“I am not a big hitter of the ball” - Smriti Mandhana opens up after her maiden T20I century

Indian stand-in captain Smriti Mandhana has revealed that she isn’t a big hitter of the cricket ball in the shortest format of the game after steering her side to a 97-run win over England in the first T20I of the five-match series at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.

Notably, Mandhana smacked a 112-run knock off 62 balls with 15 fours and three sixes in the first T20I as India racked up 210 runs before the hosts got bundled out for 113 runs in 14.5 overs to lose the game by 97 runs.

"It's a nice feeling because this format is something which, for me as a batter, I need to keep pushing and keep improving. It's not a very natural format for me," Mandhana said during the post-match press conference on Saturday.

"I like to time the ball; (I'm) not a big hitter of the ball and, for the last six years, it's always (been) a work in progress and it's still a work in progress,” she added.

"So, to actually get a hundred in this format, getting it before in Test cricket and one-day cricket which are more suited to my batting, but getting it in this format is pretty special because it's not one of my strengths," she stated.

Furthermore, Mandhana emerged as the first Indian women batter and the fifth women batter overall to score a century in all three formats of the game. After her maiden T20I ton, she asserted that her celebration after scoring the century was directed towards her colleague Radha Yadav.

"That's actually a funny story. I think three days back, me and Radha Yadav were having a conversation that, (and) you know all these girls are really hard on me sometimes, they keep telling me (and) she was telling me that it's high time you get a century in T20s," Mandhana said.

"'You keep getting out in the 70s, 80s and you're not doing justice to your talent' and all of that stuff. I was like, 'okay Radha, I will see now'. This time, I'll try and get (it) in one of the matches in the series.

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