IND W v ENG W: Unbeaten knock in first innings gave confidence to do well in 2nd, says Deepti

Bristol [UK], June 20 (ANI): India women all-rounder Deepti Sharma has said that her unbeaten knock in the first innings of the one-off Test against England gave her a lot of confidence to do well in the second innings to help her side walk away with a draw.
Deepti played a knock of 54 runs in the second innings of the one-off Test against England. Sneh Rana and Taniya Bhatia played unbeaten innings of 80 and 44 respectively as India managed to walk away with a draw against England.
The left-handed batter Deepti was promoted to number three in the second innings and she played a knock of 54 to give India a good start in the second innings.
"Ofcourse, this is the Test format, when I played in the first innings, I got a lot of confidence. I was trying to play close to my body and in the second innings, I was promoted to number three. I was just trying to take it session by session, whatever messages I was receiving, I was trying to play according to that," said Deepti while replying to an ANI query during a virtual press conference.
Talking about her experience of playing her first Test match, Deepti said: "Ofcourse, a Test match requires a lot of patience both in bowling and batting. I got a lot of messages from my home and my dad, this match was very special for me. Every member in the team supported me, Ramesh Powar sir helped me in my bowling."
In the second innings, Deepti stitched together a partnership of 70 runs with Shafali Verma for the second wicket. This stand helped India get off to a steady start and this put England bowlers slightly on the backfoot.
"The plan was to go session by session. When Shafali is batting with you, you feel like that there will be boundaries scored consistently. We enjoy it when we are batting alongside her. I try to enjoy the situations and I like to play in pressure situations, I was pretty relaxed. When you think more, it hampers your game and it is best when you try to play according to the situation," said Deepti.
"We were keeping it simple. I was reacting to the ball, and our plan was to stay as long as possible in the middle," she added.
England and India will return to Bristol on June 27 for the first of a three-match ODI series. (ANI)