Women's T20 World Cup 2024: India's star opener Shafali Varma Shafali Varma has reckoned that Smriti Mandhana batting well against spinners is a good thing for them before their high-octane clash against Australia. It should be noted here that Smriti Mandhana had a disastrous start to the ongoing tournament, where she scored just 12 and 7 runs in the first two matches against New Zealand and Pakistan.
But then she bounced back in their match against Sri Lanka, where she scored a match-winning knock of 50 runs off 38 balls, where she had hit four fours and one six. Her knock played a huge role in helping the team defeat Sri Lanka by 82 runs. The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side will lock horns with Australia in their last group-stage clash on Sunday.
Before the high-octane clash, Shafali Varma talked about her understanding with Smriti Mandhana and also lauded her for playing brilliantly against spinners.
“Yes, we have a good team right now and that's because we don't just go in predetermined. Whoever looks in good touch on that particular day, we just try to rotate the strike and let them play as many deliveries as possible. And yeah, she's (Smriti Mandhana) hitting the spinners quite well, so that's a positive sign. And we just try to give a good start for the team which in turn produces good innings and ultimately we can put a good score on the board. So our aim is just to do well for our team and back our strength,” Varma was quoted as saying on Star Sports.
She also talked about how important it is to run well between the wickets on venues like those in UAE, where smashing sixes is quite challenging.
Shafali Varma on the importance of running quick singles
“I think we're used to the conditions here, maybe because of that, we can run well between the wickets. But we just try to take the first run fast because the ground here is massive, it’s about 70 meters if I'm not wrong. So we try to take the first run fast. It's very difficult to hit a six. But are looking forward to taking quick singles,” she concluded.
At the same time, after defeating Sri Lanka by a huge margin, the Women in Blue are now lying in the second position in the Group A points table after winning two matches of the three that they have played with a positive NRR of +0.576. They will also try to defeat Australia by a huge margin in their last group-stage clash on Sunday so that they can surpass New Zealand on NRR if they too win their last two matches.