"They understood the conditions very early" - Harmanpreet Kaur lauds Minnu Mani and Anusha Bareddy's bowling in 1st T20I vs Bangladesh

Harmanpreet Kaur has lauded Minnu Mani and Anusha Bareddy's performances with the ball in the first T20I against Bangladesh.

Mani and Bareddy registered figures of 1/21 and 0/24 in three and four overs respectively in their debut T20I as India restricted Bangladesh to 114/5 after asking them to bat first in Mirpur on Sunday, July 9. The visitors then chased down the target with seven wickets and 22 deliveries to spare to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

During the post-match presentation, Harmanpreet was asked how happy she is about her team winning the match and herself scoring a half-century. The Indian skipper was particularly appreciative of the performance of the two debutants with the ball, saying:

"Yes, definitely, end of the day we were able to do whatever we had planned. It was a great team effort. Our bowlers bowled really well, especially the young girls who played their first game."

Harmanpreet added:

"I wanted to see how they are going to bowl in the first six overs and then later on. Both of them bowled really well. They understood the conditions very early and that shows how keen you are to bowl for the team."

Harmanpreet also praised Deepti Sharma for bowling an extremely economical spell, stating:

"Apart from them, Deepti also bowled really well. She is an experienced bowler and she showed her character today. I think it was an overall great performance by our team."

Although Deepti went wicketless, she conceded just 14 runs in her four-over spell. Apart from Mani, Pooja Vastrakar (1/16) and Shafali Verma (1/18) were the other successful bowlers, with two Bangladesh batters getting run out.

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"She is always ready to give 100% for the team" - Harmanpreet Kaur lauds Smriti Mandhana's knock

Smriti Mandhana scored 38 runs off 34 deliveries. [P/C: BCCI Women/Twitter]

Harmanpeet Kaur was further asked about Smriti Mandhana setting the tone with the bat during the run chase, to which she replied:

"She is always ready to give 100% for the team and today also she showed her character. I think when you have a batting lineup like that, when Shafali and Smriti are there, you don't need to worry too much. End of the day, we wanted to finish at least four-five overs early and I am really happy we were able to do that."

Mandhana (38) and Harmanpeet (54*) added 70 runs for the third wicket after India were reduced to 21/2 at one stage. The latter finished the job in Yastika Bhatia's company after her deputy was stumped off Sultana Khatun's bowling.