We have taken back a lot of positives: Smriti Mandhana

Smriti Mandhana is glad that India got to play Australia ahead of the World Cup. The India vice-captain, who struck a blistering 125 off 63 balls to raise hopes of an unlikely win chasing 413 in the final ODI at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Saturday night, said Australia was the best opposition to test it out against.

“This series was just for us in terms of understanding what is going right and what is going wrong for us,” she said. “We have had a great 12 months at home but we did not play Australia at home. We have taken back a lot of positives, a lot of things in terms of what we want to work on. As long as that willingness to work hard is there, I feel the battle will be won. It is a young team but they have the will.”

The opener chose to downplay her team’s dependence on her. She scored 300 runs and struck two hundreds. She was, in fact, named the Player-of-the-Series.

“I have a huge belief in the whole team, that from any point we can still win the match,” she said. “In the last 12-odd months we made 300 or 300-plus even when I got out. Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Jemimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet Kaur have all got hundreds.”

Beth Mooney, who walked away with the Player-of-the-Match award for her brilliant 138 off 75 balls in the series decider, said it was a case of making hay while the sun shone. “It was a pretty flat wicket,” she said. “Even Georgia Voll, Ellyse Perry and Ashleigh Gardner came out with great intent, but probably fell away a bit at the back end without a set batter. But you would take 412 at the start of the day.”