While leading India in the absence of regular T20I skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana did look a touch out of her comfort during the first game of the three-match series against England at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati on Monday (March 4).
Batting first, the visitors were able to post a very good total of 160/4 in their 20 overs without much pressure being applied over them in terms of the field as well as adequate bowling changes.
And hence, Mandhana was left a bit deflated after her team's 41-run loss. But she seemed determined at the same time to make a roaring comeback with a victory in the next encounter on March 7.
"I was leading the team for the first time and I’ve got a lot of takeaways from it," she said afterwards. "As a captain, I’ve to learn from the mistakes I made today else I won’t learn. I won’t be able to improve as a captain."
"We had two sets of plans for each batter if the first wasn’t working we were going to the second plan. We’ll plan better and I’ll be more pro-active next time."
During the run-chase, India lost three early wickets - Harleen Deol (8), Mandhana (2) and Jemimah Rodrigues (2) - and never recovered from that. Even the likes of Mithali Raj (7), Veda Krishnamurthy (15) and Deepti Sharma (22) failed on the day. The hosts later ended their innings at only 119/6 from 20 overs.
"In the opening, we lost a wicket in the third over, then I too lost my wicket. So there was a difference in the start which was visible on the scoreboard," Mandhana added.
"In T20s two wickets should not fall in the span of three or four balls. We lost our top three batters in the span of three balls. I think that makes the batting order look very thin. As a batting unit, we should take the responsibility to chase this kind of total."
"As a batter, I feel top four are playing for a long time now. Me, Mithali (Raj), Jemimah (Rodrigues) we’ll have to take more responsibility to bat through and take the team through because we have to give cushions to youngsters."
(Inputs from PTI)
