Indian cricketer Smriti Mandhana displayed a heartwarming gesture for a specially-abled fan in Dambulla after India's match against Pakistan in the Women's Asia Cup on Friday. Mandhana had a special gift for a young fan, who came to meet her.
Mandhana warmly met the little fangirl and also presented a mobile phone to her. The video is doing the rounds on social media.
"Adeesha Herath's love for cricket brought her to the stadium, despite all the challenges. The highlight of her day? A surprise encounter with her favourite cricketer, Smriti Mandhana, who handed her a mobile phone as a token of appreciation. Moments like these show the true spirit of the game," Sri Lanka Cricket wrote in a caption to the video.
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India humbled down Pakistan
Defending champions India humbled down their arch-rivals Pakistan in their tournament opener at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium. Chasing a meagre score of 109, openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma laid the platform for the chase.
The chase was well set with an 85-run opening stand between Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana with the two players taking the team to the door of the win before the latter departed for 45 when she found mid-wicket to perfection. Dayalan Hemalatha joined Shafali in the middle but there were some more hiccups for the Women in Blue before captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues took them home in 14.1 over.
The platform for the win was laid by the Indian bowlers. All-rounder Deepti Sharma was the pick of the bunch with three wickets while returning Renuka Singh, Pooja Vastrakar and Shreyanka Patil scalped two each. Sidra Ameen, Tuba Hassan and Fatima Sana were the only ones to get over 20. Ameen was the top-scorer with 25 runs but she took 35 balls to score those runs.
