Adelaide, February 22 In her reflection on the historic 2–1 T20I series victory over Australia, Indian batter Smriti Mandhana said that the Women in Blue just want to consistently stay at the top, regardless of who they are defeating or where they are playing.
India sealed the three-match series with a 17-run win in the decider at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday to secure their first bilateral series win on Australian soil in a decade.
After being put to bat, the visitors posted a competitive 176 for 6, built around Mandhana’s unbeaten 82 off 55 balls and a fluent 59 from Jemimah Rodrigues. The bowlers then held their nerve to restrict Australia to 159 for 9, ensuring India's historic triumph.
Mandhana spoke on the team’s long-term vision and hunger for consistency at the highest level. "I think we are on the verge of a transition where we want to dominate world cricket. Whoever we beat, wherever we beat, that doesn’t matter. We just want to be consistent in beating them and being at the top," she said in a video released by the Indian cricket team on Instagram.
Mandhana, who has a great record at Adelaide, also showered her love for the city and said, "I mean, I really loved Adelaide as a city, even before playing here. And yeah, it's just very peaceful, nice. I mean, a few Aussies will be very happy when I say that it's the best city in Australia, and actually, I find it the best city in Australia."
She further stated that after playing lots of 50-over matches last year, the team's focus has now shifted to T20Is and they are working hard to improve their game in the shortest format. "Last year was a one-day year where we played a lot of one-day cricket. So coming into this year, for sure, I feel like we are a well-settled ODI squad. But we are still working on our T20 game, for me as well, this is one format which I always have to keep working hard on," she said.
"Because a one-day cricket test match is very natural. But in T20Is, I always feel like I have to be ahead of the game. So it's good to start the year with a win, especially knowing it's a World Cup year, and again, you're going to play in England, overseas conditions. So starting your year with an overseas T20 series win is a good thing to start. And I hope that we keep the momentum going," the vice captain added.
Mandhana also spoke favourably about the multi-format series concept, which blends T20Is, ODIs and Tests. She feels that the concept increases the importance of every match and makes the game more interesting.
"Well, I really love the concept of multi-format series. I always feel that it's a very good thing for women's cricket. A multi-format series, because it gives all the games equal importance. Even if you have won the series, the third match is still very important. Because it's going to end up giving you points," she said.
"Plus a test match in that, which is again very special to play a test match in cricket. So I feel going forward, we having a lot of multi-format series is amazing," she added.
After winning the T20I series, world champions India will now head to fight Australia in a three-match ODI series.
"To start off the multi-format series with 2-1 up and going into ODIs, I'm sure we'll take a lot of confidence. But again, this Indian team is something that we have spoken about that is trying to be consistent. Don't think about opposition or what's happened in the past.
"So we've beaten this, we've beaten that. I feel that's not very important now. I think we're on the verge of a transition where we want to dominate world cricket," Mandhana concluded.
