Women's T20 Challenge: Trailblazers' Deepti Sharma says she has worked on her batting after COVID-19 lockdown

Sharjah: Indian women’s team all-rounder Deepti Sharma said she has worked on her game after the coronavirus-forced lockdown and is executing her plans in the ongoing Women’s T20 Challenge. Representing Trailblazers, Sharma scored an unbeaten 43 in their match against Supernovas on Saturday, but could not help her team to victory. “After the lockdown, I worked a lot on lofted shots and inside-out shots and I was able to apply it here,” she said at the post-match press conference. [caption id=“attachment_8992981” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Trailblazers’ Deepti Sharma plays a shot during match 3 of the Women’s T20 Challenge 2020 between the Trailblazers and the Supernovas at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Sportzpics[/caption] “Obviously, the wicket is a bit different from Indian wickets. They are slow and low but I don’t think it should matter much. You just have to watch the ball and hit the ball,” she added. Sharma said the Trailblazers would work hard and rectify the mistakes when the two sides meet in Monday’s final. “Small mistakes… in fielding, bowling. We will work in our practice session and will look to rectify the mistakes we made today, in the next game,” she said. “Overall we did well. Winning or losing is part of the game.” She said 146 was a good score to chase as the ball was coming on to the bat even though some of them kept low. “146 was a good score. Actually, the pitch here is usually slow and low. But today the wicket was good and the ball was coming on the bat, some balls were keeping low. Ideally, this was a good score to chase. It was good that we took it close,” Sharma said. Supernovas medium-pacer Shakera Selman, who took two wickets including that of fellow West Indian Deandra Dottin, said it felt good to reach the final after losing the tournament opener. “Feels good to reach the final. Supernovas are known for losing the first game and then winning the competition, so hopefully, we can repeat that,” she said. The West Indies cricketer said she was happy to be playing in these extraordinary times. “It’s been a great experience, very happy to be playing in these times. West Indies and England players have an advantage but Indians and other overseas players are also playing well,” Selman said. She said they were confident about defending the total after having made 146 for six. “We were still confident. We knew where we went wrong in the first game and we had the confidence that we could defend this total,” Selman said. “We are going to focus on their main batters. They have obviously got depth in the batting and we saw that today,” she said.