After India's historic win in Mumbai, Smriti Mandhana says, “It was not that tough.”
The opener batter of India, Smriti Mandhana, said that the Wankhede track was not that difficult to bat on after clinching a historic win against Australia in the one-off Test match. Mandhana remained unbeaten in the second innings of the match, hitting a brisk 38 off 61 balls to guide India to an 8-wicket win against Alyssa Healy's side. This was the first ever win by an Indian team against Australia in women's Test cricket.
Australia suffered batting failures in both innings, getting bowled out for 219 and 261 runs. Off-spinner Sneh Rana picked up 7 wickets in total from the Test match, while fast bowler Pooja Vastrakar picked up 5 wickets to her name. India were in a huge advantage after their batting in the first inning, where they put up 406 runs, courtesy of half-centuries from Mandhana, Jemimah Rodrigues, Richa Ghosh, and Deepti Sharma. Mandhana spoke after the win and said that they expected the wicket to be much harder to bat on.
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Mandhana said, “It wasn't that tough. Before the match, we thought it was going to be a rank-turner on days three and four. But if you applied yourself and showed patience, batting wasn't that hard. Credit goes to all the batters. I told Shafali to bat as we batted in the first inning. Just react to the ball; that was the only message we had. She was unfortunate, but she started off beautifully with that cover drive.”