Smriti Mandhana, bowlers help India secure 5-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in 2nd Women’s T20I
India Today
On Saturday, June 25, India defeated Sri Lanka by 5 wickets in the 2nd Women's T20I to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
India Women, on Saturday, June 25, defeated Sri Lanka Women by 5 wickets in Dambulla to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match T20I series.
After electing to bat first, the hosts got off to an incredible start. Openers Chamari Athapaththu and Vishmi Gunaratne stitched together a partnership of 87 runs for the opening wicket of 83 balls to lay the platform for a final flourish.
But after Athapathu perished for a 41-ball knock of 43, laced with seven fours and one six, the Sri Lankan batting collapsed. A couple of overs later, Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur removed Gunaratne, after which the home team scored 19 runs in three overs and lost five wickets.
Other than the top two, none of the Sri Lankan batters got into double digits. Even as Deepti Sharma picked up two wickets, Renuka Singh, Radha Yadav, Pooja Vastrakar and Harmanpreet picked up one wicket apiece.
India started their run-chase on an aggressive note as Smriti Mandhana and the swashbuckling Shafali Verma put on 30 runs off 22 balls. Both Shafali and Sabbhineni Meghana, who batted at No.3, scored 17 runs apiece.
Mandhana and Harmanpreet put on 38 runs for the third wicket to put India in a commanding position. Smriti scored 39 runs and also became the fifth Indian batter after Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet to notch 2000 runs in T20Is.
Harmanpreet stayed unbeaten on 31 runs off 32 and helped India win the game with five balls to spare. Jemimah Rodrigues was impressive in the first T20I, but she couldn’t perform after getting out to a mistimed inside-out shot.
