Ahmedabad, Oct 30 Vice-captain Smriti Mandhana led by example with a fine hundred as India beat New Zealand by six wickets in the third women’s ODI to win the three-match series 2-1 here on Tuesday.
Chasing 233, India completed the task in 44.2 overs. Mandhana made exactly 100 runs, while skipper Harmanpreet Kaur remained not out on 59.
Earlier, middle-order batter Brooke Halliday struck a 96-ball 86 and lifted New Zealand from a precarious 88/5 to 232 all out.
Looking to win the series and regain some lost ground after their early exit in the recent T20 World Cup, India achieved their objective with the series win.
Deepti Sharma, Player of the Series, said I enjoy myself on the field and that’s what takes the pressure off me. Try to keep it simple. Just wanted to believe in myself, such matches happen so was just thinking about how I can contribute. Had faith in myself and was able to do even better today. Wicket was such that it was skidding nicely sometimes, as a bowler you had to vary pace. Needed to consider how the batters were playing as well, varied my pace accordingly. Mindset will be the same, would like to do even better in future matches.
Harmanpreet Kaur, India Captain, said, As I said in the morning, we discussed a lot of things and really happy we could execute today. Whenever we play, we always want to give our 100% but sometimes things don’t go your way. As a professional cricketer you have to keep pushing yourself and keep going. We discussed these things in the team meeting so really happy we could come back after that loss in the last game. Would like to give credit to Smriti, she was struggling early on but she managed to get runs. It was important for us as we wanted to win this series at any cost. Really happy about our partnership. Always talking about our fielding, that’s an area we need to keep working hard. We are working hard but just waiting for the results till the time we can be the best fielding side.
Smriti Mandhana, Player of the Match, said,p Really pleased to get the series win. As I said in the first game, it has been a tough 1 and a half months for this team. The first two games didn’t go my way so really happy I could get a score today. It was more about controlling my shots, you don’t bat the same way everyday. You’re in the best frame some days and you’re not other days. Had to be little hard on myself early on and wait for the first 10 overs to go before taking the game on. For me what works is the harder way. Need to do it for the team first. Getting out early means I’ve let the team down and that thought doesn’t let me sleep well. As a cricketer you are going to get highs and lows, you need to keep the routine the same.
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