Prasadini Weerakkody, Sri Lanka’s wicket keeping opening batter made a fine half century in the 1st ODI versus hosts India but could not find enough support to chase down the target of 246. 27 year old Weerakkody brought up her maiden half century in her 22nd ODI in an innings where she looked to anchor Sri Lanka’s run chase.
The much fancied Indians, coming off an unprecedented T20 series win against Australia in Australia, were expected to steamroll the Lankans but found the going tough against the visitors’ bowlers for the majority of their innings. It was slow going for the Indian openers after Sri Lankan skipper Shashikala Siriwardene put them into bat on a slow turner in Ranchi.
The key to the Indian innings was that they did not lose wickets even though their scoring rate was below 4 runs an over for the most part. The openers Smriti Mandhana and Thirush Kamini put on 71 for the 1st wicket, with the former making 55 off 81 deliveries. Skipper Mithali Raj and in form batter Harmanpreet Kaur put on a further 62 runs once the openers were dismissed to give India a strong platform to launch from in the last 8 overs. The Sri Lankans looked like they would manage to keep the hosts to around 220 but a late surge by Jhulan Goswami, Vedha Krishnamurthy and Shikha Pandey meant that they got 40 off the last 4 overs to post 245.
Left armer Udeshika Prabodhani and skipper Siriwardene bowled with characteristic control and picked up 2 wickets apiece. Sri Lanka’s issue seemed to be that they just could not pick up wickets at regular intervals which led to the hosts having enough wickets intact to go for big shots in the latter part of the innings.
Sri Lanka’s current form would suggest that their stronger suit is their bowling so chasing 245 always seemed like a stiff challenge. Their chase took a hit in just the 2nd over when Chamari Atapattu was dismissed by Pandey for 1 off 7 deliveries. The scoring rate moved at a snail’s pace from then on, with the Lankans looking to survive rather than get the runs. One drop batter Lasanthi Madushani made 15 off 42 deliveries as Sri Lanka crawled to 31 in 15 overs. Oshadi Ranasinghe’s strike rate was only marginally better than Madushani’s as she made 18 off 48. When she was dismissed in the 32nd over, Sri Lanka still needed 152 to win off just over 18 overs. Big hitter Eshani Lokusuriya came into bat next to inject some energy into the innings as the required rate began to climb beyond control. Meanwhile Weerakkody made it to her maiden half century and eventually fell for 69 as Sri Lanka slumped to 126/5. The next 5 wickets fell for 12 runs as the Indian spinners wrapped up the innings in 45.2 overs.
With the win India gained 2 points and moved ahead of Pakistan to 6th position in the Women’s Championship while Sri Lanka are languishing in the last spot.
The 2nd ODI is scheduled to take place on the 17th of February in Ranchi.
Scores:
Indian Women: 245/6 (50) Smriti Mandhana 55, Harmanpreet Kaur 50, Shashikala Siriwardene 2/31, Udeshika Prabodhani 2/38
Sri Lanka Women: 138 all out (45.2) Prasadini Weerakkody 69, Poonam Yadav 4/22, Deepti Sharma 2/20, Rajeshwari Gayakwad 2/31
Result: India Women won by 107 runs
