IND W vs ENG W 1st T20I: Smriti Mandhana opens up on maiden T20I ton vs ENG

In the first T20I match against England`s women`s cricket team, Team India`s stand-in captain, Smriti Mandhana, played a knock of 112 runs off just 62 deliveries. Her knock also included 15 boundaries and three maximums.

This also marked a maiden century in the shortest format of the game.

Speaking about her knock in the post-match press conference, the left-hander stated that it was pretty special as the T20I format is not one of her strengths.

“It`s a nice feeling because this format is something which, for me as a batter, I need to keep pushing and keep improving. It`s not a very natural format for me,” Mandhana said during the post-match press conference

“So, to actually get a hundred in this format, getting it before in Test cricket and one-day cricket which are more suited to my batting, but getting it in this format is pretty special because it`s not one of my strengths,” she added.

Mandhana went on to say that she is not a big hitter of the ball and likes to time the delivery while playing.

“I like to time the ball; (I`m) not a big hitter of the ball and, for the last six years, it`s always (been) a work in progress and it`s still a work in progress,” said the 28-year-old.

She also added by saying she is trying to work on her power hitting skills. “The improvement… and I`m trying to work a lot on my power hitting and to see that come through, which is a really nice feeling,” she said.

Mandhana then revealed her conversation with teammate Radha Yadav saying that conversations with her was the driving force behind her maiden T20 century.

“That`s actually a funny story. I think three days back, me and Radha Yadav were having a conversation that, (and) you know all these girls are really hard on me sometimes, they keep telling me (and) she was telling me that it`s high time you get a century in T20s,” said the Mumbai-born batter.

“`You keep getting out in 70s, 80s and you`re not doing justice to your talent` and all of that stuff. I was like, `okay Radha, I will see now`. This time, I`ll try and get (it) in one of the matches in the series. I did not think that it would come in the first match. The finger was towards her that `see, I got it today`. It`s pretty frustrating to get out in the 70s and 80s over the last 10 years,” she added.

Along with Mandhana, Harleen Deol smashed 43 runs off 23 balls, including seven boundaries. With this, they posted a total of 210 runs for the loss of five wickets. Later, while defending the target of 211 runs, Nallapureddy Charani bagged four wickets. She was accompanied by Deepti Sharma and Radha Yadav, who claimed two wickets each. Amanjot Kaur and Arundhati Reddy, too, registered one wicket each to their names. England women were bowled out for 113 runs in 14.5 overs.

Later, Team India won the first T20I match by 97 runs and secured a lead of 1-0 in the five-match series against England.

(With PTI Inputs)

This article first appeared on Mid Day