Ecclestone landmark on an historic day at Lord’s

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An historic day of Test cricket then at Lord's saw England's women close on 21 for 1 in reply to India's first innings of 285 all out. They're in 74.5 overs. The first ever women's Test match being staged at this ground, witnessed by nearly 11,000 spectators on a warm, hot, sultry day. And England opting to put India in this morning. Nat Sciver-Brunt winning the toss, opting to bowl first on a pitch, uh, that's offered a little bit up front for the seamers, but Smriti Mandhana put on a stand of 89 for the fourth wicket with Harmanpreet that formed the bulk of India's first innings. Lauren Phailer became the bowler to take the first Test wicket for an English woman at Lord's. She dismissed Shefali Verma, beauty of a delivery to have her caught behind for a 4-ball duck. Uh, Yastika Bhatia didn't last too long. Lauren Bell, a beautiful delivery from over the wicket that nipped down the slope to bowl her. Jemima Rodrigues combined first of all with Mandhana for a third wicket stand of 64. A couple of Indian wickets were given away, and particularly thinking Rodrigues, Rishabh Gosia as well, out cheaply to Lauren Phyla. India were in a strong position at tea, 202 for 5, albeit Harmanpreet Kaur had been dismissed on the stroke of the break, giving Maddie Villiers a maiden Test wicket as Harmanpreet was out for 58. 3 half-centuries then in that Indian lineup, because Deepti Sharma went on to make 57. But from a position of 229 for 5, India lost their last 5 wickets for 56. If you take it back to 190 for 3, they lost their last 7 for 95 as the spinners came into play. Sophie Ecclestone backing up Maddie Villiers, and Ecclestone finishing with 3 for 68, and in the process becoming England's all-time leading wicket-taker across formats, 336 at that point, taking her past Katherine Siver-Brunt. So it is a day that has seen nearly 300 runs and 11 wickets Tammy Beaumont was that 11th wicket, the first England wicket to go down in her final Test match. Shouldn't be her last innings though, there'll be a second innings. Tammy Beaumont, then LBW to Conti Gould, out for just 2. So England then have a deficit of 264 in their first innings when they resume tomorrow with 9 wickets in hand. Maebouché and Heather Knight will be the not-out batters. World Cup winner Alex Hartley alongside me, alongside cricket writer from India, Anesha Ghosh. What do you make of the day's play, Alex? A lot of runs, 11 wickets. Who will be the happier tonight, do you think?

Oh, that's a good question, isn't it? I think it's pretty honest even, to be honest with you. India should have reviewed that Heather Knight LBW, therefore India would have been on top of this game. England would have probably sent out a night watcher, um, instead of the captain Nat Sciver-Brunt.

And 10 minutes before the close, wasn't it, that LBW shout came up?

Yeah, so look, I think it's pretty even stevens. India would—

I'll just pause you for a moment. We're going to go straight down to Melissa Storey with Smriti Mandhana.

Smriti, thank you for speaking to us. First of all, a performance from yourself today, 83 for 108 balls as well. You must be pleased with that performance, if not a little bit disappointed not to quite get over the line.

I mean, very disappointed to not, uh, get over the line, uh, for sure. And, uh, I mean, we're going really well If that wicket would have not— my wicket would have not fell at that point, we would have gone past 400. So a little disappointing in that ways, but nevertheless, I mean, I still feel that we got good runs on the board.

When you heard that Nat Sciver-Brunt, on winning the toss, had elected to bowl first, were you slightly surprised by that decision or just happy to get out there and get going on a fresh pitch?

I was very happy to get going because in Test matches Sometimes it's if you don't bat for a very long time, especially the whole first day or something, and then you just keep thinking about batting quite a lot. So it's good to get the first innings underway in terms of batting. But yeah, again, I mean, they got 2-3 early breakthroughs, so I wouldn't say that, you know, they thought that there was something in the wicket for sure. But they did create few chances. But again, I mean, Jemmy, Harman, Deepak, Everybody batted really well.

And in terms of the conditions out there, was there any demons in the pitch? We saw a few deliveries turn and bounce slightly, but overall, do you think it's good conditions to bat in?

Yeah, I think it's good conditions to bat in. I mean, it's important to play very late. That was one thing which I thought that worked, worked for, for all of us. But, but yeah, again, it's Test match cricket. One ball is gonna turn, one ball is gonna swing, and they're gonna do those things because it's red ball. We're so used to playing white balls that anything happens a little bit, a little more extra, then we start thinking it's the wicket. But sometimes it's, it's, it's, it's test match cricket and you just have to keep going.

In terms of adapting between the formats, of course T20 World Cup just finished, you've had quite a small window in order to prepare as a team. What's that looked like for you to get ready for this test match?

I mean, we did, like, I mean, we didn't qualify for the semis, so we did get 4-5 extra days, but we did take a few days off. We went, we did our stuff and get back together as a team. Had 4-5 good sessions with red ball, and yeah, I mean, that's how women's cricket in— we have to get ready for test matches. I mean, you know, we play so much of white ball, but there's one odd test match and And yeah, I'm really happy the way everyone really applied themselves in the practice sessions.

Smriti, thank you very much and go well tomorrow.

Thank you so much.

Just going to head over to Sophie Ecclestone, who we've got waiting for us here. Sophie, hello. I'm good, thank you.

First of all, thanks, Smriti.

There we go, getting a bit of a hug from Smriti there on the side. Congratulations, England's leading wicket-taker across all formats, overtaking Katherine Siverbrunt, one of the legends we've seen in the house here today. How do you feel?

Yeah, it's obviously pretty mint to be named the England Wicket-Taker. Like, it's pretty cool to take over Catherine Silverbrunch. She was my hero growing up, so yeah, it's pretty special.

And I guess when you made your debut back in 2016, could you have imagined where your career has really propelled to already at such a young age?

Yeah, it's been a big 10 years, but yeah, no, I would never have dreamt of anything like this, but it's happened and yeah, I've got no words to be fair. I'm just absolutely buzzing it's happened.

Now tell us about the conditions there because Smriti mentioned it a couple swinging, a couple turning and bouncing as you would expect in Test cricket. But was there enough out there to excite you as a spin bowler for what's to come? And obviously picking up a few wickets at the end there.

Yeah, definitely from Maddie's end. Maddie bowled brilliantly today from that end, obviously in Test debut, which is pretty cool. But there was a bit more spin from that end, probably not as much from the pavilion end. But yeah, it's got to keep digging in and hopefully get a few. The seamers were making it move off the seam, so that was pretty cool to watch. So hopefully it settles down tomorrow, but a bit more will happen for us in our second innings.

You mentioned Maddie there and bowling brilliantly. What was it like out there, the two of you as the spin options? Were there many conversations about plans going ahead?

Yeah, it's pretty cool. We played for England together since we were really young, so yeah, to watch her make a Test debut and bowl so well, I mean, it's been pretty cool to watch from the other end and yeah, I hope it continues for the next innings.

It feels quite strange that 4 days ago we were here for the T20 World Cup final, an emotional day and for a side, a very small window in order to prepare for an entirely different format. So what has preparation looked like for you personally and as a team?

Yeah, it was a pretty rough Monday for me actually. Obviously everyone saw how upset I was after the game. So yeah, I went home Monday morning. I was pretty upset. I didn't really speak to anyone on Monday, but yeah, I always give myself a 24-hour rule and then came back, trained and yeah, bowled a bit and then didn't really bowl much yesterday, obviously leading into this Test match. So it's been a quick turnaround, but it's been quite nice to get back out there.

I can imagine going from 4 overs in T20s to what was it, almost 22 overs today. How's the shoulder feeling and what does recovery look like for you at the end of each day so you can get back out there? Hopefully not too soon from an England perspective, but what does that look like for you?

Yeah, shoulder's pretty fine to be fair, but it's more mentally to be fair. Obviously you used to obviously have 4 overs, but yeah, 22 overs. I love Test cricket, it's one of my favourites, so I absolutely love being out there bowling.

And such a historic occasion as well. First women's Test match at Lord's to see over 11,000 people in today, expected over 38,000 across the next 4 days as well. And seeing the pioneers of the game out on the outfield as well, it must feel really special as a player to be involved in this occasion.

Yeah, it was a pretty special moment when I'm walking out of the long room and having so many of the ex-players here watching. I think it was pretty cool to see them all on the pitch, like how many people there were. And yeah, we were upsetting not just ourselves but them as well. And yeah, it was pretty special and once in a lifetime.

Sophie, congratulations again. Thanks for speaking to us.

Thank you.

Thanks to Melissa Storey for the reaction from the England and the India camp. So I'm sure everyone will be hoping this isn't—

oh, I know what she means, once in a lifetime in terms of getting out here and experience this for the first time.

But of course it will not be once in a lifetime that England's women play a Test at Lord's. That should not be the case at all, Alex Hartley.

But you were saying, so let's go back to the match, reflect a bit on what both players have said in a moment.

Alex Hartley here with Anesha Ghosh as well. Alex, you you were just reflecting on overall an honours even type of day, you feel?

Yeah, I think so. I, you know, I think India could have been on top had they have gone for that review. I would have loved to have known the conversation and why they didn't take it upstairs because I was actually so surprised it was given not out at the time and not out on field because it just looked very out. Whether or not Sue Redfern thought it was hitting outside the line of off stump could be my only, only thing there. But yeah, definitely I would say honours even going into tomorrow.

Anesha, a story of a couple of missed opportunities for India, do you feel, with the starts that 3 of the batters got with half centuries, and Mandhana in particular?

100%. There was an opportunity for the India vice-captain to get to her 3rd Test century. Sure, she did go past Mithali Raj and Shubhangi Kulkarni to get herself to number 3, trailing Shantha Rangaswamy and Sandhya Agarwal on the highest ever run-getters by Indian women's cricketers in this format. But as she rightly mentioned, it was an honest confession on, on the part of Smriti Mandhana in that interview with Melissa, that it was her wicket that literally opened the gates for England. India were nicely positioned, nicely placed at 190 for 3, and once Izzy Wong broke through that partnership and got the wicket of Smriti's, they went on to lose 7 wickets for 95-odd runs. They really left plenty of runs out there on the table, and with Harmanpreet Kaur also stroking a very fluent and dogged half century herself. Now becoming, you know, she scored a 50 in her first outing at Lords in all three formats— first T20Is, then ODIs, and today as well. Quite a unique, quite a unique feat that from the India skipper. And then Deepti Sharma playing yet another lower order, very well-crafted knock, but none of them getting themselves into three digits and subsequently on the honors board. I think India would feel they left an important and a big opportunity to make a statement in the first innings with the bat.

Such fine margins, isn't it? If that wicket had been reviewed, or the LBW had been reviewed at the end, and England 2 down, it just feels like it would have swung things a little bit more in India's favor. A good day overall, it felt, in terms of the crowd and seeing that the number of runs scored and those wickets go down as well. Lauren Phyla became the first wicket-taker. I mean, absolute peach of a delivery, wasn't it, for her to dismiss Shefali Verma? Yeah, it was a lovely delivery using the up to her advantage as well.

Shefali Verma just squaring herself up ever so slightly. There are a couple of soft dismissals, don't get me wrong, along the way. Mandhana herself fishing outside the off stump. Think she'll be really disappointed with that. Shefali Verma, on reflection, the ball didn't do all that much, but it was a lovely delivery from, from Lauren Phyllis to take the first wicket here.

Former England fast bowler Stephen Finns with us as well. Finny, yeah, what did you make of the England bowling performance? Lauren Phyllis with that first wicket in particular.

Yeah, it was a beauty, wasn't it? There were, there were a few in there as well. The Lauren Bell dismissal, swinging in and then nipping away, was, uh, was an absolute ripper as well. And you're always under a bit more pressure when you win the toss and you opt to bowl first, and your captain says, we feel as though it's going to do a bit in the morning session and then it might flatten out as the day goes on. You, you do snatch at your opportunity sometimes. And, um, and yeah, England missed their mark a little bit in that first hour or so, um, and the Indian batters capitalized on that. But I think what England did really well after that point was, was realigned and had a really simple game plan that stifled India, especially in that afternoon session. And even though there were a couple of partnerships, they never really got away, which then means that when you do make the breakthrough like Izzy Wong did, you then all come in piling in behind that. And I think that that's something that England were really impressive with today, was just hanging in there. Because I think the caveat to all of this is, and, and the thing that can be missed, is that these guys are playing the T20 World Cup final 5 days ago, and the, the prep preparation that you need to put in your body to be able to bowl for the entirety of a day in Test cricket, I think, is underestimated when you're just either sat up here watching it or in the stands watching it. So for England to be able to maintain their discipline throughout the day as they did as a bowling unit, I think deserves being commended for.

And the stamina as well, bowling those elongated spells. We'll talk about Maddie Villiers in a moment, a 19-over spell either side of tea. Just to reflect a bit more on the Sophie Ecclestone story, Alex, um, she's come through a shoulder dislocation as well in 2020.

23.

The journey that she's been on to become England's leading wicket-taker now across formats— she sounded genuinely stoked to hold that record now from Katherine Siverbrunt, who she's said was one of her idols.

She said it was pretty mint, which really made me giggle. Um, I love the fact she's not lost that personality and lost that, you know, that little bit of edge about herself. She deserves it, absolutely deserves it. She's an incredible cricketer. Uh, what she has done over the last 10 years. I mean, it has been a 10-year career. She's still so young as well, made a debut back in 2016 and has been world-class ever since. So to be able to switch between formats like she does, but to be able to have been the world's best for as long as she has, you know, 2023 picking up 10 wickets against Australia and then here picking up 3 the back end of the day, and also not being threatened by Maddy Villiers at the other end, almost championing championing her and saying, you're bowling really nicely, you keep going. She's not a jealous teammate at all. She, you know, she's not in it for the accolades and the trophies. Obviously, a World Cup trophy, everyone's in it for that, but she's not in it for, you know, world records and things like that. She's just that good. She ticks them off along the way.

And she was happy to allude to just what an emotional day it was for them on Sunday, the World Cup final defeat. And we all saw Sophie Ecclestone on her backside sitting beyond the boundary, just looking disconsolate, sort of almost head on her knees with Georgia Vowles comforting arm, the opposite position player, but you, um, WPL teammates with her arm around her consoling her. So yeah, gave herself 24 hours, probably a good— that's a good rule to have, the 24-hour rule. We can all do with that on occasions if you've had a bit of a major disappointment. But yeah, have to bounce back from that and turn up to play a Test match is highly commendable. Phil, you have some numbers for us around Ecclestone?

Yeah, the numbers on Sophie Ecclestone. Yes, she began the day on 335 international wickets. Level with Katherine Siver-Brunt. Those 3 wickets she took today obviously took her to 338, also going past Ellyse Perry. Just Julanga Swamy with 355, and Deepti Sharma, one of her wickets today, um, 356, stand ahead of her. Here's another number: she's got 43 Test wickets. The most number of Test wickets taken is Mary Duggan, 77. So maybe, just maybe, that might be within her sights.

Mary Duggan, one of the players who had a portrait unveiled of them today. The late Mary Duggan, former England captain, uh, still the world's leading wicket-taker in Test cricket. But that was quite an occasion before play started, having portraits unveiled of Enid Bakewell, the late Mary Duggan, and late Jan Britton, as well as Myrtle McLaggen as well, who went on England's first tour of Australia in 1934-35. All part of the day of celebrating women's cricket and in particular women's Test cricketers here on this historic occasion. Maddie Villiers then, Alex, you mentioned her. She's come back into this England side, into this Test team, but it's been a couple of years since she's played international cricket.

She's a story of going away, working hard, county cricket, coming back in.

Yeah.

And going up to Durham out of her comfort zone, moving clubs, looking for new opportunities. And she's just thriving, you know, she's She's a brilliant, brilliant player. I think you think of Maddie and you think of T20 cricket because she is so good in the field and the way she, she's able to adapt her game. But the fact that she's come in and just bowled lovely, she went just over 4 and over today, so she would probably a little bit more expensive than she would have liked. Her, her bad ball was the short one that was angled down the leg side, kept getting pulled up the hill here. But other than that, you know, she bowled an absolute belter to get rid of Harmanpreet Kaur, turning the ball up the hill And yeah, you know, she, she looked very at home today.

It's a good advocate for the domestic system, right? Because I think the criticism of the England team has been that it's been a closed shop maybe before Charlotte Edwards came in, and there hasn't been those other players, you know, perform or able to have the ability to perform in domestic cricket because there hasn't been that structure there to the professional level there is now. So hopefully as time passes, there'll be more stories like Maddy Villiers, people who've got the opportunity to go out of the limelight for a for a period of time, work hard at their game, comes back, gets the opportunity, and she bowled the ball of the day for me today. It was an absolute beauty to get rid of Harmanpreet.

Yeah.

Anesha, what, what are your— what were some of your reflections? What's Smriti Mandhana had to say to Melissa's story?

Well, the fact that she missed out on a hundred being the foremost of the talking points, and she was playing her 300th international match for India, and hey, you don't get an opportunity to score a Test hundred for the first time at Lords, because it happens only once in 142 years. Hey, so she would be ruining that missed opportunity. But Smriti will have a say again when India come out to bat in that second innings. But her role as a vice-captain and how she goes on to shape DRS decisions is also going to be key, because India lost out on what would have been a well-deserved second wicket for Kranti Goud because Harmanpreet decided against taking the DRS when Heather Knight was on just a solitary run, and England could well have been 13 for 2. And this decision-making around the DRS— I've seen India oscillate between indecision review system to desperation review system. That happened a fair bit during the ODI World Cup that India won on home soil last year. So as captain-vice-captain combination, Harmanpreet and Smriti will have a big role to play should there be similar opportunities coming their way. And as we were recording at the start of this conversation, I did see a lot of, uh, the slip catchers having fielding practice under the watch of Avishkar Salvi, the bowling coach. And Smriti herself might be standing at maybe silly point with the helmet on and, uh, even in the slip cordon. So her role is not over yet as deputy to Harmanpreet. As a good catcher, she'll have a big say even in this bowling innings of India's.

Phil, what have you got for us?

Yeah, day of firsts, we've mentioned it quite a lot. Very quick list of those firsts: the first ball bowled by Lauren Bell, the first ball faced by Smriti Mandhana, the first wicket Lauren Phyla, First catch, Amy Jones. First four, Yastika Bhatia. First six and first fifty, Smriti Mandhana. The first maiden bowled by Sophie Ecclestone. What we didn't have today is the first five-for and the first hundred, but we have got three more days to go.

Plenty to come, that's for sure. 38,000 tickets sold across this match. It's a four-day game, nearly 11,000, uh, in today. That did see England keep chipping away and just not allow India to continue with those big partnerships that they had.

Has the pitch changed much during the day, Vinnie, do you think?

I don't— maybe a touch firmer actually as the day's gone on. I— there was a bit of spin that the Maddy Villiers ball spun quite big, didn't it? But it wasn't extreme spin. You wouldn't expect that with the amount of grass that there has been, um, on the pitch. But that will be something to just keep an eye on as the game develops with the heat. And I think there's a bit more of a wind tomorrow as well, which could just dry out the underneath of the, of the surface. But I, I expect tomorrow to be the best day for batting. Here, um, and that's something that England will have to capitalize on, especially given not quite knowing what might happen to the pitch on days 3 and 4 with this extreme weather.

Yeah, and they've been in, in the field for what, the 74.5 overs of the, the Indian innings. Again, that's a turnaround time for the, for the opener batters. They'll be hoping to rest the remainder of the lower middle order as much as possible if Heather Knight and Maeboucher can keep batting on for as long as they can. The occasion, Alex, today, for it being— we mentioned all the firsts happening in terms of on the pitch, but the ceremonies we saw at the start, the bell ringing by the 1976 team, all the ex-players that have been here. What has it meant for you as an ex-player to be witnessing this occasion and everything that was put on around it to commemorate it?

Yeah, look, we were all talking about how the first feeling was disappointment and how it's taken so long for it to get to this. It shouldn't be a first now, but it is. But hopefully it's our last first. Hopefully there are no more firsts to come. And then ultimately it was about enjoying the day. And it was, you know, this morning was really wholesome. The fact that, you know, there's 55 of us. I don't think anyone will ever— 55 people ringing a bell for a cricket game won't be done again.

But it was the first as well.

Yeah, it was so lovely to see all the past players and they've had a belting day over in the long room today. There's so many of them. They've been split between two rooms, oldies and youngies apparently. But yeah, it was a beautiful day and look, it's great for the ECB to recognise that, you know, without those, um, previous generations of cricketers who paved the way, you know, we might not have even had the opportunity to have a first here at Lord's. So yeah, a wholesome day, um, and that disappointment sort of disappeared throughout the day.

Yeah, an enjoyable day's cricket, I think, all in all, for, for all those spectators who are in. Anesha, then, what can we expect tomorrow from the Indian bowlers on this pitch, knowing that they've got 9 more wickets to take and England 264 behind?

Well, I do expect some trial-by-spin kind of an approach to be adopted by India, simply because they need to take a leaf out of England's bowling book. Today, the most successful bowlers have been the spinners. 5 wickets shared between Sophie Ecclestone and Maddie Villiers. And also the fact that the bulk of the overs, as Phil Long mentioned during the course of our commentary in regular time, has been delivered by spinners. Here we did see a solitary over by Snehrana, who has had a great, you know, success record when it comes to women's tests in England. Deepti Sharma would be high on confidence, stroking that very important half century. But hey, the talk of the town is N. Shri Charani from Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh, the leading wicket-taker for India in the recently concluded T20 World Cup. And I have a feeling she's going to be India's trump card. But do not forget The pacers, the two seam options that India have opted for— Sailesh Sadhgare, wicketless so far, Pranati Gaud getting prodigious movement, uh, into the right-handers. So maybe they'll start off with both these seamers and then switch to spin, maybe 6 overs into the start of day 2.

So in all, keep an eye out for everybody.

They've all got a role to play.

There were various times in the day, Finny, where Questions of, you know, you wonder whether the choice for England to bowl first was the right one, but the way they wrapped up the innings, does that— has that question receded?

Yeah, I think it justifies it. I think certainly when you turn up here, even though it was hot, that we were all down there this morning, there's quite a thick covering of thatchy grass as we've become accustomed to seeing here at Lord's, and it does feel as though if you are going to find movement, even if it is a hot day, it's going to happen in that first hour, 2 hours of the day. As it happens, a couple of beauties were bowled in that time, and they did take a couple of top-order wickets, but it was hanging in there through the rest of the day that got England their rewards. And yeah, in a roundabout way, they're probably not too far off what they thought was going to happen. They just probably thought they'd take more wickets in the morning than the afternoon, but it was, it was played in reverse. But yeah, I, I think 285 felt about right on that pitch.

The TMS Podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live.

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Let's commemorate the first Women's Test at Lord's. The Pavilion was packed out with players of England's past, and I was outside the Pavilion catching up with a few of them. But first, I spoke with cricket writer Emma John, who also has a role here with the MCC.

I am the chair of the Heritage and Collections Committee at MCC. Our job is to look after the museum, the artworks, the incredible enormous kind of collection of memorabilia, but also just to like make this place, this home of cricket, the home of the heritage of cricket, and to really tell the story of the history of cricket in the most exciting ways we can.

So at the start of the day today, Charlotte Edwards' portrait hanging proudly in the Long Room. Rachel Ho Ho Flint portrait hanging proudly in the Long Room. Tell us what's been added to that this morning in front of a number of women, about 50, 60 or so, wasn't there, past players to witness this unveiling?

Yeah, and do you know what, having seen that bell ringing, you know, that was a moment of high emotion for me watching that bell ringing, but there was this previous moment that was really special in the Long Room. We know that, we know that women have been historically underrepresented in, in the artwork in the Long Room. And there's a good reason for that, which is that, you know, traditionally the people who get honored and go on the walls at Lord's and get painted are people who've achieved great things, often in Test matches here. So this is a historic kind of imbalance that has been a big part of our, our journey to change. The thing that we did today was we commissioned some retrospective artworks, which is very unusual for us. You may remember the Martin Crowe that got unveiled earlier, earlier during the New Zealand test, the men's test. That was really unusual. You know, one of our first posthumous portraits. We're really going for this. So we commissioned the amazing Ange Bell, who is here today, to, to immortalize some greats from women's Test cricket through the ages. People like Myrtle McLaggen, who scored the first century in a women's Test match. She played in the very first women's Test match, which was the Ashes series of '34/'35. We got Mary Duggan, another really important player and captain. Jan Britton, the, you know, iconic Jan Britton. Enid Bakewell, obviously also absolute legend, one of Wisden's 5 greatest women's players of all time. She was here to unveil her own portrait. And then there's also a fantastic portrait by Christian Evjue of the 1993 World Cup winning team.

Emma, just wait here for a moment. Enid Bakewell, then, legend of the game. Lovely to see you as well. Tell me, Enid, Do you like your portraits in the long room?

It is a good one, isn't it? Yes, nice smiling one. That's wonderful.

So was that done— did you sit for that, or was that done from photographs?

I don't know where it's come from, but the one that I do like as well is JB's because she was a real character.

Jan Britton, like Jan Britton.

Yeah, yeah. And she was so talented, she really was.

And this is where conversation started, an education, because we're mentioning Jan Britton's name we need to tell people who don't know about her about her. She had a 19-year international career. She's still the world's leading run scorer in Test cricket, but she was the absolute premier batter of her day, playing 27 Tests between 1979 and 1998. And she sadly died of cancer in 2017 at the age of 58 in the September. So she was still alive when England won this, the 50-over World Cup here.

Yes.

She was a tremendous character. She was a wonderful fielder as well, and she supported Rachel. She was very friendly with Rachel, and Rachel needed some support as well.

Who else have you been bumping into here, Enid, that you haven't seen for ages?

Lots of people. It's amazing because you see a face and you think, well, I know that name. Which name goes with it?

You can remember them all.

Great.

Yeah, it's great.

We know you've still got all your agility because you've practically gone viral on the BBC ABC Sport Instagram pages for your little hurdle over the rope to get to the unveiling of your portrait. You've still got it, haven't you?

Yes, yeah, well, I've got to prove because I've got two false knees, you see, so normally I don't go up and down steps. I live in a bungalow, right?

But can I just say, I have to say that I was there when Enid hurdled that boundary. I've never— that rope, I was never been so nervous. I told you, I said no, Enid, because I was Speaking of Jordan Henderson, I said, you know, we've already lost one great sportsman from a major tournament this week from, from, from, from an advertising hoarding. So, you know, that— but, but, you know, she's very supple, she's very supple.

Enid, tell us what this day means to you. You were a World Cup winner in 1973. You've still been playing the way up to—

I won't ask you what your exact age is, you'll probably tell us, but it's wonderful that they're allowing it here and we're actually maintaining it and it's going to be a good game. Unfortunately, I have to leave on Sunday because my eldest daughter, I left for 2 and a half months with my parents because they'd lost somebody before me and so they loved having her during the week.

Well, it's such a special day and we're delighted that you are here and you will now be visible to everybody forever because your portrait is in the Long Room.

Incredible, isn't it?

Wonderful, thank you. And it's lovely to see you again.

Yeah, and you, isn't it? Yeah, enjoy the rest of the day.

Thank you very much.

Legend that is Enid Bakewell. Right, standing right behind me, Rosalie Birch. Rosalie Fairbairn now, 2005 player. And gosh, Rosalie, what does this mean to you? You've been, you've been part of incredible days, Ashes wins, and for Trafalgar Square parades and all of that in 2005 era. What does this mean to you and what's it been like so far?

Oh, it's been an amazing day. I mean, we've been treated to lovely weather, but I mean, I can't believe it was 21 years ago that we were playing here in the Ashes, but there were so few people watching. And now we're here at Lord's, these girls are getting to play in a historic day, and like, it's just incredible to see so many people coming out to enjoy the cricket. And the game came on a lot before me, but the game has come on so much since I finished playing, you know, just slightly less than 20 years ago. And being in the committee room today with all the former players of all different generations, it's been great with loads of stories being shared and just appreciating kind of the part of history that we are, you know, we're privileged to be a part of.

Who have you chatted to that you wouldn't have seen for a long, long time.

I had a brief chat with Jane Powell, who, um, she just revealed to me that she's now coaching Sweden national— the Sweden women's national team.

That's a sign of growth in cricket in Europe, isn't it? We have a Swedish team.

Indeed, indeed. Um, yeah, all sorts, kind of players of my generation like Katherine Siverbrandt and Isha Guha and, um, Lauren Griffiths, players that I've, I've not seen for a while, um, that I used to play with. And then just chatting to a few of the older players and hearing some of their stories.

Have you spoken to any of those that were here in 1976 for that first women's ODI on this ground?

I haven't yet because we— because there's so many of us, which is obviously wonderful. We're actually in two different rooms and we're just moving into the other room. So I intend to spend some time hearing their stories and, you know, how they're finding today because I'm sure it's extra special for them.

Yeah.

What, you know, before today and I suppose in in the years where there hasn't been a Test match here at Lord's. What were always your impressions of this ground, you know, when you were growing up as a player? But with women not— I mean, there were so few Test matches anyway, but not playing Tests on this ground. What did that symbolise and what does this now symbolise?

I think for me, this just felt kind of a place that we didn't really come to very often. I think I maybe played one game here. It was the game when Claire Taylor scored her 100 156 or whatever it was, not out. So that was my experience of playing there, but it wasn't— it just didn't feel like a place that we were ever really going to play. I didn't— it didn't even almost cross my mind that playing a Test at Lord's would ever be something we did. So it's just an incredible thing to be part of this occasion. I played a few Tests actually because we played more Tests when I was part of the team, but we'd have played at smaller grounds. But incredible to be at such such kind of a historic venue and obviously the home of cricket and to have so many people watching as well.

Great to see you, Rosalie. Enjoy the rest of the day.

Thank you. Lovely to be part of it.

Let's bring in Jane Powell, who's coming in. Rosalie's just name-checked you, Jane.

What's—

what's—

a coach of Sweden, we now hear.

Yes, that's right. Yes, I'm coaching Sweden women's cricket team.

Yeah, fabulous.

What's your day been like though since you've arrived here at Lord's? What does this mean to you with your history and connection with the game?

Tell I mean, to be honest, as a little girl, I had a dream of playing for England, playing at Lord's, being a professional cricketer, and that was never to be. But this is just fantastic to see my dream being lived out in the players of today.

What do you reckon of the morning's play so far?

Yeah, it's a little bit slow, overs rate, but there's been some good stuff and there's been some not so good stuff, but it's nice I think it's evenly poised at the moment. I think with another couple of early wickets in the afternoon session, then you'd say that it was a good toss to win. Although I can't help but think my dad always used to say, win the toss, think about putting them in, and then bat yourself.

And another Yorkshireman would have said, wait till the other team's batted as well to see how good the total is. Right, well, I wanted to ask you a serious question about the cricket, but I really just want to know, what has it been like in the pavilion? Who are you with? Who are you meeting up with?

Are there some names and faces here that you haven't seen for a long, long time?

Yeah, there's a few of the 1976 people that used to scare me a little bit and they were my heroes, heroines. And it was lovely to be able to see them. Chris Watmore, Lynne Thomas, Enid Bakewell, you know, those people. But then it was great to see, you know, my teammates from '88, the '88 World Cup final, Jill Smith. Lisa Nye, you know, it's just lovely being around them again and just reminiscing about those, those games and those tournaments.

Yeah.

What sort of stories have they got? Or have they been sharing any of their experience of being at Lord's?

They've all been sharing a few stories. Some are repeatable and some are not so repeatable, but, you know, just different ones, you know, about looking after kids before they came, you know, all the sort of things that you had to do in those days of making sure you did your work and then go to play cricket. But yeah, I mean, fantastic memories. You know, there's one when we were at Lilleshall and training and somebody suddenly got the idea you needed to be fitter. So the physio would meet us in the morning and we were about to run down the drive and she came in her car and said, every time I beep my horn, you go faster. And so it was like, you can imagine, it was great. Team building, but it wasn't— again, it was against the physio.

Was that like early, early editions of the bleep test?

I think it was, although bleeped out for language, I'm afraid.

Jane, awesome to see you.

Lovely to see you.

Stick around, I might come back to you because I want to bring in Claire Taylor, who is alongside you, part of the 1993 World Cup winning team. But we met— I met you in 2005 at the World Cup in South Africa.

Yeah.

What's this day mean to you, Claire?

Oh, it's unbelievable.

Absolutely.

If you go back to, like Jane says, the early days, you wouldn't imagine this. And I think what's nice now is it's not women's cricket and men's cricket, it's just cricket. And that's what it should be about. We've all got the same skills. We all bat the same, field the same. They might be a bit stronger, but sometimes technically we're a lot more correct. But it's good to see just as cricket. You shouldn't have to put a label on it apart from cricket. And I think that's the most amazing thing. And just to see so many people and smiling faces as well. It's amazing.

And lots of fans being waved as well. I'm just looking around to paint the picture. It's a warm, lovely, sultry day here in front of the pavilion. It's the lunch break on day 1 of this historic Women's Test match at Lord's, the first Women's Test to be staged on this ground. It's got a very summery feel to it. The dress code relaxed in the pavilion. There's a couple of kids down below me just tossing a little cricket ball between the two of them and bouncing off the step, playing a little game of catch. There's a girl sheltering under a hat with her headphones around. Around her neck. It's really, really a wonderful scene, isn't it? Tell me about your memories though of, of 1993, because again, so many of these matches don't get spoken about often because they're sort of not the platform. That's one of the great things about having a Test match is that we've actually got so much time to chat and allow stories to unfold and hear memories.

Yeah, and we're all saying earlier on, we're all just the next generation of the story of women's cricket. It evolving and evolving. I remember the evening before we were all sewing England badges onto our shirts and we all had mismatched shirts. It was whoever you're sponsored by at the time. And I also remember Grandstand were covering the Ashes, I think up at Headingley. England men had lost, so they switched straight away. I think it was Ralph Deller came down here, so they had the last 10, 15 overs and that was just unheard of for us as well. And I think we didn't know how to take winning, if that made sense, because all of a sudden we're in all the newspapers, you're on TV a little bit, and it was for, you know, a week or so, it was a great feeling. And I don't think the realization of what we'd done sunk in till about 2 or 3 weeks afterwards. You know, you just get lost in the day, in the moment, which I remember I was feeling up at the top by the Warner stand there, and I think I took a catch. I don't think it was the last one. Turned around, there's a lot of Yorkshire girls in the back, and we were just sort of like celebrating together. So yeah, it was quite funny because I remember, um, the other Claire Taylor, the imposter.

Um, yeah, to remind people that there are two, of course, and some may remember.

I'm the original, she's the imposter, we know this.

Um, Claire Taylor, nicknamed Romper, for those who might know you by nickname.

Yeah, yeah.

Uh, oh, here's the other one, just as you say imposter. Hang on, we just need her to stay away for a minute.

Stay away.

You can't stay away, she can't stay away. I remember there was a pitch invasion, and, and Tails was part of the pitch invasion. And she brought this picture of her, like, next to me, literally like that. We had a photograph, and she got big glasses on at the time, and you had to bring a memory to an England training camp, and Tails brought this. She said, like, I knew you were called Taylor, and you were Claire Taylor, and your middle name's Claire. So she changed it, obviously, to be more like me. And it was just little memories like that, you know. Again, we probably inspired a generation, Tails' generation, even ones before that on a lot lower level. There were what, 4,000 at that final? And for us, that was nerve-wracking because like, who are all these people? You usually knew where everyone was sat because you'd seen them come in, you know, so we're just another step on the way. '93 was just another step on the way because I don't think we had too much cricket after that. But that's just the way of the world and you've just got to go with what you're given.

Claire Taylor, the other Claire Taylor. You've got the OG standing next to you here.

I'm the imposter. I am Claire Taylor, the younger or the imposter, as they call me.

Is that right? I mean, tell us from your perspective of being in the stands for a 1993 World Cup final, seeing an England team win. How old were you then and what cricket were you playing at that time?

So I'm on the England junior pathway. I've played against Holland in one of the warm-up games. I've been part of the fundraising with Ruth.

That's Ruth Pridoe, late Ruth Pridoe, who was coach of the '93 World Cup winning team.

Yes. So we were playing some fundraising games before that, weren't we? So I've been in and around the squad. And of course, there's this player called Claire Taylor that played football for England as well.

I know we forgot to mention that, didn't we? Yeah.

And so I've been playing cricket and football growing up. I'm— yeah. And to be in the grandstands with my mum and one of my best friends and to watch these girls play some great cricket. Susie Kitson took that amazing catch. Janet Britton took the catch to win the match and we all ran on and there was only one person person I wanted a photo with. And then to be able to bring that in 2000 to the camp and say, this was a moment of inspiration for me. And we hear so many of those stories. So I think Nat Sciver-Brunt talks about coming to the 2009 World Cup. Alice Capsie talks about coming to the 2017 World Cup. And you can really see that. And not all of the girls and young boys who come to these games will play cricket for England. But if we can inspire them to love cricket in the same way that we have and the joy that it's given us over the years. I mean, that's great, really good.

Back to 1993, were you in the dressing rooms as they are now and you were all fully coming through the Long Room? Tell us about how that all worked.

There's one story I definitely felt. There's one player came down—

Tell them, tell them all, tell all the stories.

I won't name names. Coming down the stairs and needed to go through the Long Room and was still smoking a cigarette at the time, so casually just asked asked one of the members if they wouldn't mind holding the cigarette butt for her while she went on the pitch. Again, they fade into one, you know. I remember Jo Chamberlain, she was our Ian Botham of the team, and really she'd done nothing up until the final. Then Jo was only Jo, Cam was star of the show kind of thing. Going back to Kitty's catch, it was amazing. First slip, she dived full length, and we got in the huddle and I said, Kitty, amazing catch. She went, I just thought, I'm not chasing that to boundary. So she thought she'd better catch it instead. But yeah, little moments. Jo Chamberlain running out, a direct hit running out Debbie Hockley, and I was directly behind her and her arms started going everywhere. And the only way I could celebrate was just to put my arms around her waist and just get my head out of the way because her arms are going everywhere. But yeah, just little moments. The build-up to it was probably better because we'd lost to the Kiwis in the round robin. We needed to beat the Australians, which we'd never done. We decided to try a new tactic called hoiking, where we're here through Cowchup Corner. So somebody like the late, great Jan Britton, alien to Jan, alien to Carol Hodges, but they took it on board. We went down to the nets and we tried hoiking. Ruth wasn't quite, didn't like that word, so it was called controlled aggression instead. And I remember Hodgie in the game down at Guildford, she scored a ton. They got 7-2 fielded, the Aussies, thinking she's going to hit it there and last minute she's knocking everything to cowshot. She scored a tonne, almost like winners a game, and she brought up her century with a great drive straight back past the bowler. And it was absolutely— that was unbelievable. That was a highlight for me, was just the way Hodgie embraced doing what she needed to do for the team.

Yeah, amazing.

Clare, you have had some extraordinary moments on this ground. People will, of course, remember the incredible innings you played in the semi-final of the 2009 T20 World Cup final, which was a game-changing innings for those who witnessed it at the Oval. Sorry, what ground did I say there? T20 World Cup semi-final at the Oval. Before then, the final here at Lord's. For you, and you're involved with the MCC as well, can you sum up, I guess, the trajectory of the game, but also where it's going to from now? Because this is the first occasion, but it shouldn't be the last. And famously in 1976, it was 11 years before the women came back and played their second international game on this ground.

Absolutely. So, I mean, I've been part of that lucky generation that's been able to play a number of international fixtures here. The current generation of players coming through are even luckier because they get to play their domestic cricket here. So for, for us, you know, walking out at Lord's when we got to play here once every 3 years or so. It was nerve-wracking. It was a huge privilege and you wanted to play your best at Lord's, but almost so did the opposition. And that fear almost warred with, this is the home of cricket. So for this generation of players to come and play a Test match here, to have had the experiences as part of the Hundred, to already play at Lord's, hopefully they can bring their best cricket here, put on a real spectacle for us today.

And I know you're probably too self-effacing to say, so perhaps just get Jane to pay tribute to Claire because she was the first woman to be named as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year, which was an accolade that by no particular dint had just always gone to men and an absolute game changer. Again, the visibility, the status to be up there and really stand out and to inspire others.

Yeah, I think, you know, the accolades for Claire Taylor, both Clare Taylors are not as well known as they should be. And, you know, she deserved fully that Wisden Player of the Year and she still deserves it for the work that she continues to do to promote women in the game as well. And Romper as well is completely immersed in cricket still, and both still fully doing the best for the game. And that's all that we can ask for really from anybody.

Well, thanks to all those England legends for joining and thank you for listening. That is it for this episode.

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TMS is on air daily at 10:30 AM for the duration of this Women's Test at Lord's, and we have ball-by-ball commentary of England's men playing their white ball series against India, with the final T20 live from Southampton at 2:15 on Saturday afternoon. There's this song, when it gets to a bit, the The whole place goes. So good, so good, so good.

You gotta do the arm bit too.

So funny. I love that bit.

We know that feeling.

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