
Mandhana has faith in her side ahead of the World Cup while saying fielding was one area India can improve on .
Mandhana: ‘Huge belief in the whole team that we can win from any point’.
With a 63-ball 125, Smriti Mandhana gave India a good chance to knock down Australia’s 412, which was their joint-highest ODI total that day. Her 50-ball hundred was the second-fastest in all Women’s ODIs.
India was bowled out for 369 when the chase eventually stalled out despite half-centuries from Nos. 4 and 5 from captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Deepti Sharma. India suffered a 2-1 defeat in the three-match series.
Mandhana, who concluded the series as its leading run scorer (300 runs) and produced a match-winning century in the second ODI, denied that India’s batting lineup is overly reliant on her and said she did not feel under too much pressure to carry out the heavy work at the top of the order.
Mandhana’s show of faith
“Everyone [in the Indian side] is a match-winner – not only [the] 11 but all the 15 who are part of the team are match-winners,” Mandhana said. “I never look at anyone thinking that they are adding any pressure on me or anyone, for that case.
“Secondly I have a huge belief in the whole team, that from any point we can still win the match. That is never going to change with one or two results. If you see in the last 12-odd months we’ve got 300 or 300-plus even when I’ve got out so that doesn’t really say anything about the batting reliance on anyone. Pratika [Rawal], Harleen [Deol], Jemimah [Rodrigues], Harman, everyone’s got a hundred in the last 12 months.”
“Australia is a great opposition to test ourselves [against] in terms of where we are lacking,” Mandhana said. “[…] It was a good series in terms of understanding our strengths and where we are lacking. There’s a lot of difference [between the teams] in the fielding. Fielding part is one thing which as a team we are on a rise but we also feel there are days where we look like a [good] fielding side and there are days where we don’t.
“That’s about how we find the consistency in the team in terms of fielding as a unit and not individual brilliance, but fielding together as a team. That’s one thing which we thought we have to address before the World Cup. Otherwise, for everyone, it was just about [getting] the feel of the Indian conditions and how we really want to go forward.”