‘We understood our mistakes…’ Smriti Mandhana decodes India’s performance against West Indies

Ahead of the upcoming Women’s 20-20 World Cup 2023, India is playing a tri-series against hosts South Africa and the West Indies. The Women In Blue have played two games and are unbeaten in the series so far. In the game against the Caribbeans, the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side dominated the game throughout. Opening batter Smriti Mandhana and skipper Kaur took the game away from the opposition.

Meanwhile, after the game, the former said that the team learned from their mistakes from the first game. For the unversed, in the game against the Proteas, India was restricted to 147/6w with no batter scoring a fifty. However, the Indian bowlers won the game for the team as they restricted the home side to 120/9. Meanwhile, the left-hander, Mandhana added the team discussed a plan of playing cautiously at the start.

“I think the wicket was similar. But after the first game, we understood our mistakes and learned how to bat on that wicket. That is what we discussed; we did not want to go hard from the start and that’s what the team asked me to do. When Harmanpreet came out we could score more freely and get that score,” said Mandhana in a post-match presentation.

India registered an emphatic win against the West Indies

Meanwhile, talking about the game, the Asian champions won the toss and elected to bat first. They had a slow start as Yastika Bhatia struggled with the bat and could only score 18 off 23 balls. Harleen Deol (12) was trapped lbw in the ninth over with 52 runs on the board. At this stage, the likes of Kaur and Mandhana stitched an unbeaten partnership of 115 runs for the third wicket. Both batters scored the fifties.

In reply, the Maroon Brigade was restricted to 111/4, losing the game by 56.