India opener Smriti Mandhana admitted that she had some nervous moments when her score was in the 90s and prayed to some gods to ask the fielder to drop her catch.
Like her century against the West Indies in the 2017 Women’s Cricket World Cup, Smriti faced a few nervous moments before crossing the three-figure mark, with a dropped catch at 94, followed by a bouncer and lbw appeal included.
After all, he made it one of the main architects, scoring 123 in India’s 155-run win against West Indies at Seddon Park on Saturday.
“I was a little nervous today in the nineties and I was a little nervous about that ball going up in the air and I prayed to two, three gods to please let the player drop it. And she (Alia Allene) let it down So I should really thank him because otherwise I would have got out on 96,” Smriti said in the post-match virtual press conference.
Smriti further explained how her innings of 123 runs in 119 balls was different from her usual big innings.
He said, ‘It was not like a mango I just went in the flow and I started playing my shots. So really glad I was able to put some brakes on my scoring rate and play according to the situation and then contribute and mainly I think contributed to India’s win. I look forward to it every day when I come out to bat. So I’m glad I could do that today.”
“It’s come a long way. I’ve been getting out a lot in the 70’s and 80’s. So something that I was consciously thinking that if I feel like playing the shot, I don’t have to stop myself I’ll just go with the flow and I’ll just go with the ball. That’s how I started my innings. So it’s something I was really working on. Hopefully I’ll always be like this and I will convert 60s and 70s into big scores because I think if we do that, India will be in a good position.”
Smriti then praised Harmanpreet Kaur for her 109 off 107 balls and even won her the player of the match award at the post-match presentation ceremony.
“I think she is a very important part of our batting order, especially in the middle order. I am really happy that she is back in form and I think from the practice game, she is batting well , so we are really confident that she will be able to score runs in this tournament and I am glad that she has got back-to-back 50s.”
“Most importantly, I think today’s century will give him a lot of confidence and I think the whole team as well because we weren’t in a great place and from there it was time for him to come and bat and get us out. We weren’t in a great place. of that situation. I think it was an incredible innings.”
Explaining the level of comfort that Smriti signed in her partnership with Harmanpreet, who became the first player from India to score three centuries in the Women’s Cricket World Cup.
“It is always fun to bat with Harry (Harmanpreet). We’ve batted a lot in T20s, I think I’ve been a part of that in the last six or seven years, I’ve had a lot of partnerships with him and we’ve always complemented each other.”
“So, it’s really fun to bat with him and I think we share a really good bond on and off the field and I think we all have a really good bond as a batting unit, so when we We all share a good bond when we bat, it just depends on the situation – like once we are set – I think once it is set the jokes go on – so the same thing happened today That when we had to set, we started joking around a little bit more. And we ended up smiling a little bit more.”
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