Shafali Verma shines on her Test debut: Records broken
Young opener Shafali Verma was all guns blazing on Day 2 of the ongoing one-off Test between England Women and India Women. The top-ranked ICC T20I batter announced her arrival in Test cricket with a 96-run knock. Shafali, along with Smriti Mandhana added 167 runs for the opening wicket after the hosts declared on 396/9. Here are the records Shafali broke.
Shafali gave India a solid start in the first innings. The 17-year-old continued to hammer the English bowlers throughout. She raced to her maiden half-century in mere 83 balls. The youngster looked set to slam a century in her debut Test innings, however, Kate Cross got rid of her in the 49th over. Shafali finished on 96 off 152 balls (13 fours, 2 sixes).
Shafali became the ninth Indian to have struck a fifty on Test debut. Her current opening partner Smriti Mandhana was the last Indian women's cricketer to do so (vs England in 2014). Shafali is also the second Indian batter after Rahul Dravid to get dismissed in the 90s on Test debut. The latter scored 95 (267) against England in 1996.
By scoring 96, Shafali registered the highest individual score by an Indian on Test debut.
She broke the long-standing record of Chanderkanta Kaul, who slammed 75 against New Zealand in 1995.
The former could have been the youngest to score a hundred in Women's Test.
The record is presently held by Sri Lanka's Chamani Seneviratna (19y 154d).
As per Opta, Shafali (17 years and 139 days) is the third-youngest Indian player to feature in a women's Test match. Only Rajani Venugopal (15y 283d) and Shubhangi Kulkarni (17y 104d) made their debuts at a younger age than her.
The likes of Shafali and Smriti scored 167 runs between them. They now hold the record for India's highest opening partnership in Test cricket. The previous record of 132 runs was held by Anju Jain (59) and Chanderkanta (66) against England in 1999. This has also become India's highest opening partnership against England in the Test format.
💯 RUN ALLIANCE!
— Women's CricZone (@WomensCricZone) June 17, 2021
✅ 15th overall for the opening wicket in Tests
✅ 2nd for 🇮🇳 for opening wicket
✅ 7th overall for 🇮🇳 in Tests
✅ 4th for 1st wicket in Tests v 🏴
Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma going strong! 💪
IND 102/0 (29)#ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/S2DEBjc3VV
