'Cricket always teaches you things, it's important to accept weaknesses.'
Accepting the flaws in her game was fundamental to her resurgence as a more compact batter, Shafali Verma said after smashing a match-winning 69 not out off 34 balls to power India to a thumping seven-wicket win against Sri Lanka in the second Women's T20I against Sri Lanka, in Visakhapatnam, on Tuesday.
Inconsistency and technical flaws had earlier cost Shafali a place in the squad before the ODI World Cup final, but she has now scored her 12th international half-century in the shortest format.
"Cricket always teaches you things, it's important to accept weaknesses. That's the only way you can improve. My endeavour is to improve everyday and you will certainly see that in my game," Shafali said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
Her coach Amol Muzumdar had reminded her that she needs to initially play along the ground and then go for aerial shots which yielded results.
"I would like to thank Amol sir. The ball was holding a bit at the start, so I tried to play along the ground and take singles. The coach also told me how to go about in such conditions," Shafali said.
"They bowled well at the start. It was a good knock. I kept myself calm, tried to play along the ground and the ball was coming on nicely. I knew I can score runs if I play the ball on the ground."
Her skipper Harmanpreet Kaur equalled Australia captain Meg Lanning's record, becoming the international skipper with highest number of T20 wins with 76 victories under her belt.
"Really happy with the way we bowled. The bowlers took responsibility and put us into a good situation. Shafali and others batted well," the India skipper said after another easy win.
She was all praise for the spinners who played their part in setting up an easy victory, especially Sneh Rana, who replaced Deepti Sharma.
"We know what Rana can bring to the team. Deepti is doing well for a long time."
Young Vaishnavi Sharma had to go wicketless in the first game due to missed catches but she got a couple on the day which made her skipper very happy.
"Really happy the way Vaishnavi bowled today. We missed a chance off her bowling in the last game."