Sri Lanka Women’s Cricket captain Shashikala Siriwardene scored a match winning 52 runs in 39 balls to guide her team to their 1st ever T20I victory over India Women’s team when the Lankan lasses chased down the Indian target of 148 in the penultimate ball of the match with 3 wickets remaining.
Sri Lanka Women won the toss and elected to field. Sri Lankan team was whitewashed by India during the ODI series and the Sri Lankans were itching for a victory in the shortest form of the game. India batting 1st were off to a great start with their opening batswomen putting 71 runs for the 1st wicket. Wicket keeper batswomen Anagha Deshpande was the 1st to out when she was run out for 21 runs. Skipper Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur scored briskly towards the end and helped the host team to put up a challenging 147 runs losing only 3 wickets in their allotted 20 overs. Mithali made 67 runs in 47 balls with 9 boundaries and 2 huge sixes. Harmanpreet Kaur scored a quick fire 40 runs in 29 balls. Oshadi Ranasinghe was the only successful bowler as he took 2 wickets giving away 27 runs in her 4 overs.
Chasing a competitive score of 148, the Sri Lankan openers put on 29 runs as Lasanthi Madushani was dismissed for 15 runs while the other opening batswomen Chamari Atapattu made 21 runs.
Several batswomen lost their wicket in search of quick runs but Shashikala Siriwardene held her end as firm to guide her team close to the target. Shashikala’s match winnings innings came to an end when the Sri Lankan innings was on 139/7 with 9 runs needed with only 8 legitimate balls remaining. Chamari Polgampola batting at no.8 finished off the game with a ball remaining as Sri Lanka Women registered their 1st ever T20I win over their neighbouring Indian Women team. Rajeshwari Gayakwad was the pick of the bowlers for India as she was accounted for 3 Sri Lankan wickets.
Chief Scores :
India Women – 147/3 in 20 overs : Mithali Raj 67, Harmanpreet Kaur 40*, Anagha Deshpande 21, Oshadi Ranasinghe 2/27.
Sri Lanka Women – 148/7 in 19.5 overs : Shashikala Siriwardene 52, Chamari Atapattu 21, Oshadi Ranasinghe 19, Chamari Polgampola 19*, Rajeshwari Gayakwad 3/24, Sonia Dabir 2/23, Ekta Bisht 2/37.
