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After setting Australia a target of 173, India’s fielding was sloppy and Radha Yadav gave Beth Mooney a reprieve, before the opener slammed a match-winning 57-ball 89 to seal the win with 11 balls to spare at the DY Patil Stadium on Friday.
”The total was very good, but I think we could have fielded a bit better. We also gave away a few loose balls. We have to improve our ‘silly mistakes’ to make a comeback and level the series,” the left-hander, who hit a 15-ball 36 not out, to power India to 172/5 said at the post-match media interaction.
”But wins and losses will happen. We had a simple approach with out batting and bowling and we were getting results out of it. We just need to apply ourselves better.” Having opted to bowl, Alyssa Healy and Co also made use of the dew factor and never looked in trouble, scoring runs at ease. Healy and Mooney first put on a 73-run opening stand before the latter made it a walk in the park in an unbroken 100-run stand with Tahila McGrath (40; 29b).
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”There was a dew for sure, which came into effect after seven-eight overs but that cannot be an excuse.” Asked whether they tried to bowl the slower ones a bit more, she said: ”As a bowling unit, we were discussing that we will focus on our stock deliveries and we tried those. We tried the slower ones also and we bowled according to the field.
”The first half was pretty good but the second half didn’t go as well. We will try to rectify our mistakes in the next match,” Deepti said, looking ahead to the second T20I here on Saturday.
The Australian players were coming straight from playing in the Women’s Big Bash League, while some senior members of the Indian side had a bit of a break after winning their seventh Asia Cup title, in Bangladesh in October. A few members of the team played the Women’s T20 Challenger, the domestic tournament.
”I don’t think we had a pretty long break. We recently had our domestic challengers. We were in the right mindset. There will be ups and downs. We will try to take the positives and return stronger.” Deepti played the role of a finisher to perfection as she came in at No. 7 and stepped up in the slog overs.
”For this series and Commonwealth Games I’ve worked quite a bit on my batting. I followed the same thing before the series. With less balls remaining, it was about scoring as many runs. I think those practice sessions are paying off,” she added.
Playing a T20I after eight years, Maharashtra all-rounder Devika Vaidya also shone with a 24-ball 25 in an entertaining 40-run unbroken partnership off just 19 balls for the fifth wicket with Deepti.
Deepti was all praise for Devika, saying, ”It is not easy to come back after eight years. She did as well as she can with the bat and she did fine with the ball. It will take some time to settle down when you walk into these situations.” In the preparatory series for the T20 World Cup in South Africa in February, India gave a maiden cap to left-arm seamer Anjali Sarvani, who returned wicket-less while conceding 27 runs from her full quota of four overs.
”She’s got a great inswinger. She didn’t look like she was playing her first match,” Deepti said.