From Ghuwara to Lord's Honours Board: Kranti Gaud brings a revolution

Kranti Gaud, on Saturday, shone with a five-wicket haul in the one-off Test between India and England, becoming the first woman to have her name carved at the iconic Honours Board at the Lord's Cricket Ground.

In what is the first women's Test match at the Home of Cricket – 142 years after men first played at the venue – the 22-year-old from Ghuwara, a small town in Madhya Pradesh, etched herself into history books with her raw pace and swing.

Kranti had started her fairytale a day before on Friday, trapping Tammy Beaumont with a delivery with nipped back in and kept low to trap her leg before wicket in what is Beaumont's final international match before retirement.

The Indian extended it on Day 2, catching Maia Bouchier off-guard with a bit of extra bounce as early as third over off the day. Bouchier, looking to ride the bounce, opened the face of her bat only to have an outside edge land safely into the hands of wicketkeeper Yastika Bhatia.

But it was Kranti's third wicket, which sent Alice Capsey packing which was the highlight of the lot.

After continuously testing her with deliveries which jagged back in, Kranti let one swing away. It first came in with an angle, landing on the fuller length, before swinging away ever-so slightly.

It was enough to beat Capsey, who was trying to defend it, and leave the off-stump uprooted. Kranti had just picked up two wickets in a space of 13 deliveries for five runs to leave England reeling.

She later came back to trap a well-set England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt leg before wicket with an inswinger for 44, before an outside edge from Lauren Bell popped out of Sneh Rana's hands only for a diving Shafali Verma to grab it one-handed.

Verma's heroics not only put Kranti on the Lord's honours board but gave the young pacer her maiden five-wicket haul in Test cricket, in what is just her second match in the format.

To make it even more special, a total of 15,243 fans thronged the Lord's Cricket Stadium to watch the action – a record for women's Test cricket, on a day the Wimbledon Ladies' Singles final took place in the same city.

For Kranti, whose mother sold her jewellery to buy her first cricket kit and who probably wouldn't have been fast-tracked to the Indian team if not for the Women's Premier League (WPL), to become the first woman to have her name on the Lord's Honours Board is dreamy.

As she video called her parents and family back home, standing in front of Honours Board it signalled that Kranti has just begun. The women's cricket revolution is just getting started. And as her name suggests, there could have been no one better to start it off.