Good competition to bowl to Shafali: England spinner Sophie

England left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone feels that bowling to India's prolific run-getter Shafali Verma is an interesting challenge as one "never knows what's going to happen".

Replying to England women's first innings total of 396/9 declared, Shafali's 96 in the first innings and an unbeaten 55 in the second innings have been the talking point in the home team's dressing room.

The young batter could decide whether India save the match or go on to lose the one-off Test here.

"It's always interesting when me and Shafali match up in whatever format of the game it is. When it comes to T20, I think she's really highly rated so it's really interesting to bowl at her," said Sophie, who took four first-innings wickets, after the third day's play.


"You just never know what's going to happen with her (Shafali), you never know if you're going to get whacked over the top or she's going to miss one, so it's really interesting to bowl to her and it's quite a good competition for me," the 22-year-old spinner, who is the No. 1-ranked T20I bowler in the world, told cricinfo.com.

Sophie said that when she is bowling to Shafali, the only thing going on in her mind is to bowl "my best ball" and "win the battle".

"I think just bowl my best ball and vary my pace so when I come into a Test match it's like trying to bowl my best ball for longer but when Shafali's batting I think it's try and use my arm ball a few times and vary my pace, so just change it up a little bit.


"When Shafali's batting I always want to win the battle, definitely I don't want her getting one up on me. I always look forward to the competition of playing against her so yeah, I'm always trying to get her out first before she hits me for any sixes."

Shafali's wicket has so far eluded Sophie in the Test, as the Indian was caught by Anya Shrubsole off the bowling of medium pacer Kathryn Cross in the first innings. IANS