It was not so difficult of a surface at Wankhede that only 70 or 80 runs could be scored: Deepti Sharma

In the second Twenty20 International between India and England at the venerable Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on December 9, all-rounder Deepti Sharma said that the pitch was not as difficult as her team made it appear. Because of their poor batting performance, the Women in Blue lost by four wickets, which allowed England to win the series.

 Deepti Sharma claimed that the circumstances were unfavorable to them and that the pitch was not difficult.

In the second Twenty20 International, India was bowled out for just 80 runs in 16.2 overs after losing the opening match by 38 runs at the same venue. Still, Harmanpreet Kaur’s women produced an incredible display with the ball, taking six wickets.

It was not a pitch that would just allow for 70 or 80 runs to be scored. It might have been possible to score a couple more runs to reach a total of 110–115. However, there are days like that when things don’t go your way. We work hard as a team, but everyone might have a bad day. We didn’t believe that just because we didn’t do well in the first inning, we wouldn’t be able to contribute anything at all in the second. The Hindu cited Sharma as stating, “If we had formed partnerships in between, the score would have been much different, but we will learn from this going into the match tomorrow (on Sunday).”

The 26-year-old showered even more praise on the bowlers for their challenge throughout Heather Knight and company’s miserable 81-run chase. Deepti Sharma continued by describing the surface as quite “tricky.”.

We, as a bowling team, intended to do better in the second inning, regardless of what transpired in the first. We aimed to go as far into the game as we could, and the bowlers performed admirably in that regard. Since the opposition lost six wickets, the bowlers performed admirably. The bowlers should be commended for their ability to recover; it is not an easy task for the hitters.

“We’ve participated in similar games in the past. We wanted to be as positive as possible and try to keep fielders as close together as possible so that we could support one another and not give up too fast. Since the two matches had different outcomes, the wicket might also have played a role, Deepti Sharma continued.

“The wicket for the first match was better given that the ball was coming onto the bat nicely and it was easier to bat compared to today, when the pitch was a little tricky for the batters and the ball was also skidding a bit,” the all-rounder said.