Zimbabwe vs India 2016: Mandeep Singh reveals what was going through his mind before the second T20I

Young Indian opener Mandeep Singh shared his experience and the thought process he had before the second Twenty-Twenty International (T20I) against Zimbabwe. The 24-year old spent a sleepless night before the match day, engulfed in pressure which vanished only after he stepped on the field. He scored a dazzling half-century and helped India to level the series against the hosts.

The youngster was quite nervous before the game, but he felt considerably relieved when he came out to bat and then went on to score an unbeaten 52 in an easy 100-run chase on Monday. As reported by The Times of India, he said, "I had a sleepless night before the match, things like the pressure of winning a match or the series play on your mind, and also the fact that the selectors are watching you. Call it pressure or nervousness, whatever you want. But when you go into bat, it becomes a little easier, at least for me.

At that time, I just thought, the target is 100, how do I achieve that. Once I'm inside, these things don't bother me, that the selectors are watching, that this series is very important.”

The Royal Challengers Bangalore player survived two dropped catches before he went past the fifty mark with a boundary, which also won India the match by ten-wicket with 6.5 overs to spare.

“Before the match these things do play on my mind, this series is obviously very important, but honestly, once I go in, it's only, I have to bat, and win the match, and obviously,(things like) reading the wicket, what is the situation. So it's a good thing that I forget (all the pressure) once I'm in," he further added.

After a shocking defeat against a spirited Zimbabwe cricket team in the opening match of the T20I series, Indian youngsters led by the seasoned captain MS Dhoni came back strongly and recorded a thumping win against the hosts. The Jalandhar-born batsman insisted that the focus of the Indian team was solely on the process rather than the result of the game and this attitude helped them in levelling up the three-match series by 1-1.

"We were thinking to focus on our process rather than thinking too much about the result. Obviously, we want to win the series, but if we always think about winning then it will be like building up pressure. So we were trying to focus on the process," said the youngster at the post-match press conference.

The right-hander claimed that the Indian players decided to relax on the eve of the second match instead of overthinking and putting additional pressure on themselves.

"A few boys went to see a movie yesterday, we played FIFA, so we had quite a relaxed day yesterday, and obviously we discussed quite a lot about the previous game, and I think we played really well today," he revealed.

After dominating the hosts in the 50-over format and recording a 3-0 whitewash, the Indian contingent suffered a shocking defeat by a margin of two-run against Zimbabwe in the opening match. But the visitors bounced back well and cruised to a ten-wicket win in the second T20 and now both the teams will meet on June 21, Wednesday for the series decider.