Watched Men's ODI to understand the pitch, says Smriti Mandhana after slamming a ton against NZ in Napier

A day after the Indian men thumped the Black Caps, the Women in Blue followed suit, decimating their New Zealand counterparts by 9 wickets at the MacLean Park in Napier to go 1-0 up in three-match ODI series. A scintillating hundred from opener Smriti Mandhana (105 off 104 balls) saw the visitors overhauling the target of 193 with 17 overs to spare. On Wednesday, Virat Kohli’s team defeated the Black Caps led by Kane Williamson by 8 wickets after bowling them out for a paltry 157.

For the 22-year-old left-hand batsman, the hundred came after almost a year and it was her fourth overall. India could have bagged a 10-wicket victory had Mandhana not fallen to teenage leg-break bowler Amelia Kerr with the team requiring just three runs for victory.

The other opener, Jemimah Rodrigues, remained unbeaten on 81 as the openers put up 190 runs in less than 33 overs. The win saw India pocketing two points in the ongoing ICC Women’s Championship that kicked off in 2017.

“Really happy. 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. 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,”  Smriti Mandhana said, as per an India Today report.

NZ saw a batting collapse earlier

Earlier, Indian captain Mithali Raj won the toss and sent New Zealand to bat. The hosts were placed decently at 119 for 3 at the 30th over when their captain Amy Satterthwaite departed and it flagged off a collapse as the White Ferns lost their last seven wickets for just 73 runs. Spinners Ekta Bisht and Poonam Yadav were the pick of the Indian bowlers by taking three wickets each.

Smriti Mandhana, who never looked in trouble while batting also said that she had watched the men’s match the previous day to understand the wicket. “The plan was to see how the new ball was doing. 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,” the centurion added.

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