India opening batter Smriti Mandhana scored a match-winning hundred against the West Indies on March 12. This was her second century in ODI World Cups, with the first one coming in 2017. India entered the game with a win against Pakistan in their first game and loss against New Zealand in the second. In the game against the West Indies, the Women In Blue skipper Mithali Raj won the toss and elected to bat first.
The team had a great start with Yastika Bhatia (31 off 21) taking the attack on the opposition bowlers. After Bhatia fell at the team score of 49, the team was found tottering at 78/3 at one stage. They lost the wickets of Mithali Raj (5) and Deepti Sharma (15) quickly. T20I skipper Harmanpreet Kaur joined Mandhana and the duo stitched a partnership of 184 runs for the fourth wicket. Kaur (109) and Mandhana (123) helped India post a total of 317/8.
In reply, the Women In Maroon got off to a great start with a 100 run partnership for the first wicket but were restricted to 162 all-out. Meanwhile, Mandhana differentiated between the two World Cup hundreds and rated the second one the better of the two.
“There is a difference between my two World Cup knocks. The first one was achieved in easy circumstances but this one is really special as it came when we were in a really risky situation,†said Smriti Mandhana in a video released on BCCI.tv.
“As soon as I felt that we have got the momentum that was required for the team, I thought of enjoying a bit and playing my own game. When we started the game, we aimed at 240-250 but as we reached 260-280, we got a bit greedy and thought of reaching to 300-run mark,†added Mandhana.
