My role was to take it deep – Smriti Mandhana on her sixth ODI ton

Smriti Mandhana led the charge for the Indian women on Sunday afternoon as she scored her sixth ODI century. It was based on her batting that saw Team India riding high against the Proteas while cameos from Deepti Sharma and Pooja Vastrakar also steadied the Indian ship.

Mandhana scored 117 from 127 balls, clobbering 12 fours and a six against the formidable bowling unit of the visitors. She also won the Player of the Match award for her game-defining century. Talking at the post-match presentation, she highlighted how she intended to pace her innings while heaping plaudits on Deepti Sharma and Pooja Vastrakar.

Smriti said, “We won the match so really happy that I could contribute, important to start the tournament well, we got 100+ win, nothing better than that. As I said earlier, it was really a task not to go aerial and go for the grounded shots, we have played a lot of T20 cricket, today the need was for partnerships, credit to Deepti and Pooja for getting those.”

She further added, “It was playing the situation. In one-day cricket and white-ball cricket, there will be days when one or two batters will carry the team. My role was to take it deep, once I was set, having got to 30-40. I don't think anyone got out after getting set and that was the role given to me.”