Gold Coast: India opener Smriti Mandhana has familiarized herself with a pink ball in her kit bag for the past three months, watching it on and off while trying to “understand” it. When the idea came up, little did Mandhana know that her team would enter their first day/night Test match with the pink ball with just two days of training sessions. The idea of keeping the colored ball around him worked well for the stylish player, who was batting a scintillating 80. Bad weather brought an end to the opening day of their historic Test against a strong Australia side.
“We had just two seasons with the pink ball. I was coming from the Hundred (in England) so I didn’t really get much time to play with the pink ball, but during the Hundred, I just ordered a pink Kookaburra ball, just to keep it in my room because I know Was that there was going to be a Test match, so that I could just see and understand the ball. “I haven’t actually batted, I batted for just two seasons but the pink ball was in my kit bag for the last two and a half, three months. I don’t know why I kept it, I thought I would have a session but I really didn’t get time to do that,” Mandhana said during a virtual press conference on Thursday. Mandhana started the rain-hit opening day Career best innings by Indian women’s cricket team, scoring 132 for 1 with elegance written in it.
Further speaking on his preparation for the Pink Ball Test, he said, “I don’t think we had much time to work on it, we are just trying. The people who are sitting outside really helped. He kept me upbeat throughout the day, he contributed to keep me focused like I am today,” Mandhana said. The Indian star said that his plan was only to play according to the merit, not over complicate things.
“I didn’t want to just look at the scorecard, just trying to be blank and simple, play according to the ball. I didn’t really plan anything. “The last two days I felt good, felt that I am capable of batting well. I will try to do that tomorrow as I don’t want to complicate things.” She is not even thinking of a century, just focusing on batting and at the same time she can help the team to score well in the first innings.” Not thinking about the triple figure at the moment, The team needs my good batting and in the process if I get one, I’m just looking at the ball and reacting.” Mandhana is overjoyed to be a part of a multi-format tour of a tough cricket playing country like Australia. She said, “I am loving this multi format series, go and bat with some slips and gullies so you have to apply yourself, that really tests you.. you have to focus.. switch Must be switched on and off.”
“Test cricket is always about different challenges and we always want to play as many Tests as possible.” Hosts Australia elected to bat after winning the toss but did not enjoy a good start to the game. “He bowled a little less in the first 15 overs but made it in the later stages. Now we are used to batting first but the kind of wicket it looked like we would have batted first too. But, now looking at the scoreboard, We are happy to bat first.
Mandhana said, “When such situations arise, the openers will have to come forward and provide good base.”
“I think because India is so huge, we have different ways of growing up. I played a lot of cricket on matting till I was 15, it gives a lot of bounce on that,” he said with his young opening partner. Huge compliments to Shafali Verma (31) with whom Mandhana put on 93 runs for the first wicket. We had a 150-run partnership between England. We just try to support each other, we have a good conversation She was batting really well on this wicket. Mandhana seems to have slowed down towards the end of the day, but it had nothing to do with the brakes caused by lightning and rain.
“It had more to do with field placement and not brakes.” Australia captain Meg Lanning admitted that her team could not make it under most conditions. “I think we shortened a touch and allowed them to play a little bit more. Backfoot. We took some time to adjust to the conditions. We have a good plan for tomorrow and just put them into action, Lanning said.
He praised Mandhana for showing “excellent nature to hit the bad balls and defend the good balls”. “He has played very well so far, has shown how to adapt to this format. But we think we are still in the game.” .
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