India Women vs New Zealand Women | We decided to keep it simple after watching Men’s match, reveals Smriti Mandhana

Pretty much like the Men in Blue, the Indian women’s cricket team also got off to a great start in the three-match ODI series against New Zealand as they won the first game by nine wickets in Napier. Mandhana scored a hundred in the run-chase of only 193 runs as the Indian women made a short work of the chase after Ekta Bisht and Poonam Yadav scalped three wickets each in the first half of the game.

Mandhana said after the match that as they were batting for the first time in New Zealand, they had to watch the Indian Men’s team game to get a bit of idea about the track in Napier. According to the opener, they decided to play according to the merit of the ball.

"This was the first time we were batting in New Zealand, and we didn't really know. We watched a bit of the men's match and also how the first innings went. So we decided to just keep it simple, play according to the merit of the ball," Mandhana said after the match, reported PTI. 

"Initially we just played according to the merit of the ball. We just had to react to the ball, because they had good pacers. The plan was to see how the new ball was doing.”

Mandhana and the other opener Jemimah Rodrigues had a wonderful start to the run-chase as the duo added 190 runs for the opening wicket. Mandhana, however, got out for 105 off 104 balls with only three more runs to win for the Indian side. She regretted getting out at that stage and being unable to finish the match. 

"I have a thing of getting out in the 70s and 80s, so I had to talk to myself, 'don't hit any rash shots, don't hit any lofted shots, just play in singles and doubles'. I'm really happy with that aspect," the left-hander said.

"I was able to stick in and guide the team through. Again, if I'd scored three runs I would have been a lot happier.”

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