Don't Miss

ENG

Cricket
Football
NDTV Podcast
Formula 1
Tennis
Golf
Badminton
- Kabaddi
- Boxing
- Athletics
- Chess
- Swimming
- Shooting
- Wrestling
- Table tennis
- Othersports
- NFL
- NBA
- NHL
- US Streamers
- MMA
- WWE

Dark / Light mode

Oct 9,2026 10:55 AM IST

"Much Needed Game For Other Batters": Smriti Mandhana After Win Over Nepal

facebook

twitter

Settings

Change Font Size

A A
Change Language

हिंदी | Hindi
Focus on Story

Select Language

Languages
हिंदी | Hindi

Dark / Light mode

Featured Links
Featured Sports
- Cricket
- Football
- Formula 1
- Tennis
- Hockey
- Golf
- Badminton
More Sports
- Kabaddi
- Boxing
- Athletics
- Chess
- Swimming
- Shooting
- Wrestling
- Table tennis
- Othersports
More from NDTV
- NDTV
- Business
- Hindi
- Movies
- Cricket
- Health
- Food
- Tech
- Auto
- Apps
- Trains

T20 Asia Cup 19 Jul 24 to 28 Jul 24

Scores
News
Photos
Videos
Fixtures
teams
Points Table
players
Venues
More
- Results
- Stats

arrow-down reddit snapchat twitter facebook comments email printer search bell top-nav reddit-fill snapchat-fill twitter-fill facebook-fill share whatsapp-fill bookmark arrow-rgt arrow-next arrow-up refresh close link cog star book zap cricket football tennis formula-1 badminton hockey golf boxing ndtv-n check left-arrow right-arrow

Live Cricket Matches

Cricket Matches
Football Matches
All Matches

India Matches

T20 Asia Cup

Football Matches

Cricket Matches
Football Matches
All Matches

ISL

IPL 2026

All Matches

Cricket Matches
Football Matches
All Matches

India Matches

EPL

Final, Asia Cup Women's T20, 2024 at Dambulla, Jul 28, 2024

India Women

165/6 (20.0)

Sri Lanka Women

167/2 (18.4)

Sri Lanka Women beat India Women by 8 wickets
2nd Semi-Final, Asia Cup Women's T20, 2024 at Dambulla, Jul 26, 2024

Sri Lanka Women

141/7 (19.5)

Pakistan Women

140/4 (20.0)

Sri Lanka Women beat Pakistan Women by 3 wickets
1st Semi-Final, Asia Cup Women's T20, 2024 at Dambulla, Jul 26, 2024

India Women

83/0 (11.0)

Bangladesh Women

80/8 (20.0)

India Women beat Bangladesh Women by 10 wickets

Sports Home Womens T20 Asia Cup 2024 News Much Needed Game For Other Batters Smriti Mandhana After Win Over Nepal

Story ProgressBack to home

"Much Needed Game For Other Batters": Smriti Mandhana After Win Over Nepal

Stand-in India skipper Smriti Mandhana was pleased to see the middle-order batters getting some much-needed runs under their belt against Nepal in Dambulla on Tuesday

Press Trust of India
Updated: July 23, 2024 11:54 pm IST

Read Time: 3 min

facebook

twitter

E-mail

India women's cricket team© X (Twitter)

Stand-in India skipper Smriti Mandhana was pleased to see the middle-order batters getting some much-needed runs under their belt against Nepal in Dambulla on Tuesday ahead of the women's Asia Cup semifinals. With regular skipper Harmanpreet Kaur skipping the match and India sitting pretty at the top of the group, Mandhana decided to shuffle the batting order to give time to the other batters in the middle during their last group match against minnows Nepal. Mandhana, a regular opener, didn't bat at the top as Shafali Verma (81) and Dayalan Hemalatha (47) opened the innings and smashed their way to 122 in 14 overs to lay the foundation.

S Sajana (10) and Jemmimah Rodrigues (28) then took them to a solid 178 for 3, which proved enough as Nepal could manage 96 for nine in 20 overs to suffer a 82-run loss.

"As an opener you don't get a lot of games where you don't bat. Much needed game time for all the other batters. The middle order hasn't batted in the previous games," Mandhana said during the post-match presentation.

"The conditions were different and it is always good to have game time under your belt. The middle order didn't get time in the South Africa series as well, so good they could spend some time in the middle." Mandhana said each tournament since the last few months has been a step towards preparation for the World T20 scheduled to be held in Bangladesh later this year.

"Not only this tournament, but also in the last five or six months, the preparations started post WPL, there are a lot of fine tuning to be done and we have to keep improving, cannot go into a World Cup under prepared," she said.

India might play Bangladesh in the semifinals, an opponent they had comprehensively defeated in a recent away series but Mandhana said they are not going to lower their guard.

"You don't take any team (semifinal opponents) lightly, we have two days to rest and practice before we go out and apply ourselves." Adjudged player-of-the-match for her blistering 48-ball knock 81, Shafali Verma said she backed her strength and the execution was good.

"The consistency is improving but I could have finished the innings today," said the opener, who slammed 12 fours and a six during her match-winning innings.

Shafali had scored the fastest double century in women's Tests during a match against South Africa in Chennai last month and she said it gave her a lot of confidence.

"Double hundred is big for any batter and I got plenty of confidence from that innings, I wasn't in good form before that but the innings helped me get back my confidence." Nepal skipper Indu Barma said they will look to come back stronger after taking a lot of lessons from their matches against India and Pakistan.

"I am proud of my team. The effort we put in, we realised our weakness and will come back stronger.

"It was a great exposure to play against India. I am happy with my team, after 10 overs the bowlers got good momentum and restricted them to below 200. We got good experience from this tournament by playing against India and Pakistan. We made some good memories," she said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)