Southampton, July 17 (IANS) After keeping a calm head to hit an unbeaten 62 and help India beat England by four wickets in the ODI series opener, senior all-rounder Deepti Sharma said she knew having a calm and collected approach would help in successfully chasing down 259

In the chase at the Utilita Bowl, Deepti’s unbeaten knock along with a 90-run partnership with Jemimah Rodrigues and Amanjot Kaur hitting 20 not out guided India to victory with 10 balls to spare and take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

“I’ve faced this situation before and I knew that if I can be as calm as possible and composed (we can pull this chase off). That was a turning point for us, and we focused on building a partnership when I was batting with Jemi.

“The plan was clear – just take 5-6 runs an over, and we knew we can take this close. That’s what we planned and that’s what we did it. (Even after Jemimah was out), I was not nervous. I quite confident that if I stick there, I can finish the game for India. So, I was focusing more on that,” said Deepti in the post-match press conference.

The highlight of Deepti’s unbeaten knock was a one-handed slog-sweep off fast bowler Lauren Bell, which the all-rounder admitted came from seeing how India men’s wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant executed it in his matches.

India’s win in Southampton also means their final run of fine-tuning combinations for ODI World Cup has started on a winning note. “I think as a team, we did really well in Sri Lanka and here also.”

“Whenever we play ODIs, we play always as a team. World Cup is a little too far. We are not thinking about that but definitely we are going one match at a time, and that’s what we are thinking at the moment,” added Deepti, who took home Player of the Match award.

The second ODI between India and England will take place at Lord’s Cricket Ground on July 19.

–IANS

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