Mady Villiers turned one large from outside off and through the gate to rattle Harmanpreet Kaur's middle and off stumps - not a bad maiden wicket on Test debut.
Issy Wong invited a drive with one that nipped away and drew an edge behind off Smriti Mandhana, 17 runs shy of her third Test century.
And Lauren Filer had already removed Mandhana's fellow opener, Shafali Verma, with a gem that jagged back into the batter's defences and took a nick through to the keeper with the eighth ball of the first-ever women's Test at Lord's.
Nat Sciver-Brunt, the England captain, could be forgiven for feeling a little jaded ahead of the occasion, no matter how historic, wedged in barely five days after her side had suffered a chastening defeat at the hands of Australia in the T20 World Cup final on the same ground.
But, on match eve, she made all the right noises about looking forward to the change in format, no matter how short the turnaround or limited the preparation, and relishing the chance to play a still-rare Test match. She credited the players who weren't directly part of England's T20 World Cup campaign with injecting a freshness and energy to the Test squad.
Pace duo Wong and Filer spent the World Cup carrying drinks and both ended the opening day of the Test with two wickets apiece.
Villiers hasn't been anywhere near an England squad since September 2024 when she made her ODI debut in a three-match series in Ireland and played the last of her 19 T20Is, also against Ireland. She, too, finished Friday with two wickets, conceding 79 runs in 19 overs, delivered uninterrupted other than the tea break.
With India seven down, Sophie Ecclestone - a constant for England throughout the T20 World Cup - chimed in with the valuable wicket of Deepti Sharma for 57 before cleaning up the tail to contain India to a first-innings 285.
At 27, offspinning allrounder Villiers has had a winding journey to this point. Having made her international debut with a solitary T20 appearance during the 2019 Ashes, Villiers' efforts to truly establish herself in the England set-up coincided with the Covid years.
It was then that she emerged as part of a three-pronged spin attack alongside Ecclestone and legspinner Sarah Glenn in the hastily convened home T20I series against West Indies in September 2020. Ecclestone was already a fixture for England by then and Glenn was Player of the Series in England's 5-0 sweep.
Villiers, meanwhile, lost her England contract in 2022 but pressed on with her domestic career and was eventually rewarded with tours to India in 2023, New Zealand in 2024 and Australia in 2025 as part of England's A squads. Four seasons with Oval Invincibles before joining Southern Brave for last year's Hundred have also helped hone her all-round game.
She joined Durham at the start of the 2025 domestic season from the now defunct Sunrisers and this season is the third-highest wicket-taker in the Vitality Blast Women's competition with 17 at an average of 11.94 and an economy rate of 6.44. In the One-Day Cup she has 15 wickets at 28.00 and 4.85.
Wong faced a similarly meandering route back into the reckoning for England, having spent two years on the fringes of selection after making her debut in all three formats in 2022, starting with the Test against South Africa in Taunton in June that year.
She was among the leading wicket-takers at the 2023 WPL with Mumbai Indians, but by then she had been dropped by England for the T20 World Cup and she was still on the outer in 2024, when they exited the tournament in the group stage.
Wong was recalled for home series against West Indies and India last summer and impressed during off-season training camps in South Africa to earn a recall for the just-completed T20 World Cup.
"Me and Lauren Filer, we've felt like we've been building towards this match for a while," Wong said. "With the way the World Cup went and all the girls that played did so well, so it gave us an opportunity, I guess, to get the red ball in hand and bowl some longer spells.
"It felt really good to have been out there because it feels like we really put in the yards, the two of us in particular, over the last couple of weeks. Any chance you get to use the red ball is really, just, it's a joy to bowl with, to be honest."
Wong reflected on her first and only other Test, in 2022, when she took three wickets for the match in a rain-affected draw and all that had happened since, up to the point when she was reunited with her Test cap over the weekend.
"Four years ago feels like a long time now," Wong added. "My dad has been looking after my Test cap and I realised that we didn't go home in between the World Cup and this, and I realised I didn't have it on me, so he brought it to the World Cup final.
"It feels so good. It's my favourite format, I absolutely love it, I love the ongoing nature of the battle… it's just prolonged almost and I love that, I love that element."
Filer, too made her international debut in a Test match, during the 2023 Ashes at Trent Bridge, where she took 2 for 99 and 2 for 49 as Australia romped to an 89-run victory.
This is her fifth Test in all but, since last summer's home T20I series against India, when she bowled the fastest over recorded in women's cricket, she has struggled for regular white-ball appearances for her country.
So it felt like something of a full-circle moment for Filer, Wong and Villiers when they walked out to a Lord's pitch on a baking hot day with England having won the toss. Regardless of what happens, in this match and beyond, all three can say they've come a long way to make history.