test match cricket yeah no for sure and I think most importantly from from the players they would love to play more and I think it is a really hard sort of situation to get your head around when you're sort of only playing one a year and you can't get into any sort of rhythm of playing the longer format of the game.

10:31For me, it's actually trying to, you know, what are we going to do on a domestic level? Because I think it is really hard for players to actually just rock up when you're sort of going from format to format. They just played what? They turned up here. They played a T20 World Cup final four days before. So it's actually the bigger question for me is actually, are we really going to invest in getting our younger players to play a bit more sort of two and three day cricket I guess the schedule is still pretty busy but yeah that would be the one question for me can we try and do that because I don't know if you're going to get sort of that uplift in test match value unless you have the players coming through who have had a little bit more of a feel for it in domestic level.

11:13And Lauren Bell's off the field at the moment with the side strain and you start to think if it's a one-off test every now and again, how do you actually prepare, particularly the quicks for these moments and keep them on the park? There's the 100 around the corner. If this was, you know, internationals post this, that would be quite devastating for Lauren Bell and for England cricket because you come off that T20, you've only had the four days, make that three days because they're probably getting over the loss and all those sorts of things. So preparation, not ideal to then come in and expect your premier fast bowler to come charging in.

11:47over after over, session after session. I mean, I love the multi-format thing that we do in the Ashes. I think we actually probably had an opportunity to play India in a test match last summer when they came over for T20s and 50 overs. Actually, that could have been made into sort of the Ashes-type scoring system. So I think that's probably, if there are going to be more sort of multi-format series like we have in the Ashes, which I think is perfect, then that actually does create a bit of an opportunity, right? These are the test matches. You know, if we're going to play these multi-formats, and we need to have players that have had a bit of experience at a younger level and also domestically.

12:22So, you know, if that was to be able to go forward, then I think that would create the appetite slightly below international level. OK, there was one other piece of news today. Was it? The men obviously, you know, seeing that the spotlight was very much on the women's game over the course of the last three days, had to get their little bit in. So the news broke around about two o 'clock this afternoon that Brendan McCullum had been stood down, I think was the language used as England test match coach. She's going to continue on as the white ball coach. Any thoughts on that? We felt, didn't we, after the Ben Stokes retirement a couple of weeks back, that there was more to come in one way or another.

13:05We weren't exactly sure what that might look like, but now we have a better idea. Yeah, yeah, we do. It's a hard one to try and sort of surmise very quickly because I think there's been a lot of positivity about his original appointment as the Test coach and that combination of he and Ben Stokes for a lot of time I think gave a lot of happiness and excitement for people and fans of Test match cricket here in England. They didn't get a few things right at the back end and things sort of slipped away quite quickly from the grasp of what they wanted to do to what was actually transpiring and Richard Gould said it himself, it was purely based on results.

13:44So when you don't make a World Test Championship final again, which has been hosted here at Lord's for the last couple of iterations, when you're losing ashes so badly, you lose against New Zealand at home, it felt as if something was always going to come along that way. It was disappointing it happened in the middle of this Test match. I understand that there's other things at play and there's timelines of things, but I would have probably liked to have heard them say to begin with, it is unfortunate to take away from the women's Test match. We would have liked to have done it at a different time, but there are other things at play to acknowledge the fact that that has transpired that way.

14:19And now probably all eyes now on who he's going to replace, who's going to replace him. Yeah, any thoughts, Tash? Yeah, I think when you lose a coach, that's a big deal. When you lose your captain and your coach in the space of a couple of weeks and that has some big shoes to fill. I guess my thoughts on the back of that is actually, I don't think we've mentioned it enough. Claire Connor's going to be leaving her role, Beth Barrett-Wild in the women's game is going to be leaving hers and also Jonathan Finch. So also actually from a hierarchy point of view in the women's side of things, there's going to be a lot of changes there.

14:49So I think there's a lot of changes in general for the ECB. So they're going to have to make a lot of decisions over the next month or so. So yeah, it's not just the big changes in the men's game that we're going to see. We're also going to have to replace some really important people higher up on the women's side of things as well. Okay, well, the times they are changing, as somebody once said. So we're drawn to a close here on day three. England 130 for six. India need four wickets to wrap up this test match and they will thoroughly deserve to do so at some point tomorrow. For now, I suppose all that's left is to congratulate Yastikha Bhatia for becoming the second woman to get her name up on the honours board in the visitors' dressing room.

15:32And for Sophie Eccleston, who picked up her fourth five-wicket haul in test matches, whose name is now up there, immortalised in the home dressing room. We'll see you tomorrow. Not sure what sort of time, probably a little earlier than today, I would think. India need four wickets.