[WATCH] Renuka Singh Thakur shocks Sophia Dunkley with a peach of a delivery to claim her maiden Test wicket

Renuka Singh Thakur introduced Test cricket to her exceptional new-ball skills by clean-bowling England's Sophia Dunkley with a peach of an in-swinger on Friday.

It happened in the third over of the second innings of the one-off Test between the two teams in Mumbai. Dunkley hit two boundaries off the first two balls, with the second one being a lucky inside edge.

Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur called the wicketkeeper up for the fifth ball and Renuka chipped in with the classic in-swinger. The ball swung in, pitched on a good length, and kept on coming in with the angle.

Dunkley was caught in her crease, perhaps due to the wicketkeeper's movement, and couldn't account for the movement. The ball sneaked in through the gap between her bat and pad to crash into the leg stump, leaving a look of shock on her face.

Watch the video here:

This was the first wicket for the right-handed seamer who made her Test debut on Thursday. However, Renuka has shown the same skill several times in white-ball cricket, including in the three-match T20I series against England preceding the Test. She was the joint-highest wicket-taker in the T20Is with seven scalps at an average of 10.86.

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"Renuka Singh has been outstanding" - Lisa Sthalekar

Praise poured in for Renuka after she dismissed Dunkley. One of her admirers was former Australian captain Lisa Sthalekar, who also expressed worry over Dunkley's technical nous against the moving ball.

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"Renuka Singh has been outstanding so far in the series vs England! Literally rattles the stumps regularly. Dunkley again gone, not sure her technical deficiencies can survive the swinging ball. #INDvsENG," she said on X.

After the first strike, Pooja Vastrakar struck to get Heather Knight out LBW, reducing England to 28/2.

Catch all the live-action from the Test here.

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