NAVI MUMBAI: 'Shot Jemi', 'Batted Harman' these were the chants coming from the sparsely crowded Bay I at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai when India opted to bat again after bundling out England for just 136 on Day Two of the Test match instead of imposing a follow-on.
If this was the first red-ball fixture for nine members of India's playing XI, many fans were also making their home Test debut too. "India is hosting the women's Test after a long time, obviously I was excited to watch it," says Kalyani Mane, a Mumbai native who was overjoyed to cheer for the Women in Blue.
"This has been an unbelievable experience and India's performance today has been the cherry on top. I don't know when we will be able to see our team play another red-ball fixture on home soil after these two Tests.
"I have saved most of my off days from work for these two series in December. Over the last few months, I didn't take any extra days off, so I could save it up and watch the team play against England and Australia. I am lucky to have flexible work hours and that the BCCI announced this schedule early, so I could apply for offs and it was not rushed," said Mane.
Akash Mule made it to the game thanks to BCCI announcing the schedule for the series in October. "If you ask me to choose between watching a Test match or T20I from the ground, I will always choose the red ball variant. Jemimah Rodrigues is my favourite player. To watch her make a long-awaited Test debut made it even more special. There are far too few red ball fixtures for women and far too few on home soil. I was never going to miss it. I work in logistics, and we already get very few offs. So I worked extra hours, didn't take many week offs, and even worked through Diwali so I could accommodate leaves for Tests. I could tell them the exact days because the schedule was announced early," said Mule, beaming ear to ear.
With the ODI World Cup scheduled in India in two years, both are confident that Indian fans can fill the stadiums and make it one of the best women's sporting events. They believe hosting women's fixtures all over the country from now till that World Cup could incentivize fans together.
"We have enough popularity in women's cricket that people would want to watch the game. WPL and World Cups have made it even more popular. If managed well, we can fill entire stadiums with fans for this team," Mule added. "I think it is important to host the matches all over the country, at least the places that have cricket culture like Chennai, Bengaluru, or Delhi. We experienced here against Australia last year how well the team performs when the crowd is there to support. If we prepare ourselves the way Australia prepared for the T20 World Cup in 2020, we can have one of the biggest women's sporting events in India. I think we can even compete with the FIFA Women's World Cup. But for that, we need a lot of promotion," Mane chimed in.
As far as this match is concerned, both are delighted with India's performance. "I don't know what the result of these two matches will be, but I have to say they have played exceptionally well," Mule said before adding, "I hope this performance ensures there are more Tests in the future for this team."