Sri Lanka looked like they could cause a massive upset in the tour opener, but ultimately faltered in all too familiar fashion with the bat as India registered a 34-run win in the 1st T20I.
Coming into the last over of India’s innings (118/6), the hosts looked well in control of the game, before a brilliant onslaught by Deepti Sharma and Jemimah Rodrigues saw the visitors past the 130-run mark.
Rodrigues batted beautifully for her 36 off 27, but would have been kicking herself as she lost strike right at the beginning of the 20th over. However, Sharma more than compensated for it, smashing 3 consecutive boundaries – through mid-wicket, mid-off and fine leg before Rodrigues finished things off with a 6.
From keeping India under 125, Sri Lanka now had to content with a target of 139 and they looked steady early on before once again hitting a rut. The dismissal of skipper Athapaththu was yet again the catalyst as it so often has. Radha Yadav accounted for both Athapaththu and Harshitha Samarawickrama in the same over and from that point Sri Lanka really had no chance.
Kaveesha Dilhari managed to stick around and ended with 47* off 49, but it was never going to be enough for the hosts.
Earlier in the day, another double-wicket over, this time by Oshadhi Ranasinghe, turned the tables on India’s power-packed top order as they were reduced to 17/2 but a 40-run partnership between Shafali Verma and Harmanpreet Kaur (thanks to a couple of missed opportunities by Sri Lanka in the field), saw India dig themselves out of trouble.
Regular wickets held them back, but Player of the Match Rodrigues’ knock saw them through to a defendable target.
Inoka Ranaweera picked up 3/30, while Ranasinghe finished with 2/22.
The 2nd T20I between the sides will be at the same venue on Saturday, 25th of June.
Result
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shafali Verma | c Nilakshi de Silva b Chamari Athapaththu | 31 | 31 | 4 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Smriti Mandhana | c Chamari Athapaththu b Oshadi Ranasinghe | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 16.67 |
| S Meghna | c Chamari Athapaththu b Oshadi Ranasinghe | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Harmanpreet Kaur | lbw b Inoka Ranaweera | 22 | 20 | 3 | 0 | 110.00 |
| Jemimah Rodrigues | not out | 36 | 27 | 3 | 1 | 133.33 |
| Richa Ghosh | st Anushka Sanjeewani b Inoka Ranaweera | 11 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 73.33 |
| Pooja Vastrakar | b Inoka Ranaweera | 14 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 116.67 |
| Deepti Sharma | b | 17 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 212.50 |
| Extras | 6 (b 0 , lb 1 , nb 0, w 5, pen 0) |
| Total | 138/6 (20 Overs, RR: 6.9) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Udeshika Prabodhani | 4 | 0 | 21 | 0 | 5.25 | |
| Sugandika Kumari | 3 | 0 | 18 | 0 | 6.00 | |
| Oshadi Ranasinghe | 3 | 0 | 22 | 2 | 7.33 | |
| Ama Kanchana | 1 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 8.00 | |
| Inoka Ranaweera | 4 | 0 | 30 | 3 | 7.50 | |
| Chamari Athapaththu | 2 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 3.50 | |
| Kavisha Dilhari | 3 | 0 | 31 | 0 | 10.33 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vishmi Gunaratne | lbw b Deepti Sharma | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 20.00 |
| Chamari Athapaththu | c Rajeshwari Gayakwad b Poonam Yadav | 16 | 19 | 2 | 0 | 84.21 |
| Harshitha Madavi | c Deepti Sharma b Poonam Yadav | 10 | 17 | 1 | 0 | 58.82 |
| Kavisha Dilhari | not out | 47 | 49 | 6 | 0 | 95.92 |
| Nilakshi de Silva | c Harmanpreet Kaur b Pooja Vastrakar | 8 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 72.73 |
| Ama Kanchana | st Richa Ghosh b Shafali Verma | 11 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 110.00 |
| Anushka Sanjeewani | not out | 10 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 125.00 |
| Extras | 1 (b 0 , lb 1 , nb 0, w 0, pen 0) |
| Total | 104/5 (20 Overs, RR: 5.2) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Renuka Singh | 4 | 0 | 25 | 0 | 6.25 | |
| Deepti Sharma | 3 | 1 | 9 | 1 | 3.00 | |
| Radha Yadav | 4 | 0 | 22 | 2 | 5.50 | |
| Pooja Vastrakar | 4 | 1 | 12 | 1 | 3.00 | |
| Rajeshwari Gayakwad | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 7.00 | |
| Harmanpreet Kaur | 2 | 0 | 17 | 0 | 8.50 | |
| Shafali Verma | 2 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 5.00 | |
