Follow UsSmriti Mandhana hit a brilliant century, only the second in T20Is by an Indian woman, when she smashed 112 off 62 balls against England on June 28 (Saturday) at Trent Bridge, Nottingham. She also became only the fifth woman overall and first Indian to score centuries in all three formats of the game.
It has been a burning desire of hers to achieve the feat for the last 10 years, but more than hers, it was her teammate and spinner, Radha Yadav, who wanted Smriti to score a T20I century.
Recounting the incident, Smriti, in the post-match press conference said, “Three days back, me and Radha Yadav were having a conversation. She was telling me, 'It's high time you get a century in the T20Is, you keep getting out in the 70s, 80s and you are not doing justice to your talent’ and all of that stuff.”
"I was like, 'okay, Radha, I'll see now, this time I'll try and get it in one of the matches in the series',” she added.
But even Mandhana was not ready to accept that she had achieved that feat and fulfilled Radha’s wish in the first game itself.
"I did not think that it would come in the first match, but the finger was towards her, 'see, I got it today'. Because it's pretty frustrating to get out in the 70s and 80s over the last ten years and when you have that opportunity to take the team through. I'm happy that I could stay and take the team to the 19th and the 20th over,” she said.
Mandhana, who was also leading the side in the game because of regular skipper Harmanpreet Kaur missing out due to a late injury, said that she was impressed by debutant Shree Charani, who picked a four-wicket haul.
"Especially Shree, to come in the first match and bowl. We saw what she could do in the WPL a little bit. She always looked like an excellent bowler. But today the way she actually bowled was amazing, as did all the bowlers,” she said about the 20-year-old left-arm spinner.