Smriti Mandhana has taken responsibility for India’s death-overs collapse against England and felt her shot opened the gates for England in Indore on Sunday.
“I was trying to aim more over covers. I mistimed that shot,” Mandhana said after India crashed to defeat from a comfortable position in their chase of 289.
Mandhana said that emotions got the better of her at the crucial stage. “I just needed to be more patient because throughout the innings I was trying to tell myself to be patient and not to play aerial shots. But maybe the emotions took over for that one, which never helps in cricket,” she said.
“Especially it (the collapse) started from me, so I will take it on me that the shot selection should have been better. We just needed six per over. Maybe we should have taken the game deeper. So yeah I mean I’ll take it from myself because the collapse started from me.”
India needed only 55 off 52 balls with six wickets in hand once Richa Ghosh and Deepti Sharma joined hands at the crease following Mandhana’s dismissal. The opener had been confident that India would seal the chase but said the choke at the death was once again due to poor shot selection.
“I think everyone’s shot selections at that time... we could have done better...but walking back for sure, I mean, I was pretty confident that we’ll be able to get the win, but it’s cricket, you can’t ever think too ahead.”
India now need to win their next two matches to make the semi-finals.