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One-off Test: India Women reach 63/0 at tea; trail England by 333 runs

England Women declared their first innings at 396/9

India's Shafali Verma ducks a bouncer off the bowling of England's Anya Shrubsole during the one-off Test match in Bristol | Reuters

India Women started their first innings on a solid note, reaching 63/0 at tea, after England declared their first innings at 396/9, in the one-off Test in Bristol.

Smriti Mandhana (27*) and Shafali Verma (35*) negated the new-ball threat quite easily.

Earlier, the English lower order frustrated the Indians, adding 127 runs to their overnight score of 269/6. Though the hosts lost Katherine Brunt (8) and Sophie Ecclestone (17) in the morning session, Sophia Dunkley continued to frustrate the visitors, remaining unbeaten on 74.

Dunkley and Anya Shrubsole (47) shared valuable 70 runs for the ninth wicket.

Debutant off-spinner Sneh Rana was the pick of the bowlers for India with figures of 4/131, while Deepti Sharma (3/65) too impressed with the ball.

England lost overnight batter Brunt, who was trapped by veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami, off the 12th ball of the day.

With that wicket, at 38 years and 204 days, Goswami became the oldest India player to get a Test wicket since Sachin Tendulkar in his penultimate Test. She also became the oldest India pacer to get a Test wicket since Lala Amarnath in 1952.