India 127 for five (Mandhana 39, Harmanpreet 31*) beat Sri Lanka 125 for 7 (Gunaratne 45, Athapaththu 43) by 5 wickets
When it began to seem like Sri Lanka would submit a robust whole after their brisk 87-run opening stand and make India work onerous to win the second match of the collection, the hosts misplaced six wickets for simply 14 runs within the final 3.1 overs of their innings to finish with a beneath-par 125 that did not show to be sufficient.
Sri Lanka’s finest opening stand in T20Is
Athapaththu, in the meantime, had confronted solely three balls on the finish of the fourth over and took seven balls to get off the mark after lacking loads of cuts and heaves. But as soon as she hit her first boundary – a straight six off Deepti Sharma adopted by a slog sweep for 4 in the identical over – she minimize unfastened. They collected 12 off the final powerplay over to succeed in 37 and located boundaries in opposition to each tempo and spin to submit 60 on the midway mark. Athapaththu focused her favoured leg facet and was notably attacking in opposition to Deepti to attain 19 off her 10 balls. She additionally acquired two lives when she was dropped at cowl level on 24 and survived a tricky stumping probability on 34, when Renuka despatched a large down the leg facet however Yastika Bhatia could not hit the stumps.
Sri Lanka slide after opening stand
When Vastrakar and Harmanpreet conceded just 12 runs in the space of four overs, Gunaratne felt the pressure and also fell by handing a return catch to Harmanpreet for 45 off 50. No Sri Lanka batter reached double-figures thereafter as Deepti came back to remove Harshitha Samarawickrama and Nilakshi de Silva in the 18th over, Hasini Perera and Oshadi Ranasinghe fell in the 19th and Renuka removed Dilhari Kavisha in the last to keep the hosts’ tally of the last four overs to just 19 runs for five wickets.
Harmanpreet takes India home after a strong start
Mandhana started the chase with an exquisite cover drive, and Shafali Verma helped India put on 31 in four overs with her trademark power and charge down the pitch. She went after Ranasinghe’s offbreaks by hitting her over mid-off in the second over, and when she tried a third consecutive boundary against her in the fourth over, she found mid-off to fall for 17 off 10.
S Meghana took on left-arm quick Udeshika Prabodhani with four fours in the fifth over, using dabs behind square on either side, a well-timed cover drive and an outside edge, and India were 47 for 1 with one powerplay over left.
India, however, stuttered in between when three of their batters were stumped but they never looked in trouble. Meghana was stumped off Kumari for 17 in the sixth over, before Mandhana continued to pepper the off-side boundary with her drives and dabs. By the time she fell at the end of the 11th over, India needed a comfortable 40 from 54 balls.
India will not be fully happy with the efficiency although. They leaked overthrows and gave the hosts practically three run-out probabilities in a single ball when Harmanpreet swept a ball within the 18th over to deep midwicket and known as for 2, however Bhatia did not need the second. A wayward throw from the deep saved Bhatia, the fielder backing up could not run her out both on the bowler’s finish, and one other throw reached the keeper’s finish barely late when the batters took the third run.
Vishal Dikshit is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
