ENG vs IND: I like to play in a tense situation, says the all-round Deepti Sharma

Deepti Sharma, a representative of the Indian women’s national team, said that she likes to perform under pressure, and she has learned to read better and cope with situations.

Deepti scored a crafty 24 with the bat. She trapped dangerous-looking Tammy Beaumont (59) and run out England skipper Heather Knight (30) off successive balls in the 14th over to bring India back into the match.

Chasing 149, England were cruising at were needed 43 off the last 36 balls with six wickets in hand, but they fell short – a fatal slide had been triggered by Sharma.

“I like playing in pressure situations, whether it is in any position in the team – batting, bowling, or fielding. As an allrounder, I just want to contribute to my department and take the team forward,” Sharma said at the post-match virtual press conference.

“I like leading from the front, like in domestic tournaments when I play as a senior player and win matches for my team, that gives different confidence.

“When you bring that confidence here, of course this platform is not easy but it depends on how you handle it. I now know how to read and handle situations, so I find it easy to play because I know I can handle things easily now,” added Deepti.

Opener Shafali Verma (48 off 38) and captain Harmanpreet Kaur (31 off 25) were the other major contributors. With the series tied at 1-1, India will take on England in the third and final T20I on July 14 to wrap up their UK tour.

“When I was batting, I was looking forward to building a partnership and also score six to seven runs per over,” said Deepti.”That was the mindset but we couldn’t score as much as we wanted. We had got a good start, we thought we can score 160 but the 140 total wasn’t bad because we knew as a bowling unit, we bowl in partnership and we were supporting each other and we could defend the total.”