In the fourth women`s T20I match against Sri Lanka, Team India`s star batswoman Smriti Mandhana scored 80 runs off just 48 deliveries. Her knock was laced with 11 boundaries and three maximums.
With this, she achieved the milestone of completing 10,000 runs in international cricket.
Speaking about her accomplishment, she said that a player needs to start from zero again, irrespective of what she has done in the previous match or the series.
“I mean, that`s never the case where we are like, we`ve done it before. I feel that, in cricket, you have to start from zero again. The scoreboard is always zero for zero. It`s never what you`ve done in the last match or previous series as well,” Mandhana said in a video posted on the social media handle by indiancricketteam.
The cricketer also said that she has different expectations for all three formats of the game. Speaking specifically about the shortest format, Mandhana explained the nature of the game.
“My internal expectations for all three formats are very different. Of course, T20 is slightly in a way where you can`t be extremely hard with yourself after getting out because you`re playing at a pace where there are days where it`ll come off, there are days where it won`t,” said the 29-year-old cricketer.
Mandhana also labelled the Indian women`s cricket team`s ODI World Cup 2025 triumph as a big win and said that the current team is still a work in progress.
“So it`s about just your mind around how you want to go about your cricket. The ODI World Cup win was the biggest thing for women`s cricket, and we did kick off that one. So it`s a big, big win. But again, you can`t be thinking only about successes. We`ve had times when we could have won matches, but we couldn`t this year. And again, I feel with this team being this young, we are always in work in progress,” she concluded.
With the series already in the bag, the “Women in Blue” will lock horns against Sri Lanka for the fifth T20I. The match is scheduled to be played on December 30th at the Greenfield International Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram.
(With ANI Inputs)
