“My height is the same but mental thing has changed a lot. In the last few years, from the last Sri Lanka tour, the journey hasn’t been very smooth and there have been a lot of ups and downs,” Rodrigues stated after her player-of-the-match efficiency.
“I also had the opportunity in the last few months to talk with cricketers like Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant and others. They actually told that these moments define you and prepare you for something greater that’s coming. If you look at it [in a] negative way it is not going to help. But these are the moments that define you as a cricketer. I was blessed to speak to them and some of our team-mates.
“I’ve turn out to be calmer on this time and have understood the worth of getting good relationships… my household who’ve been there. The previous couple of months have helped me perceive even my sport higher. This is the cricketer’s life – no person’s life is clean and what I’m studying is to get higher each time.”
But Rodrigues wasted little time and got going off the fifth ball she faced, dabbing it past the wicketkeeper against Ranaweera. The confidence was back.
“I’m again within the Indian group after 4-5 months. I used to be very pumped up at this time and wished to offer my greatest,” she said. “Anytime you put on the India jersey you might be naturally pumped up and that is one thing that all the time works for me. I like to be aggressive.
“After getting the late-cut first boundary, I felt much more confident because I was a bit nervous coming back in after a long time. That boundary got me going.”
The steer previous the keeper apart, Rodrigues used the sweep shot – each typical and slog – to good impact in opposition to the spin to attain freely, taking part in simply eight dot balls throughout her keep. She performed the sweep on seven events and scored 14 runs with the shot.
“These are very similar tracks to [the ones] back in Mumbai,” she stated. “In Mumbai, you get the turning tracks, slow tracks, and I am a good sweeper of the ball because of that. So being in Mumbai has helped me tackle these conditions and adjust my game to these conditions.”
“Deepti coming in and hitting those three consecutive boundaries removed all the pressure,” she stated concerning the allrounder’s eight-ball 17, “because firstly it wasn’t an easy wicket to bat especially for a new batter coming in and getting those boundaries was where the momentum changed and our bowlers got a target to bowl freely.
“The chuckles had been about ‘Shot Deepti! Let’s go!’ every time she hit. And [when I ended] it off with a six, Deepti began cheering for me and the roles modified, but it surely was enjoyable.”
