After winning India’s opening Women’s T20 World Cup match against bitter rivals Pakistan in Birmingham, seasoned all-rounder Deepti Sharma said she enjoys the pressure that comes with ICC competitions.
India started their campaign with a convincing 64-run victory on Sunday, and Deepti ended her dry spell in style with career-best figures of 5/10 after enduring disappointing series against Australia, South Africa, and England.
Her spell was the third-best bowling performance in the competition overall and the greatest by an Indian bowler in the Women’s T20 World Cup’s history.
Less than a year had passed since Deepti’s five wickets in the ODI World Cup final, which enabled India to win their first 50-over World Cup.
“I like the pressure conditions and ICC tournaments; I feel I have started again from where I had finished, so it feels good. I’m focusing on my process…the same things I do in practice I am applying in matches,” Deepti said at the post-match press conference.
“These things help me and the only thing is that I have to keep moving forward, and not stop and day by day have to keep improving.”
The 28-year-old played for India in the 2017 ODI World Cup final.
Reflecting on her journey since that time, Deepti said, “When you look at young Deepti and now senior Deepti it feels very good. Looking back at the earlier matches and the 2017 World Cup, I learned a lot from that World Cup and I learn from every match where the errors are happening and where I can be better.
“Then I regularly talk to Avishkar sir about what always helps me; I watch my videos, so I think there is always learning from every match – it doesn’t matter whether you are winning or not.
“You are considered a good player only when you think about how to improve even your good qualities, and every match is important to me and I’m just enjoying it. So it feels good,” she added.
Deepti scored an undefeated 12 of 9 balls against Pakistan before dismissing Gull Feroza, Ayesha Zafar, Aliya Riaz, Nashra Sandhu, and Tasmia Rubab.
“I kept my plans very simple and just had self-belief that whenever such situations arise, I’ll have to step up. And since the wicket was slightly turning I was hitting my good balls and landing them well, and it was just about bowling back-to-back in the good areas. On today’s pitch speed was very crucial, so I was varying it in every over, and that helped me.”
After India were reduced to 18/2, Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur rescued India with a 91-run partnership.
“I think unbelievable batting by Smriti and special mention about that partnership, Smriti and Hari, they batted really well. From there we got the momentum because initially we lost early wickets, but we always thought that we have a good batting line-up so we contribute and how they batted is commendable.”
Next, India will play the Netherlands, who are making their debut.
“I think they played today and it’s a good team and first time they’ve qualified for the World Cup and we are not taking that game lightly, but it’s a few days until that game and now we are looking good, we are doing good and we are just focusing that each and every match is important for us and we will play our positive cricket.”
