‘She’s batting well, should score at least one 50’ – Aakash Chopra opens up on expectations from star India batter
Aakash Chopra’s expectations from Smriti Mandhana (Source: Twitter)
India cricketer turned commentator Aakash Chopra hopes Smriti Mandhana can break her half-century drought during her spell with Bangalore in the inaugural edition of the Women’s T20 League. The afternoon match on Tuesday, March 21, will take place between the two teams at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
The Delhi and the UP will play in the evening match in the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. Chopra expressed hope that Smriti Mandhana would finish her tournament on a winning note while previewing the Bangalore-Mumbai game on the “AakashVani” show on JioCinema, saying,
“Sophie Devine – she is batting amazingly well. Smriti Mandhana – she should score one 50 at least; it has not happened until now. Hayley Matthews will be in front of her here as well, but it will be good if she scores runs.”
Aakash Chopra predicted a Mumbai win
Despite having two of the best run scorers in the competition, the former Indian opener said that RCB’s poor performance was due to their weak bowling, explaining, “Ellyse Perry has scored runs there. In fact, if you talk about the top five run-getters, you will see Sophie Devine and Ellyse Perry, but the team didn’t reach anywhere because they have not picked up wickets.”
“Mumbai need to register a win because you have lost two consecutive matches. It will be better if you register a win with a good margin so that you can ask Delhi to win with a bigger margin in the last game. There are a lot of advantages of finishing at No. 1. In any case; you don’t want to go to the playoffs or the eliminator with three back-to-back losses. To avoid that, you will have to play better cricket, which you have not done in the last two matches. It is still a fantastic team, so I am expecting them to play well.”, Chopra said.
Chopra continued by projecting that Mumbai would defeat Bangalore because they are the superior team. He suggested they would want to win by a wide margin to pressure Delhi and that merely winning might not be enough.
