Match Details
Earlier in the game, it was the Sri Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu who won the toss and elected to bat first. The hosts got off to a great start as the openers stole the show and kept the Indians at bay. They started off well and did not put a foot wrong while the Indian bowlers kept it relatively tight. It was the Chamari-Vishmi Gunaratne show as they put up 87 runs for the first wicket in 13.5 overs before the skipper departed for 43 off 41 balls. Gunaratne top-scored with 45 off 50 balls. They were well-placed at 90-1 after 15 overs and looked good to get to 140 from there which would have been good on this pitch. But the Lankans lost their way as none of the other batters could get into double digits. They went from 106-1 to 120-7 to eventually finish at 125-7. They lost 6-14 to completely lose their way. To see 11 extras as the third-highest scorer speaks volumes of the collapse they had.
From India’s
point of view, they came back well with the ball. Renuka Singh bowled 4 overs 1
for 26. Deepti Sharma after going for 30 in 3 overs finished with 2-34 in 4
overs. Simran Bahadur bowled just a couple of overs for 14 runs. Radha Yadav
bowled 3 overs 1 for 15. Pooja Vastrakar was introduced very late as she completed
her quota of 4 overs giving away 18 runs and picking up a wicket as well. The
skipper Harmanpreet Kaur rolled his arm over as well as she bowled 3 overs 1 for
12 runs. A great comeback by the Indian bowlers after they were a bit off as
they restricted the Lankans to 125-7 in 20 overs. The batters held their nerves to win the game by 5 wickets with 5 balls to spare as they were always in control of the chase thanks to the bowlers.
So, a win by India by 5 wickets to win the series. Stay tuned for the post-match presentation ceremony coming your way soon.