The Briefing: India triumph in historic Lord’s Test as England bid farewell to Beaumont and Knight

History was made at Lord’s, and it was India who rose to the occasion.

The first women’s Test match at the ‘home of cricket’ — the 153rd to be played in the women’s game — ended as a one-sided affair as the tourists thrashed their hosts, completing an emphatic victory on the fourth day by 270 runs. Two of their number, player of the match Kranti Gaud and Yastika Bhatia, added their names to the honours’ board.

As a collective, India put in a stunning performance.

England, beaten at this venue by Australia in the T20 World Cup just a few days before the start of the match, bid farewell to two stalwarts of the game in Tammy Beaumont and Heather Knight. Despite positive contributions from Sophie Ecclestone, who took eight wickets and scored her first Test 50, and Amy Jones, who scored a pair of half-centuries, this was a chastening defeat.

Paul Newman dissects the key talking points from a groundbreaking occasion.

A long time coming

When Rachael Heyhoe Flint led out the England team for their first ever one-day international at Lord’s in 1976 — in skirts rather than trousers — they had to walk round the back of the pavilion and onto the hallowed turf because women, then, were not allowed in the Long Room.

It is extraordinary to think that was only 50 years ago, and it was only 27 years ago that women were finally allowed to be members of the Marylebone Cricket Club and set foot in that fabled Long Room. Before then only the Queen and, with more than a touch of casual sexism, “cooks and cleaners” were permitted.

That was a finding of the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket, which said in 2023 that it was “quite appalling” no women’s Tests had been held at Lord’s and said the home of cricket was still principally a home for men.

But this week was Lord’s showing its more feminine side.

The first women’s Test at Lord’s was a very long time coming but it is a very different, forward-thinking MCC these days. The most famous and traditionally stuffy club in cricket put on a great show as India gatecrashed the party by dominating over four days.

The best of the Test, for England at least, came off the pitch on the first day. A parade of more than 50 former England women players, including six surviving members of the 1976 side, was warmly greeted in the Long Room, where once they would not even have been allowed, and then the group rang the five-minute bell en masse on the outfield.

Before then, a pavilion full of families, with the MCC relaxing its rather old-fashioned dress code — usually strictly jacket and tie for men — had seen the unveiling of portraits of leading figures in women’s cricket from bygone eras in Enid Bakewell, Mary Duggan, Jan Brittin and Myrtle Maclagan as well as a group painting of the England team that won the 1993 women’s World Cup at Lord’s.

“The women’s game has celebrated some incredible firsts in recent years but the first Test at Lord’s has to be the best of them all,” Clare Connor, who has seen it all as England player, captain and administrator, and now as the outgoing managing director of England women, told The Athletic.

“Lord’s is simply a dream for all cricketers and both teams are immensely proud of writing themselves into the history books. MCC has done an outstanding job of making it an occasion befitting of what it represents.

“This is the last big ‘first’ for our sport and that is extremely satisfying. It has been a really special few days.”

Firsts and farewells

It may have been a first Test at Lord’s, but it was the last international game for two leading members of the England side.

Beaumont announced this would be her 261st and final game for England, bringing to a close a 17-year career during which she was player of the tournament in the 2017 World Cup triumph.

“When I fell in love with playing cricket as a young girl I barely knew playing for England was an option,” Beaumont told reporters. “So playing for England for 17 years has been the greatest honour. The game has come a very long way in that time.”

Then, and perhaps more unexpectedly, Heather Knight, who captained England to that famous World Cup win at Lord’s nine years ago, ‘did a Ben Stokes’ and announced her retirement mid-match. She has also played her last game for England after 320 appearances.

“It’s hard to walk away because the dressing room and the people in it have been a constant in my life for 16 years,” said Knight, who is already moving into administration and will be general manager of the London Spirit women’s side in this year’s The Hundred.

“I’ve been lucky to play with some amazing cricketers and some amazing people who have supported and inspired me throughout my career.”

There was to be no fairy-tale farewell for either. Beaumont fell for two in the first innings and was then bowled first ball by Gaud before leaving to an Indian guard of honour. Knight, too, was to bow out modestly, falling for six and then, also to Gaud, for 13 and left to a guard of honour of her own.

It was just a huge shame that another big announcement of more turmoil for the England men’s team, the sacking of coach Brendon McCullum, should come on the same day and completely overshadow the pair’s final innings, just as the controversy over Stokes overshadowed the start of the women’s T20 World Cup.

Complete Indian domination

The biggest problem England had was that this Test followed just four days after they lost the T20 World Cup final, also at Lord’s, giving them barely any time to prepare for a rare red-ball game, nor a moment “to grieve” after their defeat against Australia, as Katherine Sciver-Brunt, the former England fast bowler, put it on the BBC’s Test Match Special.

The Test started well enough for England, with captain Nat Sciver-Brunt winning the toss and Lauren Filer taking the first wicket in a women’s Test at Lord’s. Then Ecclestone overtook Katherine Sciver-Brunt to become the leading wicket-taker in English women’s cricket history. “It’s mint,” said Ecclestone. “Katherine was one of my heroes when I was young so it’s great to go past her.”

Then India, who had been under-represented in all the pre-Test pageantry, took control.

Smriti Mandhana, one of the game’s best and most elegant batters, fell just 17 runs short of becoming the first women’s Test centurion at Lord’s as India reached 285.

Then Gaud, a 22-year-old seam bowler from Madhya Pradesh, became the first woman to have her name immortalised on the Lord’s honours boards, which record every haul of five wickets in an innings or 10 in a match and every century in Tests on the ground.

Gaud took 5-37 as England collapsed to 170 all out with only Amy Jones reaching 50. After Mandhana added another authoritative half-century, Bhatia then joined Gaud on the honours board with the first women’s century as India confirmed their superiority by amassing 341-7 and setting England a huge 455 to win.

They did not even come close, being bowled out for 186 to give India, who had a run of nine unbeaten Tests before their defeat against Australia in March, a comprehensive victory by 270 runs.

So did Lord’s pass the Test?

Test cricket is rare in the women’s game and, as recently as 2022, the then chair of the ICC, the world governing body, Greg Barclay, said he did not see women’s Tests “being any part of the landscape moving forward”.

That is a huge shame and should be resisted because it remains the best form of the game, is popular with players and attracted more than 35,000 to Lord’s over the four days.

The second day, in particular, was well supported with a crowd of 15,243, a world record for a day of women’s Test cricket, coming through the gates. Far from deriding it the ICC should bring more women’s Test cricket into an already crowded calendar.

What did they say?

Harmanpreet Kaur, India’s victorious captain, told the post-match presentation: “God is a better writer and He has written it pretty well. These (Test) results are down to the effort. The support staff, they have played a lot of Test cricket and they know how it moves, and they are giving us feedback every moment. I want to give credit to the support staff.”

On centurion Bhatia, she added: “That is why we put her in the 11. I’m really happy with the way she batted. The way our entire team fielded, too, it was special to watch. As a team, we have been working very hard (on fielding). But everyone came together and did the job for the team. Playing at Lord’s is always special. Hopefully we will get more here.”

Player-of-the-match Kranti Gaud, speaking to BCCI.tv, said: “I sat looking at the honours’ board in our dressing room for five minutes on Saturday morning wondering if I could have my name written up there. Then I went down to field. And when I took that fifth wicket, the sense of achievement and the feeling of picking up a five-for was next level.

“I called my elder brother first. He’s happy. The whole family is happy. People are proud of me in my village. Where I come from, the support I’ve received, it means a lot. When my family found out a Test is happening here, they knew whoever takes a five-for, their name will be printed on the board. He (her brother) asked me: ‘Will you have your name written there?’. I said, ‘Yes, bhaiya.’ I’m excited and proud to be the first woman to have her name up there.”

England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt, talking at the post-match presentation, on the performance: “The first morning, we didn’t adapt to the conditions as well as we could have. We struggled to find our length. Then, with the bat, we didn’t have enough partnerships together to get close to their total.

“We showed character at different times in the match, with some huge spells from Lauren Bell, Sophie Ecclestone and Issy Wong. But it was a great experience as a first Test match at Lord’s.”

Asked whether the lack of preparation time for the Test was a factor, she said: “Of course, we would have liked a couple more days between that final, but that’s the scheduling landscape. There’s a lot of cricket to be played in the calendar. As cricketers, we have to be ready for that. It’s what we’ve signed up for as England cricketers.

“I have really enjoyed it. I loved walking through the Long Room and feeling the excitement from everyone there. It’s obviously also a very special Test match because it’s Heather and Tammy’s last game as well. They have been a huge part of my career; it’ll be a bit weird without them around. Heather saw us through the whole professionalisation of the game, taking us to where we are now.

“I’m in a hugely privileged position to be trying to take the team forward even further. They’ve both been such a huge part of our team. They have so much to be proud of.”

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