India bested Sri Lanka in the rain-curtailed first game of the tri-series in Colombo by nine wickets. The spinners orchestrated the win with Sneh Rana bagging a three wicket-haul while Nallapureddy Charani and Deepti Sharma picked two apiece. Earlier, due to poor weather conditions, the start of play was delayed by over two hours which reduced the contest to a 39 overs-a-side.
Debutant Kashvee Gautam extracted some early movement and even got Hasini Perera to edge one which dropped short of the slip fielder. After a sedate start, Sri Lanka finally found the boundary in the fourth over with a swivel to the fence. Just when the innings seemed to be picking up the pace, Chamari Athapaththu got an under-edge through to the ‘keeper for 7. Perera managed to find the boundary a couple of more times as the PowerPlay ended with the hosts on 37/1.
Hasini had scored the lion’s share of the runs until then but the move to bring in Rana proved to be an inspired one for India as she trapped the batter leg-before. Two overs later, Harshitha Madavi was run-out courtesy Jemimah Rodrigues as the islanders lurched to 67/3. With Charani tying one end up and consolidating the stranglehold, Rana reaped the rewards from the other with the wicket of Hansima Karunaratne and Nilakshi de Silva. Both offered return catches to the bowler.
Kavisha Dilhari looked in fine fettle as she essayed a couple of gorgeous cover drives in an almost run-a-ball 25 before she picked out cover. It was Charani’s maiden ODI wicket. With the innings meandering, Charani claimed her second wicket of the game as Piumi Badalge holed out to mid-on. Deepti Sharma then cleaned up the tail as Sri Lanka folded for 147.
In response, India got off the mark with a first-ball boundary through Pratika Rawal while Smriti Mandhana showed her class in the next over. The Sri Lankans erred on the fuller side and were subjected to pristine hits via cover by the right-left duo. India brought up 50 in the ninth over before Inoka Ranaweera finally broke through the partnership with a return catch of Mandhana on 43. Rawal and Harleen Deol then came together and found the fence regularly. The duo did not give Sri Lanka any sniff whatsoever in their unbeaten 95-run stand as India sped to victory. Rawal scored her fourth successive fifty while Deol ended unbeaten on 48.
Brief Scores: Sri Lanka 147 in 38.1 overs (Hasini Perera 30, Kavisha Dilhari 25; Sneh Rana 3-31, Deepti Sharma 2-22) lost to India 149/1 in 29.4 overs (Pratika Rawal 50*, Harleen Deol 48*; Inoka Ranaweera 1-32) by nine wickets
