England 170 and 130 for 6 (Jones 52*, Satghare 2-19) need 327 runs to beat India 285 and 341 for 7 dec. (Bhatia 113, Mandhana 70, Richa 50*, Ecclestone 5-118)

Beaumont, who announced two days before the match that this would be her last in an England shirt, fell for a first-ball duck to a beauty that nipped in, beat the inside edge and crashed into the top of off stump. Gaud curtailed her celebrations to join the India players in forming a guard of honour as Beaumont left the field.

Knight, who also announced that she would retire after this match two hours after leaving the field on Saturday evening, was also denied a fairytale farewell. With the match all but gone – India had set England the second-highest target in Women’s Test history – the best she could hope for was an individual innings of note. But she too fell to Gaud, caught at short leg by Richa Ghosh for 13.

Gaud, Sayali Satghare and Sneh Rana took two wickets apiece as Jones and Mady Villiers staged a 67-run stand for the sixth wicket.

The performance bookended a mixed tour of England for Bhatia, which began with a half-century in the opening T20I at Chelmsford – her first appearance in the format since April 2024 after undergoing knee surgery – and ended with a Test ton. In between, she made 41 runs in three innings of India’s T20 World Cup campaign, where they failed to make it out of the group stage.

Bhatia started the day surviving a failed attempt to drive at a Bell delivery which beat the inside edge and clipped off stump but didn’t dislodge the bails. She watched as Mandhana added just one to her overnight score of 69 before falling to Bell, well taken by wicketkeeper Amy Jones diving full-stretch to her right and collecting the ball millimetres above the turf.

Bell then accounted for Jemimah Rodrigues with one that jagged in to hit off stump. Soon after, she left the field suffering from abdominal muscle soreness, which kept her out of action for the remainder of the innings.

Cue Ecclestone, who had removed Shafali Verma on the second evening, to account for India captain Harmanpreet Kaur on this third day, although it took an England review to confirm Harmanpreet was plumb lbw.

Ecclestone had Deepti Sharma out in similar fashion, with one that turned in from outside off stump to hit Deepti on the back hip, before Bhatia holed out to extra cover. She claimed her fifth wicket bowling Sneh Rana with one that stayed low. She looked ready to collapse exhausted into her team-mates’ congratulatory embraces.

Richa, who relinquished the wicketkeeping gloves to Bhatia for this match, batted with freedom and was scoring at a run-a-ball when she was dropped on 43 by Wong at long-on off Ecclestone. She brought up her fifty with a single through the covers off Ecclestone, at which point Harmanpreet declared.

During the India innings, news broke of Brendon McCullum’s sacking as England Men’s Test head coach, continuing a theme of this summer where drama in those quarters has overshadowed the women’s events. Two weeks ago, Ben Stokes announced his international retirement in the middle of a Test against New Zealand, right as eventual T20 Women’s World Cup champions Australia were knocking India out of the tournament at Lord’s.

On this occasion, the England Women’s team might have welcomed the distraction as they crumbled. But for India, who comprehensively outplayed them, the limelight should be theirs.