Captain Harmanpreet Kaur’s stellar performance with the ball and bat helped the Indian women’s cricket team win the three-match series by defeating Sri Lanka by five wickets in the second Twenty20 International here on Saturday. Apart from experienced vice-captain Smriti Mandhana (39 runs in 34 balls), Shefali Verma (17 runs in 10 balls) and Sabhinani Meghna (17 runs in 10 balls) helped India achieve the target of 126 runs in 19.1 overs.
This is India’s third consecutive series win against Sri Lanka. The target was not that big but the Indian team stumbled while chasing this easy target, after which Harmanpreet scored an unbeaten 31 in 32 balls to give the team victory. Sri Lanka started well but could manage only 125 runs for seven wickets.
The third and final T20 match will be played here on Monday. Mandhana became the second fastest Indian woman cricketer to reach 2,000 runs in T20Is, making the day a memorable one. Mandhana achieved the feat in her 84th innings, becoming the third Indian woman cricketer to achieve the feat after legendary cricketer Mithali Raj (70 innings) and current captain Harmanpreet Kaur (88 innings).
Electing to bat after winning the toss, the Sri Lankan team made an ideal start with the help of captain Chamari Atapattu (43 runs in 41 balls) and Visimi Gunaratne (45 runs in 50 balls). The duo put on the best partnership of 87 runs for Sri Lanka in T20I for the first wicket as the Indian bowlers looked desperate to take wickets.
After the dismissals of Atapattu and Gunaratne, Sri Lanka continued to lose wickets and the team was able to score such a low score. Deepti Sharma (2 for 34 in four overs) was certainly the best bowler but Radha Yadav and Pooja Vastrakar also helped India tighten the grip with good performances with the ball.