Af­ter draw­ing their in­au­gur­al test se­ries against Aus­tralia 0-0 in the Caribbean in May, 1976, the West In­dies women toured In­dia lat­er that year for a 6-match [3 days] test se­ries against test debu­tants, In­dia.

The com­pet­i­tive se­ries end­ed with both teams reg­is­ter­ing a first test win. The re­main­ing four match­es were drawn. As hap­pened with the West In­dies in their first test against Aus­tralia in May 1976, the start­ing In­di­an XI were all test debu­tants.

In the open­ing match in Ben­galu­ru, Oc­to­ber 31 - No­vem­ber 2nd, the West In­dies bat­ted first and made 274 all out in 78.4 overs. Open­er Glo­ria Gill top scored with 53 runs and was sup­port­ed by wick­et-keep­er Yolande Ged­dess-Hall with 44 runs, Leila Williams with 43 runs, Pa­tri­cia Whit­tak­er with 32 runs and cap­tain Louise Browne with 28 runs.

Leg-spin­ner Shub­han­gi Kulka­rni snared 5 wick­ets for 48 runs, and Di­ana Edulji 2 wick­ets for 48, bowl­ing slow left-arm or­tho­dox spin. In re­ply, In­dia de­clared 6 wick­ets for 269 runs, with cap­tain Shan­tha Ran­gaswamy scor­ing 74 runs, open­er Sho­ba Pan­dit 69 runs and wick­et-keep­er Fowzieh Khalili 39 runs.

Off-spin­ner Vi­va­lyn Lat­ty-Scott took 3 wick­ets for 51 runs, and medi­um-fast Leila Williams took 2 wick­ets for 50.

Lead­ing by 5 runs on first in­nings, the West In­dies de­clared their sec­ond in­nings on 175 runs for 7 wick­ets in 64.5 overs, set­ting In­dia 181 runs for vic­to­ry.

Leila Williams was 56 runs not out, sup­port­ed by Pa­tri­cia Whit­tak­er (29 runs), Glo­ria Gill (24 runs) and Yolande Ged­des-Hall (24 runs not out). Slow left-arm or­tho­dox spin­ner Sharmi­la Chakraborty took 2 wick­ets for 32 runs, and leg-spin­ner Shab­han­gi Kulka­rni took 2 for 28 runs. When the match end­ed on the 3rd day, In­dia had lost 1 wick­et for 30 runs in 17 overs. Fast medi­um bowler Peg­gy Fair­weath­er took the wick­et of open­er Sand­hya Mazum­dar for 4 runs.

The sec­ond test was played in Chen­nai, No­vem­ber 7-9. In­dia bat­ted first and de­clared at 9 wick­ets for 218 runs in 107.5 overs. Cap­tain Shan­tha Ran­gaswamy scored 57 runs, as well as Di­ana Edulji, who was un­beat­en on 57 runs.

Fast medi­um bowler Pa­tri­cia Whit­tak­er took 2 wick­ets for 28 runs, with off-break spin­ners Sh­eryl Bay­ley tak­ing 2 wick­ets for 45 runs and Test debu­tant [cap 14th] Dorothy Hob­son tak­ing 2 wick­ets for 22 runs.

The West In­dies reached 4 wick­ets for 41 runs when the game was called time with cap­tain Louise Browne un­beat­en on 14 runs. Fel­low open­er Glo­ria Gill made 13 runs. Shan­tha Ran­gaswamy fin­ished with 2 wick­ets for 8 runs.

The fierce­ly com­pet­i­tive 3rd test was al­so drawn in Del­hi, No­vem­ber 12-14.

The West In­dies bat­ted first and made 174 in 75 overs. Bev­er­ly Browne top scored with 63 runs and Louise Browne 36 runs. Di­ana Edulji took 4 wick­ets for 47 runs, Sharmi­la Chakraborty 2 wick­ets for 45 runs and Su­san It­ticheria 2 wick­ets for 28 runs.

In re­ply, In­dia con­ced­ed a 32-run lead to the West In­dies, be­ing dis­missed for 142 runs in 79.4 overs. Cap­tain Shan­tha Ran­gaswamy top scored with 78 runs, and open­er Sand­hya Mazum­dar made 22 runs. Pa­tri­cia Whit­tak­er took 4 wick­ets for 22 runs, sup­port­ed by Vi­va­lyn Lat­ty-Scott, who took 2 wick­ets for 34 runs, and Sh­eryl Bay­ley, who took 2 wick­ets for 32 runs.

In their sec­ond in­nings the West In­dies were dis­missed for 147 runs in 55.3 overs. Pa­tri­cia Whit­tak­er scored 50 runs and Bev­er­ly Browne 47 runs. No oth­er bat­ter got in­to dou­ble fig­ures. Slow left-arm spin­ner Sharmi­la Chakraborty took 5 wick­ets for 25 runs, and Shan­tha Ran­gaswamy took 2 for 34 runs.

Set 180 runs to win their first test match, In­dia lost 6 wick­ets for 150 runs off 64 overs when the match end­ed. Wick­et-keep­er open­er Fowzieh Khalili top scored with 50 runs, sup­port­ed by Shan­tha Ran­gaswamy with 46 and fel­low open­er Shob­ha Pan­dit with 22 runs. No­ra St Rose took 3 wick­ets for 45 runs with her medi­um fast bowl­ing sup­port­ed by fel­low medi­um fast bowler Leila Williams, who took 2 wick­ets for 18 runs.

The fourth test was played in Pat­na, No­vem­ber 17-19. The low-scor­ing match was a his­toric test for In­dia as they reg­is­tered their first test win by 5 wick­ets.

Bat­ting first, the West In­dies were skit­tled for 127 runs. Sev­er­al bat­ters got starts but did not bat deep in­to the in­nings. Wick­et-keep­er Yolande Ged­des-Hall top scored with an un­beat­en 32 runs, fol­lowed by Vi­va­lyn Lat­ty-Scott with 22 and Pa­tri­cia Whit­tak­er with 20.

The wick­ets were shared by the In­di­an spin­ners: Shub­han­gi Kulka­rni 3 for 43, Di­ana Edulji 3 for 24 and Sharmi­la Chakraborty 2 for 23.

In re­ply, In­dia se­cured a 34-run lead, de­clar­ing 9 wick­ets for 161 runs in 100.5 overs.

Wick­et-keep­er open­er Fowzieh Khalili led the bat­ting with 58 runs, and Shan­tha Ran­gaswamy scored 32. Vi­va­lyn Lat­ty-Hall took 3 for 65 runs, Pa­tri­cia Whit­tak­er 2 for 13 runs and Dorothy Hob­son 2 for 36 runs.

The West In­dies ca­pit­u­lat­ed in their sec­ond in­nings for 88 runs in 76.3 overs. Glo­ria Gill top scored with 34 runs. Shub­han­gi Kulka­rni took 4 wick­ets for 14 runs, and Sharmi­la Chakraborty took 3 for 17 runs; they were the main de­stroy­ers.

Set 55 runs to win, Di­ana Edulji 20 not out and Fowzieh Khalili en­sured In­dia got over the line af­ter los­ing 5 wick­ets. No­ra St Rose's valiant ef­fort re­sult­ed in 3 wick­ets for 21 runs.

In­dia went in­to the fifth test in Luc­know, No­vem­ber 21-13, de­ter­mined to main­tain their ad­van­tage. The match end­ed in a draw. Wick­et-keep­er open­er Fowzieh Khalili con­tin­ued her fine form with 84 runs as In­dia made 215 runs for nine wick­ets de­clared in 127 overs.

Shob­ha Pan­dit 25 runs, Ra­jesh­wari Dho­lakia 24 not out, and Shub­han­gi Kulka­rni 22 runs of­fered valu­able sup­port to Khalili. Off-spin­ner Vi­va­lyn Lat­ty-Scott took 4 wick­ets for 69 runs, Pa­tri­cia Whit­tak­er took 2 wick­ets for 31 runs, and Sh­eryl Bay­ley took 2 wick­ets for 37 runs and were chief West In­dies wick­et-tak­ers.

Af­ter bat­ting for 113.5 overs, the West In­dies took a 34-run lead on first in­nings, fin­ish­ing 249 runs all out. Leila Williams struck her maid­en Test half-cen­tu­ry, mak­ing 63 runs. She was aid­ed by Yolande Ged­des-Hall (42 runs), cap­tain Louise Browne (41 runs) and Sh­eryl Bay­ley (35 runs). Shub­han­gi Kulka­rni took 5 wick­ets for 68 runs, and Di­ana Edulji took 3 for 61. In­dia closed the test match on 2 wick­ets for 97 runs off 54 overs with Fowzieh Khalili scor­ing 41 runs not out. Dorothy Hob­son snared both wick­ets for 29 runs.

The West In­dies en­tered the last test in Jam­mu, No­vem­ber 27-29, need­ing to score a his­toric first win. An all-round team ef­fort en­sured they se­cured their first test win in 8 at­tempts, and the se­ries was drawn.

Medi­um-fast bowlers Peg­gy Fair­weath­er took 4 wick­ets for 10 runs, and No­ra St. Rose took 2 wick­ets for 26 runs, re­strict­ing In­dia to 121 all out in 87.3 overs. On­ly cap­tain Shan­tha Ran­gaswamy, with 63 runs not out, of­fered any sig­nif­i­cant re­sis­tance.

In re­ply, the West In­dies took an 89-run lead on the bat of Vi­va­lyn Lat­ty-Scott, un­beat­en with 51 runs; Pa­tri­cia Whit­tak­er, 42 not out; Glo­ria Gill, 35 runs; and cap­tain Louise Browne, 22 runs.

Shub­han­gi Kulka­rni took 4 wick­ets for 48 runs, and Di­ana Edulji took 2 for 50.

Trail­ing by 89 runs, medi­um-fast bowlers Leila Williams (4 wick­ets for 30 runs) and Pa­tri­cia Whit­tak­er (3 wick­ets for 9 runs) and off-spin­ner Sh­eryl Bay­ley (2 wick­ets for 2 runs) con­demned In­dia to de­feat by an in­nings and 24 runs as they were bowled out for 65 runs.