England Women’s all-rounder Nat Sciver has admitted that the hosts were wary of the threat posed by Poonam Yadav and also did homework against the Indian spinner after her team won the first match of the three-match T20I series by 18 runs via the DLS method on Friday (July 9) in Northampton.

Sciver was the star of the show at The County Ground on Friday, as the all-rounder contributed with both the bat and ball to help England win the T20I series-opening game against India Women.

Apart from returning with brilliant figures of 1/16 in 2 overs, she also smashed a joint-fastest fifty (55 runs off 27 balls) by an England woman in the first T20I against India on Friday in Northampton.

As reported by ESPNcricinfo, Sciver said after the game: “It [Poonam's bowling] is something we've been mindful of over the last couple of years, back in the [2018] T20 World Cup as well.”

Read Also: ENGW v INDW 2021: Indian Politicians react to Harleen Deol's jaw dropping catch

She further added on Yadav, “She, obviously, bowls very slowly, but I guess my strength in general, off-spin, is back-foot [shots] and to be able to read it whether or not it's short enough for me to get onto the back foot -- it's important as well as meeting the ball when you can on the front foot. We've faced her a lot and done quite a bit of homework on her. Think we played her pretty well today.”

On scoring the brisk half-century in the first T20I, the star all-rounder said the wicket was good but she wasn't thinking to score runs quickly. She said, “[It] felt good. I wasn't thinking about the speed of it. When I did get the strike, I was thinking quite boundary-oriented.”

Sciver signed off by saying, “I knew the wicket was quite good and that with their batters we needed to get a good score. It was good to bat through the innings and then get a partnership with Amy [Jones] to get us up to a good total.”

(With ANI Inputs)