We want to be in the loop for the World Cup – Smriti Mandhana buoyed by India's performance against Ireland
The Indian women's team put on a show to remember in the final ODI of the three-match series against Ireland, as Smriti Mandhana’s windy 135, Pratika Rawal’s rollicking 154 and a combined effort from the bowlers helped the hosts pocket a record 304-run win.
Mandhana, captaining the team in the absence of Harmanpreet Kaur, opened up about the positives for the Women in Blue from the series, indexing on how the roaring performance in this WODI series against Ireland will only help Team India build betters for the upcoming World Cup.
Highlighting the positives, Smriti Mandhana said, “I'm really pleased that all the girls got a good game-time. As much you do it in the nets, going out there and scoring runs matters the most. The 100s and 50s from the batters have been really good. I'm happy for them and the bowlers also executed their plans well. Near perfect game for sure, winning the toss and going into bat and scoring 400-plus is a really good achievement. One thing is that I told the bowlers to bowl them out in the 31st over and they achieved that.”
Shedding some light on her intent, Mandhana added, “It was pretty much planned today, not many matches you go out there and you start taking on from the get-go, the wicket was good and the outfield was fast. Sometimes it comes off and sometimes it doesn't, I'm happy that it came off today. There are so many things, as much as we want to enjoy the series win today, we want to be in the loop for the World Cup.”
She concluded with a note for the future, adding, “Maybe we will have a reminder tomorrow on what we want to work on. We really want to work on our fielding and running between the wickets. These two things will be crucial and if we are good in these two departments, hopefully, we can do something special in the World Cup.”
