England 21 for 1 (Bouchier 17*) trail India 285 (Mandhana 83, Harmanpreet 58, Sharma 57) by 264 runs
On Friday at Lord's, they were standing on the shoulders of giants.
In the broader scheme of progress, there have arguably been bigger occasions for the women's game - not least, the one that took place at this same venue only five days earlier. None, however, have come loaded with quite this much portent. After a lag of 142 years, dating back to 1884 when Lord's hosted England and Australia for the first of what is now 150 men's Tests and counting, the women are finally off the mark at the self-styled home of cricket.
On a day of historic firsts, England's Lauren Bell duly bowled the first delivery in a women's Test at Lord's, before Lauren Filer claimed the first wicket. And, for a time during the afternoon session, while India's third-wicket partnership was bedding into its surroundings and recalibrating to the demands of a rarely-accessed format, it seemed inevitable that Smriti Mandhana would land the most coveted first of all - a place on the dressing-room honours boards, designated as of this morning as unisex, no matter what the weight of precedent might suggest.
And yet, on this day of all days, it somehow felt apt that the wait was made to go on a little while longer. If, as is customary, the opening session of a Test can often be given to the bowlers, then this opening day was handed over to the mighty names of the past, whose endeavours have paved the way for the 22 names who made this final cut of history.
Prior to the start of play, more than 50 former England players made the journey through the Long Room and down the pavilion steps, to line up on the outfield for the national anthems. Among their number was the indomitable Enid Bakewell, 85 years young and sporting a bruise on her shin from wicketkeeping duties in a recreational game only last week. To her fell the honour of ringing the five-minute bell, surrounded by her fellow veterans from England's maiden ODI on this ground, against Australia in August 1976, almost exactly 50 years ago.
As legend has it, Bakewell's captain on that day, Rachel Heyhoe-Flint, chose to lead her team onto the field via the Committee Room side-door, so as not to offend the sensibilities of those MCC members whose seminal vote to admit women to their club would have to wait for a further 18 years.
Heyhoe-Flint could scarcely have imagined, back then, that her official portrait would preside over such an occasion from the Long Room wall, or that Bakewell herself would unveil her own painting on the morning of the match - one of six new additions to the MCC's collection, which at a stroke trebled the female inventory of one of the most famous private art galleries in the world.
Those other names included Mary Duggan, to this day the leading wicket-taker in women's Tests, with 77 at 13.49, though who in all honesty would have held this fact in their fingertips? Likewise, Myrtle Maclagan, the first woman to take a Test wicket, at Brisbane in 1934, and the first to three figures too, and Janette Brittin - arguably more familiar for her role in the 1993 World Cup triumph, which was separately celebrated in a larger work of art - though less of a household name than her record deserved.
It was against such a wealth of context that Nat Sciver-Brunt won the toss and chose to bowl first. It was a sweltering day, and there was perhaps a misleading tinge of green in the surface. But, with the match coming just five days after England's heartbreak in the T20 World Cup final, Sciver-Brunt could have been forgiven if there was a defensive reflex in her decision-making.
This was England's chance to walk through the Long Room as a collective in their whites, and settle into the occasion together. And they did so with admirable verve. Filer's first wicket of the contest was a collector's item, fit to grace any one of those 150 men's Tests - 72mph, nipping back up the slope, and kissing the shoulder of Shafali Verma's bat for Amy Jones to gather well to her right.
It was the first of a succession of outstanding individual moments from England's bowlers. Bell's inswinging, away-seaming delivery to Yastika Bhatia was another moment to savour, as was Mady Villiers' debut dismissal of India's captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, for 58 on the stroke of tea. Tossed up on a good length outside off, dipping and gripping through the gate to peg back middle stump. It had shades of another memorable Anglo-Indian moment from nearly a quarter-of-a-century ago - Michael Vaughan's stunning offbreak to Sachin Tendulkar at Trent Bridge - and at 202 for 5, it was sufficient to ensure at least a share of the spoils of the first two sessions.
The difficulties for England came in between whiles, though it was by no means an isolated problem. As the soon-to-be-retired Tammy Beaumont had pointed out in the lead-up to this match, the crazy expectation of this shoe-horned Great Exhibition was for both sides to forget the drills that had driven them throughout the recent T20 World Cup, and turn on a dime to a format that they tend to play once every 18 months if they are lucky.
More to follow …
