Mandhana closes on a Lord’s century as India build a 269-run lead
India were 154 for 1 at stumps on day two of the inaugural women’s Test at Lord’s, with Smriti Mandhana unbeaten on 69 and 31 short of a historic century.
Jul 12, 2026
India go into the third day of the inaugural women’s Test at Lord’s with the match in their grip and Smriti Mandhana one good session away from a piece of history. At stumps on day two they were 154 for 1 in their second innings, a lead of 269, with Mandhana unbeaten on 69 and Yastika Bhatia keeping her company on 39.
Mandhana will resume 31 runs short of becoming the first batter to score a hundred in a women’s Test at Lord’s. She already has 83 from the first innings and a reputation for making the big occasions look easy, and few grounds come bigger than this one. If she gets there on Sunday, it will be the standout personal moment in a match already billed as historic.
A record stand to set it up
The platform came from the top of the order. Shafali Verma made 33 before miscuing Sophie Ecclestone to mid-on, but by then she and Mandhana had already added 88 for the first wicket. It was the seventh time the pair had put on fifty or more together in Tests, more than any opening partnership in the history of women’s Test cricket. For two players who have spent years opening together in white-ball cricket, the red-ball version is starting to look just as productive.
Ecclestone’s dismissal of Shafali was England’s only success of the innings. Mandhana and Bhatia saw out the rest of the day without further alarm, nudging the lead past 250 and taking the game further out of England’s reach with every over.
How India got here
India had set this up over the first two days. Mandhana’s 83 and a fifty from captain Harmanpreet Kaur carried them to 285 in the first innings, and the bowlers did the rest. Kranti Gaud’s five for 37 ran through England’s top order and bowled the home side out for 170, handing India a first-innings lead of 115 that they have since stretched into a commanding one.
England running out of road
With two days left and only one wicket down, India can bat England out of the contest and still leave themselves time to bowl at them again. A target near 350, perhaps more, looks likely once they decide they have enough. England, for their part, need early wickets on the third morning to have any hope of turning this into a contest rather than a procession.
For now, though, the eyes are on Mandhana and the honours board. A century here would not just win headlines back home. It would put her name on the wall at the game’s most famous ground, on the day women’s Test cricket arrived there for the first time.