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Sanjay Manjrekar has picked Shreyanka Patil as one of the positives for India from their 2024 Women's T20 World Cup win against Pakistan. He praised the youngster's fitness and bowling action and predicted a bright future for her.
Shreyanka registered figures of 2/12 in four overs as India restricted Pakistan to 105/8 in Dubai on Sunday, October 6. The Women in Blue achieved the target with six wickets and seven deliveries to spare to register their first win of the tournament.
During an interaction on the Star Sports show 'Follow the Blues', Manjrekar was asked about his thoughts on India's performance against Pakistan.
"If you see the last match (against New Zealand) as well, Arundhati Reddy gave India very important breakthroughs. The big difference was that the New Zealand batters didn't give any chance to our seam bowlers like Renuka Singh Thakur to swing the ball because they kept a very attacking approach. The Pakistan batters didn't do that. So they got a chance," he responded.
"Renuka Singh Thakur picked up the first wicket and then Arundhati Reddy could do her thing. However, I feel Shreyanka Patil is one for the future because her fitness and bowling action are looking very good. Arundhati Reddy also gave important contributions in the last match and in this match. So that is a positive for India," Manjrekar added.
Apart from Shreyanka, Arundhati Reddy was India's star performer with the ball. The right-arm seamer was chosen as the Player of the Match for her spell of 3/19 in four overs.
"The problem is that the pitch in Dubai does not suit Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana" - Sanjay Manjrekar on India's batting issues
Sanjay Manjrekar noted that India's batting has been slightly disappointing, with the Dubai pitch not to Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana's liking.
"The batting has been slightly disappointing. I feel the fans will be slightly disappointed with the way they have batted. The batting was very bad against New Zealand. The problem is that the pitch in Dubai does not suit Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana," he said in the same interaction.
The cricketer-turned-commentator urged the opening pair to rotate the strike and not look only for boundaries in the powerplay overs.
"Mithali Raj mentioned in the pitch report that it will have spongy bounce, so the ball comes slightly slower. That's not an ideal surface for Shafali Verma and Mandhana because they want pace and score through boundaries. Shafali Verma scored a few runs but she shouldn't think only about fours and sixes in the first five or six overs. This applies to Smriti Mandhana as well," Manjrekar elaborated.
Shafali, who managed only two runs against New Zealand, scored a 35-ball 32 against Pakistan. Mandhana has endured twin failures, aggregating 19 runs in two innings and consuming 16 deliveries for her seven runs against Pakistan.
