England's Tammy Beaumont says 'ruthless and relentless' mindset behind superb ODI batting form
"You can either go with the flow and see what happens or try and be ruthless and dominate. It's not about dominating how others might do it. My dominating is making sure I put away every bad ball I get and make bowlers work hard to get me out"
Monday 28 June 2021 18:43, UK
England Women's Tammy Beaumont says a "ruthless and relentless" mindset has been key to her glittering form in one-day internationals.
Opening batter Beaumont scored a run-a-ball 87 on Sunday as England thrashed India by eight wickets in the first ODI and has now passed fifty in each of her last four ODI innings.
The 30-year-old's knock at the weekend followed scores of 71, 72 not out and an unbeaten 88 during the series win in New Zealand over the winter.
Beaumont says working with England sports psychologist Dr Phoebe Sanders has helped her change her approach to batting.
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The right-hander said: "Once you get to a certain age, you have worked on your technique, know what works and it is just a case of sticking to it and tinkering if something is going wrong.
"If it's going right, for me, it's all about your mindset. I have really worked on that from just before New Zealand.
"I don't believe in form anymore, it's all about how you approach it and your mindset. Being ruthless and relentless as much as possible and it seems to be working at the moment.
"It's not a classroom thing [with Sanders], it's just a chat about how I'm going.
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"The day before the first game in New Zealand she said you have a choice how you go about it and ever since then her voice has been in my head when I go out.
"You can either go with the flow and see what happens or try and be ruthless and dominate.
"It's not about dominating how others might do it. My dominating is making sure I put away every bad ball I get and make bowlers work hard to get me out."
Beaumont's unbroken third-wicket wicket stand of 119 from 116 balls with Nat Sciver (74no) saw England cruise to victory with 91 deliveries to spare but she says it was not initially their plan to go as hard as possible after restricting India to an under-par 201-8.
Once Nat starts to unleash there is no stopping her and at one point I thought I wasn’t going to face another ball! If I try and keep up with Nat there is no chance of that as she is just an unbelievable talent My job is to set us up to get those big totals. Bat for as long as possible but still score and not hold an end up .
Beaumont added: "It wasn't the plan to get to the target as quick as possible but I think when we bat like that it's certainly within our capabilities.
"We are all naturally attacking batters and like to go at a strike rate of 80 plus and hit boundaries, so once we are in we score quite naturally.
"When we got out there, it turned out to be quite a nice wicket to hit the ball through the line on."
Asked whether she was surprised at India's slow-scoring rate, Beaumont added: "Not really.
"I have been facing our bowlers in the nets and the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, so I know how well they are bowling.
"Getting those two big scalps in the first 10 overs [Shafali Verma for 15 and Smriti Mandhana for 10] meant we could really contain. India were definitely on the back foot and had to rebuild."
Watch the second ODI between England Women and India Women, from Taunton, live on Sky Sports Cricket from 1.30pm on Wednesday.
