India captain Harmanpreet Kaur and all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar scored fifties, before sharing three wickets between them to hand Sri Lanka a 39-run defeat in the third and final ODI in Pallekele on July 7.
After having won the three-match T20I series 2-1, India women ended their Sri Lanka tour on a high by completing a 3-0 clean-sweep in the ODI series on Thursday, July 7. Kaur, Vastrakar and Shafali Verma stood out with the bat before an all-round bowling show helped the visitors secure a fairly comfortable 39-run win.
India didn’t have the best of starts after being put in to bat, as Smriti Mandhana, who stroked an unbeaten 94 in the 10-wicket win in the second ODI on Monday, fell for 6 to Kavisha Dilhari in the seventh over. Verma added 59 for the second wicket with Yastika Bhatia, but the duo and Harleen Deol would be dismissed within a space of two overs, as India slumped from 89/1 to 94/4. Verma struck five fours during her 50-ball stay and fell one short of a second straight fifty.
Spinners Inoka Ranaweera and Rashmi de Silva kept India under sustained pressure, and Sharma and Richa Ghosh were dismissed in quick succession, leaving India at 124/6 in the 27th over. It was at this point that Harmanpreet was joined by Vastrakar and the duo revived India with a 97-run stand for the seventh wicket, with both scoring fifties.
Harmanpreet fell for 75 on the last ball of the 45th over, striking seven fours and two sixes during her 88-ball stay, while Vastrakar remained unbeaten at 56 to ensure that India finished strongly at 255/9. Ranaweera returned 2/22 from 10 overs, de Silva and Sri Lanka skipper Chamari Athapaththu too, bagged two wickets each.
Sri Lanka lost opener Vishmi Gunaratne early, who spooned a leading edge to Rajeshwari Gaikwad at mid-off off seamer Meghna Singh for 3. Athapaththu and Hasini Perera kept the hosts in the hunt, adding 56 off mere 46 balls, with the skipper playing the aggressor. Athapaththu smashed 8 fours, including three in a row off Deepti in the ninth over, before Harmanpreet weaved her magic in the very first over to remove her opposite number for 44.
Gaikwad dismissed Perera (39) and Dilhari with her accurate left-arm spin, while Harleen and Vastrakar continued to strike regularly as Sri Lanka stumbled to 155/8 by the end of 35 overs. Nilakshi de Silva revived hopes of an unlikely revival in company of Rashmi de Silva and Ranaweera, but the support couldn’t last long as the hosts were bundled out for 216 with 2.3 overs unused. Nilakshi remained unbeaten on 48 off 59, striking two fours and a six. Gaikwad returned 3/36, while Meghna and Vastrakar bagged two wickets each.
Harmanpreet, who was named the Player of the Match as well as the Player of the Series, was extremely pleased with the results.
“This was our first tour without our two senior players (Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami). This is just the beginning, we have a lot more cricket coming up. We did really well in the T20 series, we just want to enjoy our cricket,”
she said after the win, as per ESPNcricinfo.
India now top the ICC Women’s Championship 2022-25 points table with three wins fetching them six points – same as the second-placed South Africa – while Sri Lanka are placed fourth with a single win from five games.
Brief scores
India women 255/9 (Kaur 75, Vastrakar 56*, Verma 49, Ranaweera 2/22) beat Sri Lanka women 216 all-out (De Silva 48*, Athapaththu 44, Gaikwad 3/36, Singh 2/32) by 39 runs
