Smriti Mandhana reveals how Radha Yadav spurred to score her maiden T20I ton

Indian stand-in captain Smriti Mandhana has revealed how her conversation with Radha Yadav propelled her to score her maiden T20I century against England in the first T20I of the five-match series at Trent Bridge in Birmingham.

Notably, Mandhana went on to emerge as the second Indian batter to score a century in Women’s T20Is. Furthermore, she became the first Indian batter to score a hundred in each of the three International formats.

"Three days back, me and Radha Yadav, we were having a conversation. These girls are really hard on me sometimes. She was telling me, 'It's high time you get a century in T20Is, you keep getting out in the 70s, 80s and you are not doing justice to your talent and all of that stuff.' I was like, 'okay, Radha, I'll see now, this time I'll try and get it in one of the matches in the series',” Smriti Mandhana said.

Furthermore, Smriti Mandhana also joined Heather Knight, Tammy Beaumont, Laura Wolvaardt, and Beth Mooney after scoring centuries in all three formats of the game. After scoring her maiden T20I ton, Mandhana pointed her finger towards Radha.

"I did not think that it would come in the first match, but the finger was towards her, that 'see, I got it today,' because it's pretty frustrating to get out in the 70s and 80s over the last ten years and when you had that opportunity to take the team through. So I'm happy that I could stay and take the team to the 19th and the 20th over,” she added.

With the actual captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, not part of the XI due to fitness concerns, Mandhana came in as the stand-in captain. However, the additional responsibility didn’t affect her batting approach.

India Women went on to bag a 97-run win in the first T20I against England Women to secure a 1-0 lead.

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