India women all-rounder Deepti Sharma was elated to be able to contribute with both bat and ball against England Women as India pulled out a thrilling draw on June 19 (Saturday) in Bristol.
The left-handed batter played an unbeaten knock of 29 in the first innings and scalped three wickets before being promoted to number three in the second innings in the one-off Test against England.
The all-rounder said she got a lot of confidence by playing well in the first innings and when she was given the opportunity to bat at No. 3 in the second innings, she took the opportunity with both hands, scoring 54 runs as well as stitching an important 70 runs partnership with Shafali Verma.
Deepti told ANI during a virtual press conference: “Of course, this is the Test format, when I played in the first innings, I got a lot of confidence. I was trying to play close to my body and in the second innings, I was promoted to number three. I was just trying to take it session by session, whatever messages I was receiving, I was trying to play according to that.”
Sharing her very first experience of playing a Test match, the all-rounder said: “Of course, a Test match requires a lot of patience both in bowling and batting. I got a lot of messages from my home and my dad, this match was very special for me. Every member in the team supported me, Ramesh Powar sir helped me in my bowling.”
On her stand with Shafali for the second wicket, Sharma said: “The plan was to go session by session. When Shafali is batting with you, you feel like that there will be boundaries scored consistently. We enjoy it when we are batting alongside her. I try to enjoy the situations and I like to play in pressure situations, I was pretty relaxed.”
She signed off by saying, “When you think more, it hampers your game and it is best when you try to play according to the situation. We were keeping it simple. I was reacting to the ball, and our plan was to stay as long as possible in the middle.”
(With ANI Inputs)
