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For India, Trent Bridge must feel rather like a home from home.
While the temperatures in Nottingham on a balmy Saturday afternoon certainly felt more suited to the subcontinent, there is clearly something else that makes this venue a landmark destination for those who grace it while wearing blue and orange.
The most populous nation on earth has long been one of the planet’s foremost cricketing powerhouses in the men’s game, but on a sunny midsummer’s day, Smriti Mandhana issued an unignorable statement that India’s women are just as noteworthy.
Three years ago, Suryakumar Yadav went stratospheric for India in a men’s IT20 at Trent Bridge with a barnstorming 117, though the tourists fell short on that occasion.
This time, during England’s first-ever visit to this venue for a women’s IT20, it was global superstar Mandhana who stole the headlines; and this time, the tourists made no mistake as regards the result.
Standing in as India captain for the injured Harmanpreet Kaur, Mandhana - the reigning Wisden Leading Women’s Cricketer in the World - slammed an awe-inspiring 112 off 62 to guide her nation to a crushing 97-run victory, piling up 210-5.
As she became the first woman to hit an IT20 hundred at Trent Bridge, Mandhana rewrote the record books on several different pages.
She now holds the second-highest individual IT20 score by anyone of any gender at Trent Bridge, but, perhaps most strikingly, she is now the only Indian woman to score international centuries in all three formats.
No corner of Trent Bridge escaped her wrath, but it was the midwicket region in which she was most productive; this was where all three of her sixes cleared the boundary and where 41 of her runs in total came from.
In an about-turn, though, the boundaries that separately took her to fifty and to three figures were carted through the off-side, as she provided even more fiery fuel to the hazy heat around Trent Bridge.
Despite the resistance displayed by Mandhana’s opposite number Nat Sciver-Brunt, who hit 66 from 41 in her first game at her home ground as England captain, the tourists proved they are not to be taken lightly.
India were commanding with the bat, strong with the ball, and athletic in the field as they struck at the very heart of English cricket with an agenda-setting win.
For England, while all is not lost - this is only the first of a five-match series - there will be much consideration for new captain Sciver-Brunt and new coach Charlotte Edwards.
The duo have been in charge for two months, and this series is being cited as the first real test of the new era following a warm-up whitewash of West Indies.
But if anyone is capable of steering them back on the right path, it is the experienced Sciver-Brunt, and the legendary Edwards.
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