India took the game to the Super over, where they secured the contest by four runs, giving Australia women their first T20I loss of the year while the Indian vice-captain, feels it was the most full-grown opening partnership she’s had with Shafali.
Chasing 188 for a win, India took the game to the Super Over, where they secured the contest by four runs, giving Australia women their first T20I loss of the year. The foundation of the win was laid by a 76-run opening stand in 52 balls by Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Varma.
The Indian vice-captain, feels it was the most full-grown opening partnership she’s had with Shafali; one that didn’t resort to a ‘bang-bang’ approach.
“We have days when she’s batting well, and I give her singles,”
Mandhana said in the post-match press conference.
“There are days when it happens the other way around as well. Today we didn’t go bang-bang. We were a little calculative. Good on her as well. Whenever she hit a six, she looked to take a single as well. This was the most mature power play we’ve had. Going bang-bang is very easy. But chasing down such a total with having a calculative approach in the power play, and not losing out on wickets, is something (good).”
However, the contest went into the Super Over, it was Mandhana who took over again, smashing two sixes off Heather Graham (who had previously registered figures of 3 for 22 from her 4-over spell).
“We hadn’t imagined that we will have a super over tonight, and in the Super Over – with the likes of Richa and Shafali – I would go out to bat. I am a believer in visualization, but I hadn’t (thought about this).
“I was pretty blank. Had nothing (in my mind). When I hit the first six, I was very excited and pumped up. I’m not the kind of person people can understand from the outside what’s going on in my head. But when I hit the first six, I was like ‘wow’, it was massive. After that when she (Richa Ghosh) got out, me and Harman decided that we will try to hit boundaries and not a six. If we would’ve gotten out, it would’ve been over. We had to try and hit boundaries. The six I did hit, I was trying to hit a boundary. I was really, really blank.”
“I would have loved to visualize something like this, but I hadn’t. But now this has happened, I will start visualizing if something comes up.”
“When we are chasing, we do have a lot of calculations. As a batting unit team, we would love to work on our first innings game a little more and be a little more calculative. It’s not the easiest thing to do. Everyone in world cricket struggles in the first innings of T20. But definitely as a team, we need to improve that.
“Australia is an amazing team. They have been very consistent with the kind of batting lineup and fielding they have. But we back ourselves to go out there and beat them. We haven’t been able to come good in the close matches we have had with them. But we have given them a good fight whenever we have played them. Close matches are something the entire team is working on. Still, not a lot is going our way. People are adapting to the pressure.”
