SL-W vs IND-W | 1st T20 | India’s all-round performance helps them start on a winning note

Today, Indian women resumed their international cricket stint after the World Cup. Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur decided to bat first after winning the toss. However, with a strong batting line-up on paper, India’s opening pair, Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana, couldn’t provide a proper start as Smriti lost her wicket in the 4th over at mid-on. 

S. Meghana returning to the Indian T20 side after 2016, certainly had high expectations from her after her fantastic knock in the Women’s T20 Challenge. Slow start and mounting pressure, S. Meghana played a mistimed shot and gave an easy catch to the Lankan fielder at extra cover. Ranasinghe took back-to-back wickets in the 4th over. India could only manage to score 32 runs in the powerplay.

Shafali and Harmanpreet in the middle gave India some stability by having a partnership of 39 runs. Lankans gave two lifelines to Harman by dropping her catches. Yet, they made a comeback with the ball by getting Shafali out in the 10th over just when she was about to change the gears. Harman, too couldn’t make a big score as she got out in the 11th over.

India’s middle order did support Jemimah by forming small partnerships with her. Returning to the T20 side, Jemimah scored 36*[27]. Deepti Sharma helped her in the end by scoring 17*[8]. Together they formed a partnership of 32 runs, of which 20 runs came in the last, helping India put 138 runs on board.

Lankans got off to a shaky start in the chase as Gunaratne got out in the 2nd over. With Athapaththu still in the middle, Lankans needed a partnership. Radha Yadav’s spell started a bit expensive, yet in the 7th over, she got the most important wicket of Athapaththu. In the same over, a great catch by Deepti Sharma at backward square leg helped India get two big wickets in 3 balls.

Sri Lanka’s middle-order batters, Silva and Dilhari, formed a partnership of 27 runs in 35 balls. Lankans couldn’t cope with the asking run rate playing at a slow run rate. In the 13th over, Silva took a risk but lost her wicket at long-off. Tight fielding and line-to-line bowling made it difficult for the Sri Lankan batters to score runs. Dilhari was their highest scorer with 47*[49], but she didn’t get any support from the other end. Lankans failed to chase the target, and India won the match by 34 runs and went up 1-0 in the 3-match series.

Brief scores:

India 138-6 [20 overs; J Rodrigues 36*, S Verma 31; Ranaweera 3-30]

Sri Lanka 104-5 [20 overs; K Dilhari 47*, Athapaththu 16; Yadav 2-22]

India won by 34 runs