'I Could score more freely, once Harmanpreet Kaur joined'- Smriti Mandhana 

Smriti Mandhana [Source: Twitter]

India Women won their second successive match of the ongoing Women's T20I Tri-Nation series, beating West Indies by 56 runs. While the margin of victory looked great, India did not start the match well. Batting first, the Indian batters scored 60 runs in 10 overs.

Opener Smriti Mandhana and captain Harmanpreet Kaur took charge in the second half of their innings and smashed West Indies bowlers all around the park to score 107 runs in the last 10 overs. 

Madhana, who scored 74* off 51, credited Kaur before scoring fearlessly, where she smacked 10 fours and one six. Kaur, not to be left behind, blitzed to a 35-ball 56*. 

During her innings, Mandhana also became the third Indian Women's player to score more than 6,000+ international runs after Mithali Raj and Kaur.

Interestingly, she became the second Indian batter to carry her bat after Raj in a T20I.

Speaking in the post-match presentation, Mandhana talked about India's strategy while batting.

Here's what Mandhana said

"I think the wicket was similar [to the previous match. But after the first game we understood our mistakes and learned how to bat on that wicket. That’s what we discussed and we did not want to go hard in the first few overs and that’s what the team expected from me. When Harmanpreet came out it became easy to make that score."

The 26-year-old also became the first Indian batter to score 20 T20I fifties, only Suzie Bates (24) and Stafanie Taylor (21) are ahead of her. 

India meets South Africa on Saturday in Match 5 of the tri-nation series.

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