Shafali Verma’s unbeaten 34-ball 69 powered India to a seven-wicket victory in the second T20I against Sri Lanka at the ACA-VDCA Stadium here on Tuesday. While her blitz made light work of the below-par 129-run target, Shafali said that she first focused on strike rotation before upping the ante.

“I thought it was my day, but my main aim was to execute my plans. When you keep playing, it keeps coming off the bat. In the beginning, the ball was holding up, so I was trying to get a couple of singles. After that, the ball started coming onto the bat and was in my range,” she explained.

While the Women in Blue now have a 2-0 lead in the five-match series, she accepted that there is still room for improvement. “Next year is the T20 World Cup, and we are paying attention to every small detail. We missed catches in the first match, but everyone is putting in the effort in fielding. Day by day, we are improving.”

Bowlers galore

The official team sheets for the first two matches curiously listed three bowlers, two wicket keepers and as many as 10 all-rounders in a 15-woman squad – and no batters, something that left Shafali chuckling in delight. The move aligns well with coach Amol Muzumdar’s early priority on demanding squad members to be two-skilled.

“Amol sir always says that everyone should be ready to bowl. We all bowl in the nets. Even Smriti (Mandhana) didi, Jemimah (Rodrigues) and I, we all bowl in the nets. You never know when the team will need you, so we all have to be ready for that.”

“I will talk about myself. I like to bowl a lot, and I think when we get bored while fielding, we get to bowl. So, we get to contribute more to the team,” she added.