India Women's all-rounder Sneh Rana has revealed that England players resorted to “constant sledging” to disturb them but said that it only boosted them up as the visitors earned an epic draw in the one-off Test on June 19 at Bristol County Ground in Bristol.
Indian debutants Shafali Verma (96 and 63), Deepti Sharma (3/65, 29* and 54), Taniya Bhatia ( 44*), and Sneh Rana (4/131, 2 and 80*) took the center stage to help Indian women pull off a thrilling a draw after being asked to follow-on by England Woman.
Needing two wickets in the final session, England bowlers used all the tactics with close-in fielders constantly sledging but Sneh and Bhatia remained unfazed and scripted heroic efforts by stitching century-plus unbroken nine-wicket partnership to help India draw the one-off Test in Bristol.
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Rana said at a virtual post-match conference on Saturday night: “It was their job to disturb us, and they kept on doing so many things to achieve their goal. We did not pay any attention and kept on talking to each other after every ball, be it from far or getting closer. It boosted us up. We just wanted to do it for our team. That was the only conversation we had in the middle.”
She added, “There was no nervousness. We just wanted to play our basics. There was sledging in the middle but we both decided to just focus on our batting and put in extra focus. I don't think much and just keep myself busy. I didn't want the situation to take over me so that I could play my natural game.”
On her unbeaten knock of 80 at No.8 in her first match for India after five years and missing a century on Test debut, the spin all-rounder said: “I didn't think about the century. The team wanted me to stay so I was just playing ball-by-ball and contributing for the team.”
On her 70 runs partnership with Shafali, Deepti Sharma: “Actually, it was about starting all over again and play session by session. I always enjoy batting with Shafali, we know there will be sixes, boundaries anytime when she is playing.”
She signed off by saying, “I got a lot of confidence from my knock in the first innings, I just wanted to play close to my body in the second innings. I just played session-by-session.”
(With PTI Inputs)
