“Before the Commonwealth Games and also before this series I worked on my batting,” Deepti said after the match. “Those practice sessions worked for me. My mindset is quite simple. I generally walk in when there are very little balls left. So my aim is to always score maximum runs in those deliveries, which is what I did.”
Deepti admitted that India’s fielding and bowling had let them down even though they began well.
“The total was good but we could have fielded better,” she said. “We bowled loose balls also. There was dew after seven-eight overs but no excuses. We tried slower ones, variations, and talked about focusing on our stock balls. We wanted to continue doing what we did over the past few months.”
Over 25,000 turned up to watch the first T20I in Navi Mumbai, though the exact number was not available as the match was not ticketed. The teams play at the same venue on Sunday before moving to the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai for the last three contests.
“I thought this is the first time there was this much crowd [for a women’s cricket match in India],” she said. “It was hard to hear one another in the middle. It feels good to see them though and I hope more people turn up.
“I enjoy playing under floodlights. I enjoy it because we don’t get many games under floodlights as most domestic games are in daytime.”
“I have played her in domestic cricket – I played the [Senior Women’s T20 Trophy] final for Bengal against Railways,” she said. “She [bowls] a good inswinger with pace. Very few bowlers beat right-handers with inswingers. It was her debut [today] but it didn’t seem like that. She was very confident to bowl in any situation and everyone backed her.”
#IND #AUS #Womens #1st #T20I
