Pallekele| Before Commonwealth Games, Birmingham, the Indian women's team seems ready and raring to go. A lot is at stake at the multi-nation event and the Indian women's team will want to play out of their skin and fetch their first Commonwealth Games gold medal. Indian women toured Sri Lanka and now they have effectuated a 3-0 loss over the hosts in a 3-match ODI series.
The skipper of all formats for team India women, Harmanpreet Kaur led from the front, scored a solid 75 off 88 balls, and claimed one wicket in her spell of 5 overs. On the other hand, Pooja Vastrakar continued her golden run scored a gritty 56 off 65 balls, and claimed 2 wickets for 32 runs. Courtesy of their performances India sealed the match and cantered to a 39-run victory over Sri Lanka who looked utterly clueless and timid in front of a dominant Indian side.
Harmanpreet Kaur was all praises for the bowlers who executed their plans perfectly and reduced the hosts to 216 in just 47 overs. With this series win, the Indian women clinched their fourth consecutive bilateral series victory against the island nation. Before this Indian women had won the ODI series in 2013, 2015, and 2018. There was nothing to lose for Harmanpreet Kaur and her troops as they had already clinched the series and they were extremely confident when they approached this game.
On the other hand, it looked like the Sri Lankan team was clueless and did not have any proper plans in place to challenge the dominant Indian team. The Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu won the toss and sent the Indians to bat on a surface that is mostly known to favor teams batting first. However, the Sri Lankans gained an upper hand when they managed to dismiss Mandhana and Shafali Verma cheaply.
The Indian skipper batted with a lot of responsibility throughout her innings and made the best of the short balls deployed by the Lankan bowlers to hit seven fours and two massive sixes. When Sri Lanka started the chase, skipper Athapaththu (44 off 41 balls) and Hasini Perera (39 off 57 balls) did show positive intent adding 56 for the second wicket but things went downhill after the home team skipper was dismissed.
(Inputs from PTI)
