Shafali Verma becomes youngest woman cricketer to hit consecutive half-centuries on debut

As the Indian women's cricket team is fighting hard to avoid follow-on enforced by England, debutant Shafali Verma became the youngest one in the history of women's cricket to hit consecutive half-centuries on debut. Indian women's cricket team was enforced the follow-on after a dramatic collapse on the second day on Thursday bundled Team India at 231.

Shafali Verma goes on a record-breaking spree on debut vs England

Playing the follow-on, 17-year-old, Shafali Verma yet again gave Team India a blistering start as she took India to 83 for 1 at tea in their second innings on the third day of the one-off Test against England here on Friday. Shafali Verma was batting on 55 not out off 68 balls at the tea break after India were forced to follow on. She hit 11 boundaries so far in her knock and became the only fourth player -- and the youngest one -- in the history of women's cricket to hit consecutive half-centuries on debut. In the first inning, Shafali Verma missed her maiden Test century by only 4 runs and played a blistering knock of 96 off 152 balls with the help of 13 boundaries and 2 sixes. 

Shafali also broke the Indian record for the highest score on women's Test debut. She overtook Chanderkanta Kaul's tally of 75 against New Zealand in 1995. It is to be noted that the 17-year-old cricketer from Rohtak also equalled the record for most sixes by a woman in a Test innings. She hit 2 massive sixes in Bristol, equalling Alyssa Healy and Lauren Winfield-Hill's joint record.

Earlier, India Women were left with a mountain to climb after being shot out for 231 in their first innings, half an hour before lunch. On Day 3, India's batting woes continued as they lost five wickets for the addition of just 44 runs in 21.2 overs in the morning session, undoing the tremendous effort by Verma (96) and Mandhana (78). Deepti (29 not out) and Pooja Vastrakar (12) put up a 33-run stand for the ninth wicket but could not save the team from following on in response to England's first innings total of 396 for 9 declared.

Shafali Verma vows to make up for those 'those 4+ runs'

After the completion of day 2, Shafali Verma took to her Twitter handle and expressed her gratitude to the BCCI and the people who played a major role in her life. Shafali also expressed confidence that the next time she will hit those 4 runs which she missed in the first innings. Shafali in a series of Tweet wrote:

(Image Credits: @ICC/Twitter)