IND-W vs SL-W T20Is: India primed to make it four in a row against Sri Lanka

Daily Update, Sports

The visitors’ performance thus far has been below-par and uninspiring; the Women in Blue, after three successful chases, may want to give their batsmen a chance to take guard first

The Gulf of Mannar that separates India and Sri Lanka cannot be as large as the gulf between the women’s teams of the two countries at the moment. That has become increasingly evident during the five-match T20I series.

The Women in Blue have already clinched the series with their eight-wicket victory in the third T20I at the Greenfield Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday. Two more games are left to be played, with the fourth scheduled for Sunday.

The three matches in the series—the first two were played in another beautiful coastal town of Visakhapatnam—have followed a simple template: Harmanpreet Kaur would walk out to the middle for the toss, along with Chamari Athapaththu, win the toss, think deeply about it, and allow Sri Lanka to bat first.

with the fourth scheduled for December 28. Photo Credit: The Hindu

The Gulf of Mannar that separates India and Sri Lanka cannot be as big as the gulf between the women’s teams of the two countries at the moment. That has become increasingly evident during the five-matchT20I series.

The Women in Blue have already clinched the series with their eight-wicket win in the third T20I at the Greenfield Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday. Two more games are left to be played, with the fourth scheduled for Sunday.

The three matches in the series — the first two were played in another beautiful coastal town of Visakhapatnam — have followed a simple template: Harmanpreet Kaur would walk out to the middle for the toss, along with Chamari Athapaththu, win the toss, think deeply about it, and allow Sri Lanka to bat first.

The visitors would struggle to get going at any stage of the innings, would manage to score somewhere in the region of 120, and India would reach the target with plenty of overs to spare.

How desperate Chamari, her team’s most accomplished batter by some distance, would be to win the toss for a change — she could be empathizing with Shubman Gill — and see if making India bat first would be any better.

The widening fanbase of the Women in Blue may not mind that at all: full 20 overs of Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur and Richa Ghosh, not to mention Amanjot Kaur or Deepti Sharma, should be fun.

Deepti hasn’t had to pad up for batting in the two matches she played. The last time she did was last month against South Africa in the ODI World Cup final, in which she hit a run-a-ball 58 and then claimed five wickets to seal her legacy as the finest all-rounder of Indian women’s cricket. She now needs just one more wicket to become the leading bowler in women’s T20Is.

She was outshone with the ball on Friday night, although, by Renuka Singh, who was returning to the Indian T20I side after a year. The swing bowler proved how vital her wicket-taking ability is to this largely young bowling unit.

The Lankan batsmen need to do better against the varied Indian attack. Their captain is due for a big knock, and few women can hit bigger shots. Her opening partner Hasini Perera had looked promising for a short period in the last match and there were decent knocks from Imesha Dulani and Kavisha Dilhari.

But the Lankans need much more against a rampaging Indian side.

The teams (from):

India: Harmanpreet Kaur (Capt.), Smriti Mandhana, Dipti Sharma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Shafali Verma, Harleen Deol, Sneh Rana, Richa Ghosh, Amanjot Kaur, Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Renuka Singh, G. Kamalini, Shree Charani and Vaishnavi Sharma.

Sri Lanka:

Chamari Athapaththu (Capt.), Harshitha Samarawickrama, Hasini Perera, Vishmi Gunaratne, Nilakshika Silva, Kavisha Dilhari, Imesha Dulani, Kaushini Nutyangana, Malsha Shehani, Inoka Ranaweera, Shashini Gimhani, Nimesha Madushani, Kawya Kavindi, Rashmika Sewwandi and Malki Madara.

India Women sealed the five-match T20I series against Sri Lanka Women with a dominating eight-wicket win in the third T2OI at the Greenfield International Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday (December 26). After limiting Sri Lanka to 112/7 on the backs of strong bowling performances from Renuka Thakur (4 for 21) and Deepti Sharma (3 for 18), India cruised to victory, winning with 40 balls to spare courtesy an unbeaten 79 off just 42 balls from Shafali Verma.

As was the pattern in the two games at Vizag, the change of scene did little to curb India’s momentum, who produced a faultless performance right from the get go. Harmanpreet Kaur won the toss and entered the opposition in and her bowlers had Sri Lanka down to 32 for 3 inside the PowerPlay. Interestingly, Renuka’s first over of the match cost India 12 runs and she was quickly taken off the attack and replaced by Deepti Sharma, who accounted for a struggling Chamari Athapaththu by getting the stalwart for a 12-ball 3.

The Sri Lankan middle order shown brief resistance as Imesha Dulani top-scored with 27 off 32 balls and Kavisha Dilhari contributed a brisk 20 off 13 deliveries, including two fours and a six. However, wickets continued to fall at regular intervals. Renuka trapped Nilakshika Silva lbw for 4, and Dipti claimed her 150th T20I wicket when she had Dilhari caught at midwicket. Renuka finished with a wicket-maiden as Sri Lanka crawled to 112.

Chasing a modest target, India lost Smriti Mandhana early, caught lbw by Kavisha Dilhari for 1 after missing a sweep. But before that happened, Verma had already raced off to 25 off 14, having begun the innings with a six and two fours off Malsha Shehani in the first over. She never looked back from there, showcasing her full repertoire of strokes as she raced to her half-century off just 24 balls, smashing eight fours and two sixes.

Jemimah Rodrigues struggled for rhythm and managed only 9 off 15 balls before being bowled by Dilhari. But by then, the match was all but over. India had reached 50 runs in just 5.3 overs and Shafali batted through with Harmanpreet Kaur for company to close out the match, and the series win, with almost seven overs to spare.

Brief scores: Sri Lanka 112/7 in 20 overs (Kavisha Dilhari 20; Renuka Singh 4-21, Deepti Sharma 3-18) lost to India 115/2 in 13.2 overs (Shafali Verma 79*; Kavisha Dilhari 2-18) by eight wickets