Jhulan Goswami, who headlined India’s turnaround win in the second One Day International against South Africa on Tuesday, said that the team just needed time to settle down after a long layoff.
Playing international cricket after a year, India were crushed in the first ODI on Sunday but bounced back for a comprehensive nine-wicket win to level the series 1-1.
“We played the first match after a long gap, so took time to settle down. We bowled both sides of the wicket,” the 38-year-old pacer said about the first ODI.
“We were not up to the mark. We were able to execute our plans perfectly today. It was a good match for us.... It was a much disciplined bowling attack today. Today our planning was absolutely spot on. It was an absolute team effort,” she added.
The Goswami-led attack bundled out South Africa for a paltry 157 after winning the toss. In reply, opener Smriti Mandhana (80 not out off 64 balls) and Punam Raut (62 not out off 89 balls) scored unbeaten half-centuries for an easy win in only 28.4 overs.
Talking about the quick comeback, she said the team believed in themselves.
“When you’re coming back from a long layoff, you need to work on your basics. What routine you should follow, you should maintain the same. We know we are a good team. We didn’t discuss much about the defeat, we just ensured we stuck to our basics,” the 38-year-old said.
India v South Africa, 2nd ODI as it happened: Smriti Mandhana, Punam Raut take hosts to 9-wicket win
The veteran was clinical with the ball, taking 4/42 and narrowly missing a fifer after taking a wicket off a no-ball. She was named the Player of the Match.
“I just tried to bowl in the right areas consistently. The first match I was bowling a little outside off-stump, today I bowled in the right areas. That adjustment I had made,” she said of her performance.
Playing her first international series since November 2019, the highest wicket-taker in ODI history added to her already chart-topping tally.
“Representing India is the biggest motivation for me. I don’t think you have to look elsewhere for motivation...You cannot belong to the team if you don’t perform your best everyday. It’s important for us to maintain our fitness and come out strong on the field. It’s not going to be easy,” she explained when asked about what motivates her to keep playing at her age.
The pacer from Bengal had called it quits from T20I format in 2018 in a surprise announcement ahead of the T20 World Cup in the West Indies.
“When I retired from T20Is, the most important thing for me was to just focus on one format. I had niggles here and there. It was quite difficult for me to maintain (my fitness). Then I spent a lot of time in training. I tried to do well everyday. As for me, I was doing a lot of training since lockdown. I just kept following that. Representing India is my biggest achievement. That’s my responsibility and job,” she said.
Talking about the pitch she said, “There’s a bit of moisture in the morning. But it was much easier in the second innings and the wicket turned pretty flat. You just need to play through the line. There’s a bit of advantage there for the bowlers so far.”
The BCCI had on Monday announced that India will play a Test against England later this year – their first in more than six years.
India had played their last Test match in November 2014 against South Africa in Mysore and had emerged victorious by an innings and 34 runs.
“Everyone was very excited [when it was announced]. We last played a Test in 2014 against South Africa in Mysore. After six years we’re going to play a Test... Test matches are one thing you want to play as a cricketer. You want to go there and perform well because it has a lot of challenges, mental strength, physical strength, and that can change every session. We are excited and are looking forward to it,” Goswami, who has competed in 10 Tests, said.
The visiting captain Sune Luus blamed their batting collapse behind their loss.
“It comes down to not having enough runs on the board. It was a fresh wicket today and quite a lot of movement. They bowled extremely well with the new ball. But we did not execute our shots. It’s always going to be difficult when none of your top-four batters bats till 40 overs,” Luus said.
