India opener Smriti Mandhana on Saturday said the positive start given by fellow left-hander Yastika Bhatia gave her a lot of confidence in playing a big innings. Under pressure after a crushing 62-run loss to New Zealand on Thursday, India posted a mammoth 317/8 against the West Indies, with Smriti top-scoring with 123 while Harmanpreet Kaur slammed 109.
Apart from the centuries and an 184-run stand between the two centurions, Smriti had a 49-run opening partnership with Yastika (31 off 21 balls), who was the more aggressive of the two. "Enjoyed it definitely. The positivity with which Yastika started gave me a lot of confidence. We lost three wickets so I had to hold back. Very uncharacteristic innings for me as I generally go on a 90-100 strike rate. So, I'm happy with the way Harry (Harmanpreet) and I played," said Smriti in the mid-innings chat with broadcasters.
Talking about India's refreshed approach with the bat, Smriti revealed that changes had to be made after the loss to New Zealand, where India were overcautious.
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"This was an attempt to change ways after the last game, the discussion in the team meeting was to score, keep the momentum high, and from the first over, Yastika did that brilliantly and gave us a 20-30 run cushion after we lost 3 wickets to settle in."
Asked about where she would rank her second century against the West Indies in World Cups, Smriti remarked, "Can't rank this among all my hundreds as my memory is bad. But since it came in after the loss of wickets and a loss in the previous game, it's in the top-2 or top-3. I would say this is among my top three knocks. After the last game we really wanted to come back strong and considering the situation, I would rate this knock a bit higher (among her five ODI tons)."
