The Indian women’s cricket team won the final Twenty20 International against Sri Lanka on Tuesday by 52 runs to complete a 4-0 series win and end what was already a successful tour on a high. Chasing 157 to win, the hosts were bundled out for 105 in 17.4 overs in Katunayake. This defeat came just a day after they lost the fourth T20I by seven wickets.
Poonam Yadav was the star bowler for India, ending the game with figures of 4-0-18-3. She was ably supported by Radha Yadav and Deepti Sharma, both of whom took two wickets each. It was Poonam who struck early for India, removing Chamari Athapaththu in the very first over of the game. Sharma then removed the other opener Yasoda Mendis in the third over. Anushka Sanjeewani and Shashikala Siriwardene stitched together a 34-run stand for the third wicket and were scoring at a brisk rate, but Radha removed the latter and that was the beginning of the end for the hosts.
Tight overs from Anuja Patil and Radha saw the asking rate climb steeply and led to Oshadi Ranasinghe targeting skipper Harmanpreet in a bid to up their scoring rate. But Arundhati Reddy dismissed Ranasinghe and this led to a collapse. Wickets fell regularly and when the 17th over saw India claim three wickets, the writing was on the wall for the home side.
The last wicket fell in the next over and India were celebrating the end of a very successful tour of the island nation. In the first innings, Harmanpreet Kaur top-scored for India with 63 and young Jemimah Rodrigues chipped in with a valuable 46 after Mithali Raj and Smriti Mandhana again failed to get the team off to a good start, the latter falling for a duck.
However, a late innings collapse saw them lose 7 wickets in 4.3 overs at a time when they looked on course to score at least 180. Having scored 128 after 14 overs for the loss of three wickets, India were dismissed for 156 in 18.3 overs but it didn’t matter in the end. Before winning the T20I series, India had won the three-match ODI series 2-1.
