Shafali Varma, the top opener for India Shafali Varma believes that Smriti Mandhana’s strong batting performance against spinners would help them ahead of their intense match against Australia. It should be mentioned that Smriti Mandhana made a horrible start to the current competition, managing only 12 and 7 runs in her first two games against Pakistan and New Zealand.

She did, however, recover in their match against Sri Lanka, when she blasted four fours and one six on her way to a match-winning fifty runs off just 38 balls. Her hit was crucial to the team’s 82-run victory against Sri Lanka. On Sunday, the Harmanpreet Kaur-led team will square off against Australia in their last group-stage match.

Prior to the explosive match, Shafali Varma spoke about her relationship with Smriti Mandhana and praised her for her outstanding performance against spinners.

“Yes, we do not simply go in preconceived, which is why we currently have a solid squad. We simply try to rotate the strike and let them play as many deliveries as possible to whomever seems to be in excellent form that day. Indeed, it’s encouraging to see that Smriti Mandhana is hitting the spinners rather effectively. We just want to provide the team with a strong start, which leads to strong innings and, eventually, a high score. Thus, our only goal is to support our team and play well,” Varma was quoted as saying on Star Sports.

She also discussed the need of running effectively between the wickets in locations like as the United Arab Emirates, where hitting sixes is difficult.

Shafali Varma discussing the value of running rapid singles

We can run well between the wickets, maybe as a result of our familiarity with the local circumstances. However, we only attempt to cover the first run quickly since, if my memory serves me well, the terrain here is enormous—roughly 70 meters. We attempt to run quickly on the first run. A six is quite tough to hit. but are eager to accept fast singles,” she said in closing.

The Women in Blue, who defeated Sri Lanka by a significant margin, are now in second place in the Group A points table after winning two of their three games and having a positive NRR of +0.576. In their last group-stage encounter on Sunday, they will also want to overcome Australia by a significant margin in order to move up on NRR and overtake New Zealand if they also win their final two games.