Whatever is in my slot, I'll go for it – Smriti Mandhana on the success behind her match-winning century

Smriti Mandhana, who regained the top spot on the ICC WODI batting rankings a couple of days ago, continued her fine form in the ongoing bilateral series between India-W and Australia-W.

Following up on a fifty in the first ODI, Smriti’s century in the second game helped the Women in Blue pile up 292 on the board, following which the Indian bowlers restricted Australia to just 190.

Smriti’s 117 off 91 balls was more than enough to win her the Player of the Match award for the second ODI. Talking at the post-match presentation, Mandhana opened up at length about the feeling of scoring a ton in the winning cause. She also underlined how the surface was reacting and spoke on her partnership with Pratika Rawal at the start of the innings.

Talking about her knock, Mandhana said, “The last two hundreds which I got against Australia were in the losing cause, happy that we won the match today. The game-plan was simple. In the powerplay, you have to make use of the two fielders out, try and play your shots and build the innings. Whatever is in my slot, I'll go for it. It all depends on the conditions and who we play. You know the Australian team and you need to get 280-290 so that our bowlers get those 20-30 runs extra cushion.”

Highlighting how she wanted to time the innings, Mandhana added, “It all depends on the surface. The wicket is really flat and i had to be aggressive. Throughout the World Cup as well, I wouldn't have one game completely where I wouldn't be aggressive but depending on the conditions, we change.”

She capped it off with a word about her partnership with Pratika Rawal, a stand that has done really well for India in recent times, adding, “We both complement each other well, she's pretty calm and composed, same goes with me. We don't complicate stuff, we just do our stuff. It's going well, hopefully it just keeps going well.”