Talking points: Mandhana's batting symphony, England's clever pullback

Portraits of female greats were unveiled and over fifty former English women's cricketers gathered around the five-minute bell on the hallowed turf of Lord's to signal the beginning of the first women's Test at the venue. Once the Test was flagged off, an enterprising day's play ensued with the honours fairly even at the end of it, with England's score reading 21/1 in response to India's 285.

Here are the major talking points from the opening day's play at Lord's on Friday:

Mandhana's symphonic strokeplay makes England pay

Despite an early wobble, India waltzed along in the opening session thanks to Smriti Mandhana's supreme touch. The seamers – Lauren Bell in particular – were wayward with their lines, while they erred too full or too short far too often. Mandhana capitalised on the scoring opportunities coming her way, driving the ball with effortless elegance while pummelling anything too short. She used her feet well against the spin of Sophie Ecclestone, who too was erratic early in her spell, while dismissing a slot delivery with a fierce slog sweep.

At one stage, Mandhana looked set to rewrite the record for the fastest Test fifty. She did slow down a touch, but still managed to get to the landmark at a run-a-ball as India motored along at an outstanding rate, getting to 100 at the start of the 19th over. She slowed down post Lunch, although that was relative to her brisk tempo in the opening session, before nicking behind off Issy Wong on 83, missing out on a place on the Lord's Honours Board.

Keeper comes up, scoring rate drops down

Of the 103 balls that the English seamers sent down in the first session, only 33 of them landed in the 5-7m zone. England's economy rate when they hit that length in the morning session was 1.63, as opposed to 6.88 when they went fuller and 5.5 when shorter. But they managed to tighten the screws post Lunch with Wong, who went at nearly 5 per over in her first spell, playing a decisive role as Amy Jones stood up to the stumps.

She dried up the runs, with her 36 deliveries thereafter seeing just 12 runs scored off them as Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur were kept rooted to their crease. Wong posed questions of Harmanpreet in particular, while inducing a false shot percentage of 30.5 – as opposed to 19.4 with the keeper standing back. The move not only slowed India's scoring rate down but reaped a massive reward in the form of Mandhana's wicket.

Contrasting bowling selections

Picking three frontline spinners in a Test in England is not commonplace but the first striking takeaway from the opening day was the contrast in bowling combinations that the two sides fielded. India had a choice to make between Sneh Rana and Shree Charani. Instead, they opted to pick both in the XI, leaving out Renuka Singh Thakur and going with just the two frontline seamers in Kranti Gaud and Sayali Satghare.

England went the conventional way with a three-pronged seam-attack and it explained their decision to bowl first with Nat Sciver-Brunt stating that "the most that we can get out of the wicket as bowlers will be this morning." There was no spice in the pitch, however, while England's seamers erred in line a little too often with the new ball. The more telling factor was Mady Villiers extracting turn, with Ecclestone doing the same on the odd occasion. With India having the opportunity to potentially bowl last, they would bet on vindicating their selection policy should the pitch deteriorate on the fourth day.

Harmanpreet, Deepti fire, but lower order crumbles

Keeping a modest Test record albeit in a short sample size behind her, the Indian captain joined forces with Mandhana for a fruitful fourth-wicket partnership of 89. Six of her seven boundaries came through the off-side, delightfully punching and driving the ball and maximising any ordinary delivery. She played the ideal foil to Mandhana's flamboyance and notched up her second fifty off 99 balls, before she was bamboozled at the stroke of Tea by a sharp-turning delivery from Villiers.

With Richa Ghosh falling for 13, the onus then fell on Deepti Sharma. She began in attritional fashion but stepped on the gas after Ghosh's dismissal, racing from 19 off 43 to a 70-ball fifty. Archetypal of most Deepti innings, this one too saw her use her fancied sweep shot to great effect while she punished anything too loose and straight. Another mini-wobble ensued though, as India's lower order failed to add enough runs, crashing from 274/6 to 285 all out. It could've been worse had England opted to review a catch at silly point with Deepti on 16, with UltraEdge eventually detecting a spike on the bat.

Indian seamers nagging with the new ball

Sayali Satghare and Kranti Gaud extracted considerable movement with the new ball, with Satghare in particular getting the ball to hoop in. Gaud seamed the ball up the slope from the Nursery End but cleverly trapped Tammy Beaumont leg before with one that nipped back in. She should have dismissed Heather Knight in similar fashion but India opted against reviewing a not out decision that would've otherwise been overturned.

It took the first ball of the 9th over for England to score their first boundary, with the score reading 13/1 after eight overs. But Knight and Maia Bouchier ensured the hosts got through to the close of play without further mishaps.