India captain Harmanpreet Kaur revealed that playing Titas Sadhu, who produced career-best bowling figures against Australia, in the first WT20I was a last-minute call by head coach Amol Mazumdar.

Harmanpreet also credited her team for ticking all the boxes in their emphatic nine-wicket win over Australia in the first women’s T20I on Friday, citing fielding as the department in which her players excelled the most. India bowled out Australia for 141 in 19.2 overs, with pacer Titas Sadhu taking four wickets.

Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma scored fifties and shared a sensational 137-run opening stand to help India chase down the target with 15 balls to spare at the DY Patil Sports Academy. With this victory, India went 1-0 up in the three-match series.

“We were upto the mark in all 3 departments. Fielding is something we are really working hard. Today everyone is enjoying their fielding and really happy to see that. Credit goes to our fielding coach, he picked Jemi to slot at backward point and everyone knows their plan in the fielding and we got the results we wanted as well,” Harmanpreet said in the post-match presentation ceremony.

“I just kept telling my bowlers to keep working hard and keep it tight. Credit to our head coach, we were about to pick a third spinner but in the last moment we decided to go with the extra seamer and we backed her (Titas Sadhu) and got the results as well. The way our bowling unit bowled today was superb, we would love to repeat this performance in the next game as well,” Harmanpreet added.

Smriti Mandhana, senior batter and opener, said the team recovered well after the ODI series defeat.