Kranti Gaud dismantled England with a five-wicket haul to secure India a healthy lead of 115 in the one-off Test at Lord's, before the batters, led once again by Smriti Mandhana, extended that number to 269. With nine wickets in hand and two days to go, India boosted their chances of extending their spotless record in women's Tests on English soil.

Here are the key talking points from Day 2 of the Lord's Test:

The Kranti Gaud pivot that paid rich dividends

In a surprising move, Harmanpreet Kaur threw the ball to Shree Charani for the first over of the day from the Nursery End. But the Indian captain was swift in pivoting to pace and turned to Kranti Gaud, who picked up from where she left off on the opening day. Gaud nailed her lengths and got the ball to seam into the right-handers, while her use of the wobble seam delivery was masterful. Harmanpreet also deployed a short leg and the move nearly worked, only for Richa Ghosh to spill a chance. But Alice Capsey's lifeline was short-lived as Gaud cleaned her up with a pearler that hit the top of off as it left the batter ever so slightly.

This was not long after she undid Maia Bouchier with extra bounce and Sayali Satghare trapped Heather Knight leg before. Gaud also landed India a breakthrough early in the second session, nabbing Nat Sciver-Brunt plumb in front to stall England in their tracks, before duly putting her name on the Honours Board with a fifth wicket. The prompt switch was one of many proactive bowling changes on Harmanpreet's part throughout the day, switching the ends around for the spinners and Gaud at different junctures in the second innings to keep the batters guessing.

Jones continues the counterattack trend

The Test may be only two days old but a recurring theme that has emerged is that of the batters not taking a backward step. Not necessarily by means of brash, aggressive strokes, but maximising the percentages instead for a counter-punch. Smriti Mandhana and Deepti Sharma did it at different stages on Day 1 and on Saturday, it was Amy Jones' turn.

India's spinners did not execute their length to perfection, often erring too full. And Jones did not miss out, proving severe on anything loose. She middled most deliveries, punishing the rare one that was dropped too short while creaming the half-volleys to the fence en route to a 59-ball half-century. She fell shortly after, but her purposeful batting ensured that India's spinners did not settle early into their spell. England scored their runs in the morning session at 4 per over, notwithstanding the loss of three wickets in the first half hour.

A tough initiation to whites for Shree Charani

After a T20 World Cup campaign that saw her top the ICC Rankings, Shree Charani's performance in the Lord's Test was bound to court attention. But it proved to be a disappointing outing for the left-arm spinner in the first innings, sending down eight overs for 41 runs.

The first ball of the day was a sign of things to come for Charani, as she dished out a half-volley that Knight drilled to the boundary. Returning for her second spell from the Nursery End, she caused the batters little trouble even as she got the ball to turn. Harmanpreet got her to switch ends but even that proved to no avail. Once Sciver-Brunt deposited a slog-sweep over the mid-wicket fence, Charani was removed from the attack and did not bowl at all in the second session. 25 of her 48 deliveries were pitched full and went for 29 runs, highlighting her struggles in finding the right length for the surface.

Southpaws step out to drive India into the ascendancy

With a huge lead under their belt, India's openers Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana drove the visitors forward with an 88-run partnership that swelled the lead past 200. At one stage, Mandhana was on 11 off 38 as she played second fiddle before opening up with a hat-trick of boundaries against Issy Wong. But once Shafali fell to Sophie Ecclestone, Mandhana and Yastika Bhatia put on a masterclass in footwork to negate the spin threat of Ecclestone and Mady Villiers.

A conscious ploy that stood out was the frequency with which the duo used their feet to get to the pitch of the ball to negate the spin. Mady Villiers extracted 3.1 degrees of turn on the opening day, with the corresponding number for Sophie Ecclestone reading 2.27 degrees. Those numbers dropped to 2.63 and 1.675 degrees respectively on the second day and the batters stepping out played its part. While Mandhana was in cruise control again, it was Bhatia's decisive footwork that emerged as a big positive for India, having stepped down the track for each of her four boundaries. Both left-handers combined for 35 runs at a strike-rate of 166.66 while advancing down the track against spin, keeping England at bay to cap off a fine day for India.