Pooja Vastrakar’s impressive performance in the T20I series against South Africa has boosted India vice-captain Smriti Mandhana’s confidence that the pacer can maintain her form in the Women’s T20 World Cup in October in Bangladesh. Vastrakar, 24, took eight wickets, including 4/13 in the final game on Tuesday, helping India thrash South Africa by 10 wickets and level the series 1-1. Despite a washout in the second match, Vastrakar managed two wickets as South Africa played a full 20 overs. Mandhana praised Vastrakar’s bowling, which restricted South Africa Women to 84 on Tuesday.
“In the first two matches, the wickets were flat, and for her to come up with such figures is amazing. We hope she keeps doing the same things and will be crucial for us in the World Cup,” Mandhana said on Tuesday.
“She is brilliant with the ball. It’s been a long series for all of us, and as a bowler, it’s impressive how she has kept going without tiring.” In addition to the T20Is, India also played a one-off Test and three ODIs against South Africa.
Mandhana recalled Vastrakar’s performance in the five-match T20I series in Bangladesh in April-May, where she took five wickets, the joint second-highest.
“Even during the Bangladesh T20I series, she bowled exceptionally well, especially in the death overs. I struggled to see the ball when she was running in so quickly,” Mandhana added.
“We knew she had made a difference with her bowling in recent months. Coming into the series, we were confident in her.” Mandhana credited the pre-series camp at the National Cricket Academy for the success against South Africa. “A lot of effort was put in during the batters’ camp at the NCA before the series. Practicing those scenarios in the camp helped us perform well.”
The series was also notable for Shafali Varma, who was among the top three run-getters for India.
“Shafali bats best when she doesn’t overthink. As a senior player, my job is to guide her about the bowler, and she adapts. She now knows which bowler to target,” Mandhana said.
Mandhana was against too much shuffling in the batting order for the T20 Asia Cup in Sri Lanka later this month. “We will have similar conditions during the Asia Cup. It’s a good problem to have players who can win matches for us. The confidence from the WPL has also helped. We prefer a calculated approach rather than too much shuffling.”
South African captain Laura Wolvaardt felt her batters struggled to judge the pitch and adapt. “Not the way we wanted to end the series. The pitch felt ‘stoppy’ when we were batting, and we didn’t adapt well to the conditions. We aimed for a more positive approach, which worked in the first two games. Losing the toss in the third game was tough, but we could have aimed for 140-150 runs. We will learn from this series and take the positives from our batting in the first two games,” Wolvaardt said.
