Sophia Dunkley did make the uncertain for the cricketing world certain. Despite being the honorary and in-sight concern for the spectators and admirers of cricket, the first-ever black woman went down to slay on the crease in the one-off Test for England against India. Secondly, her 74-not out knock drained the position well in favour of her side.
She shared about her debut and the stunning fifty that she hit and said, “It was a very exciting day for me as I was trying to get the team in a good position.” She said how it was special for her to get an abiding partnership when it was needed after a quick blow of four consecutive wickets along with her fifty in her debut.
“It was definitely a crazy day today and getting a half-century on my debut is surely very special to me,” she added. She recollects ongoing into the fielding and says, “Mandhana and Verma with a good partnership going. It did give some chances at times and then we got the breakthrough and five wickets fell.” The evening did come very exciting for the English side and they hope of carrying the same momentum the next morning.
“To get the breakthrough did really help us a lot and then the wickets kept falling after that,” Sophia Dunkley further remarked. Dunkley noted that it was for the hard work of the bowlers and the fielding side resisting the Indian side along with the catches at right places that helped them get the energy till the end of the day.
Talking about the Indian openers, Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma, she commented on the latter especially, “She played a few good shots and played a very good inning. I think we just fall hard and stuck in there, and trusted the chances that came. There were a few early-on close chances and kept fighting and being ruthless and I think that really helped us to get through the end of the day.”
For Sophie Ecclestone and her brilliant piece of bowling performances and the fine spells that she showered against the Indian side, Dunkley had words too. She said that it’s really tough to face Sophie in the nets. She praised Ecclestone for her tremendously superb economy where she tried really hard to contain the Indian innings tight towards the end of the day. Post that, came the appraisal of the England skipper, Heather Knight who came down the bowling line and did bring a torrent of two wickets in an account at an expense of just one run and five maiden overs.
“I think it’s more of keeping the momentum going as this evening the game did go very hard and I guess we get in a good position as we get to tomorrow morning. And yes it’s just interesting we had this afternoon to play in,” she further crafted on the day’s play. “It was a very special moment and it was quite common I believe as it happened today and yes it was very nice to have mom (her mother) in the crowd,” Sophia Dunkley rejoiced at having her mother in the stands.
