Smriti Mandhana scored her maiden T20 century in the first match against England.
Smriti Mandhana has revealed how a conversation with her teammate Radha Yadav inspired her to score her maiden T20 century.
“Three days ago, Radha Yadav and I were having a chat,” Mandhana said. “These girls are very difficult for me sometimes. She was telling me, ‘It’s time you scored a hundred in T20s, you are getting out at 70, 80 and you are not doing justice to your talent and things like that.’
“I thought, ‘Okay, Radha, now I will see, this time I will try to achieve this feat in one of the matches of the series.'”
Upon reaching this milestone, Mandhana became the second Indian batsman to score a century in women’s T20I and the fifth woman cricketer to score a century in all three international formats. She joined an exclusive club with Heather Knight, Tammy Beaumont, Laura Wolvaardt and Beth Mooney.
Mandhana said that as soon as Radha reached this milestone, he greeted her by pointing towards her from the middle. For her, it was a sign of happiness as well as relief.
“I didn’t think it would come in the first match but fingers crossed that ‘look, I achieved it today’,” Mandhana said. “Because in the last ten years it is quite disappointing to get out in the 70s and 80s and that is when you had a chance to take the team forward. So I am happy that I could stay and take the team till the 19th and 20th overs.”
Mandhana took over as captain when Harmanpreet Kaur was unavailable due to fitness delays and said the added responsibility did not affect her batting role.
“As a batsman, it doesn’t change much. You don’t think that you are captaining and you bat differently,” Mandhana said. “Whenever you have the bat in your hand, you have to do the job for the team, no matter what situation you are in, so I am really happy that I could contribute today.”
For more news – ClickHere
Follow us on – SocialMedia