The Indian women’s cricket team made a winning start in the T20I series against Sri Lanka. The Indian team, captained by Harmanpreet Kaur, registered a 34-run win in the first T20 (IND W vs SL W 1st T20I) of the series played in Dambulla on Thursday.
Batting first after winning the toss, the Indian team scored 138 runs for 6 wickets in the allotted 20 overs, after which the Sri Lankan team could score 104 for 5 wickets.
Jemima Rodriguez, who came to bat at number five, played an unbeaten innings of 36 runs in 27 balls and was adjudged the player of the match. Returning to the team, Jemima took the responsibility of taking India to a respectable score.
She hit 3 fours and a six in her unbeaten innings. At the other end, Deepti Sharma added 17 runs in 8 balls. With this win, the Indian women’s team has taken a 1-0 lead in the 3-match T20I series. The second T20 match of the series will be played on June 25 at this ground.
Chasing the target of 139 runs, Kavisha Dilhari scored 47 runs for the Sri Lankan team and came back unbeaten. He hit 6 fours in 49 balls. Sri Lanka got the first blow in the form of Vishmi Gunaratne (1) on the score of 1 run of the team. Then spinner Radha Yadav gave 2 blows to Sri Lanka in the 7th over of the innings.
Captain Chamari Atapattu (16) was caught by Rajeshwari Gaikwad while Harshita Madhavi (10) was caught by Deepti Sharma. Nilakshi de Silva contributed 8, Ama Kanchana 11 and wicketkeeper Anoushka Sanjeevani contributed 10 not out. Radha Yadav took 2 wickets for 22 runs for India while Deepti Sharma, Pooja Vastrakar and Shafali Verma took 1-1 wickets.
Earlier, Jemima Rodriguez returned with a 27-ball 36 as the Indian women’s team posted 138 for 6 against a disciplined bowling attack of Sri Lanka. India’s new all-format captain Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and elected to bat but was replaced by Sri Lanka.
India lost the wicket of opener Smriti Mandhana (1) in the third over of the innings. The 25-year-old Indian player fell victim to the veteran Oshadi while trying to open her hand. In an attempt to play that shot, the ball was directly caught at mid-on by Captain Atapattu.
S Meghna could not even open the account and the experienced Ranasinghe sent her to the pavilion. The pressure on the team was clearly visible after losing two wickets in the initially hot and humid environment.
The pair of Harmanpreet and Shafali Verma handled this delicate situation. Shafali (31 runs) was the third player to be dismissed, who was caught by Atapattu in an attempt to play a big shot.
The Sri Lankan bowlers bowled well to ensure that they got a big wicket early and it happened when skipper Harmanpreet (22) was dismissed lbw by spinner Inoka Ranvira in the 11th over. Ranveer also took the wickets of wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh (11) and Pooja Vastrakar (14).