(MENAFN- AsiaNet News) Head coach Amol Muzumdar of the India women's team likened Deepti Sharma to the "Ben Stokes of the team" following her remarkable performance in the one-off Test against England. Deepti's all-round contribution, with a match haul of nine wickets and notable knocks of 67 and 20, played a pivotal role in India's historic 347-run win at DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Saturday. The victory margin set a record as the highest in terms of runs in women's Test history. Additionally, Deepti joined Shubhangi Kulkarni as the second Indian woman to achieve the feat of picking up five wickets and scoring a fifty in the same Test match.
"You are talking about Stokesy - I jokingly call her as the Ben Stokes of the team," Muzumdar told WV Raman, himself a former coach of the team, on the official broadcast after the win. "She is fantastic. The confidence she has shown in her batting and the confidence she has gained in these two innings - nine wickets in the Test match and a fifty!"
"She is an important cog in the wheel when she comes [to bat in the] lower order, bowls crucial overs, and gets wickets," he added.
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India recorded a total of 428, with a substantial 410 runs amassed on the first day of their first innings, maintaining a batting rate exceeding four runs per over. Even in the second innings, despite losing six wickets at a score of 186, the run rate remained around four and a half runs per over.
"No Test match is easy. But the efforts the girls put in before the Test match - the players who came in five-six days before, we had a nice solid group that was working at the Wankhede Stadium," Muzumdar said.
"The preparation was nice, and it resulted in a Test match win. We had thought about playing in a certain fashion as a team and we will continue to do that. It was not planned as a 400-run day. But we had to be positive. Glad that the team responded. And resulted in a good first day," he added.
India secured the victory before lunch on the third day, a accomplishment that Amol Muzumdar believes will provide them with a solid foundation for the upcoming Test against Australia next week.
"Good signs for Indian cricket," he said. "All of them who made their debut [Jemimah Rodrigues, Shubha Satheesh and Renuka Thakur] batted and bowled well. England is a top side but at the same time, these youngsters got a taste of what Test cricket is about."
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