Punam Raut earned our respect: Smriti Mandhana

Punam Raut, on 36, walked even when she wasn’t given out

Smriti Mandhana took off her helmet, raised her bat, tossed her bangs back with a shake of her head, and allowed herself a shy smile.

She said at a virtual press conference at Carrara, where bad weather brought an early close for the second successive day in the one-off Day/Night Test, that she had been visualising the moment – a celebration of her hundred -- during the 14-day quarantine in Australia.

“But that celebration (in the visualisation) was different to what I did today,” she said, smiling. “I don’t know why I become shy when it actually happens.”