Smriti Mandhana finally hit her long-awaited maiden T20I hundred — and it came with some friendly fire from a teammate. After constantly getting out in the 70s and 80s, it was Radha Yadav who gave Mandhana the final nudge.

“Three days back, me and Radha Yadav, we were having a conversation,” Mandhana shared. “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.'”

Smriti Mandhana Breaks the 70s-80s Curse After Radha’s Push

Mandhana promised Radha she’d try to get it this series — and she did it in the very first game. The moment she reached the milestone, Mandhana made sure Radha knew. “The finger was towards her, that ‘see, I got it today,'” she said.

The knock made Mandhana only the second Indian woman to score a T20I ton, and the fifth woman globally to have hundreds in all three international formats.

Captaincy Pressure Didn’t Affect Focus

With Harmanpreet Kaur out due to a last-minute fitness issue, Mandhana stepped in as captain — but didn’t let the responsibility change her game.

“As a batter, it doesn’t change a lot. You don’t think that you are captaining and you bat differently,” she said. “Whenever you have the bat in hand, you have to do the job for the team regardless of the position you are in.”

Mandhana also explained they had prepared for Harmanpreet’s absence: “Harman was getting assessed over last night and this morning… I was pretty ready last night but the confirmation came today.”

India ended up thrashing England by their biggest T20I defeat, thanks to a brilliant bowling show. Making her debut, Shree Charani took four wickets and stunned everyone.

“The way the bowlers bowled and executed the plan, it was just amazing,” Mandhana said. “Especially Shree… we saw what she could do in the WPL. But today the way she actually bowled was amazing.”