Indian women’s cricket team all-rounder Deepti Sharma said she has now got better in reading and handling difficult match situations and enjoys playing in pressure situations after she contributed with both bat and ball in the tourists’ T20I series-leveling victory against England.
Chasing 149 on Sunday (July 11) in Hove, England’s opener Tammy Beaumont (59) and skipper Heather Knight (30) were taking the control of the side after a top-order collapse and looking to take the hosts to a great position, but Deepti dismissed them off successive balls in the 14th over to bring India Women cricket team back into the match, as after their dismissal nobody can score more than 11 runs.
She dismissed Beaumont as well as ran out Knight to help India beat England by 8 runs to level the three-match T20I series 1-1 on Sunday. She also scored unbeaten 24 runs off 27 balls, as her all-round efforts earned her Player of the Match award in the second T20I in Hove.
Deepti said during the post-match virtual press conference: “I like playing in pressure situations, whether it is in any position in the team - batting, bowling, or fielding. As an all-rounder, I just want to contribute to my department and take the team forward.”
She continued, “I like leading from the front, like in domestic tournaments when I play as a senior player and win matches for my team, that gives different confidence. When you bring that confidence here, of course, this platform is not easy but it depends on how you handle it. I now know how to read and handle situations, so I find it easy to play because I know I can handle things easily now.”
On the wicket of Beaumont, the 23-year-old spinner said: “It was a crucial over and crucial wicket. Earlier also we had taken a DRS but we were unlucky. Next, when I bowled, it was the umpire's call and it was hitting the stumps, it gave us a lot of confidence. We bounced back after that and then the run-out helped us to pull out the match.”
On her batting in the second T20I, the left-hander said: “When I was batting, I was looking forward to building a partnership and also score 6 to 7 runs per over. That was the mindset but we couldn't score as much as we wanted. We had got a good start, we thought we can score 160 but the 140 total wasn't bad because we knew as a bowling unit, we bowl in partnership and we were supporting each other and we could defend the total.”
She signed off by saying on the Hove wicket, “Actually wicket was holding up a bit. In the last match, the ball was coming onto the bat but today it was holding, it was slightly slow off the pitch, so it was little difficult batting.”
India will play England in the third and final T20I – the last game of their UK tour on July 14.
(With PTI Inputs)
