Indian women inflicted a humiliating 9-wicket defeat on the Sri Lanka counterpart to clean sweep the three-match Twenty-20 International series at the Jharkhand International Stadium Complex in Ranchi, last week. Set to chase a meager 90 for their sixth straight win in as many games in the bilateral arrangement, Smriti Mandhana led India's innings with an unbeaten run-a-ball 43 as the hosts overhauled the target with 37 balls to spare. In supreme touch, Mandhana attacked from the word go and kick-started with a couple of boundaries in the first over. At the other end, Vellaswamy Vanitha too did the bulk of the scoring in boundaries and raised the 50 of the partnership with the first ball of the seventh over.
Chamari Atapattu got her team the only breakthrough as she broke the 64-run opening stand by having Vanitha caught by Hansima Karunarathne on 34 off 25 deliveries, inclusive of five hits to the fence. Mandhana then combined with Veda Krishnamurthy to guide India home without any further hiccups. Krishnamurthy contributed 13, including two boundaries, to her 27-run union with Mandhana. Earlier, for the second consecutive time, Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat under overcast conditions.
Pacer Niranjana Nagarajan and spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad got their first game in the series as the hosts decided to rest all-rounders Shikha Pandey and Sneh Rana. The visitors made three changes to their squad by resting opener Yasoda Mendis, left-arm pacer Udeshika Prabodhani and in-form wicketkeepr-bat Dilani Manodara. India opened the bowling with spin and in-form Anuja Patil struck in the first over by trapping Oshadi Ranasinghe, playing her first game of the series, plumb in front when the batter was yet to open her account.
A freak miscommunication in the middle led to Shashikala Siriwardena's dismissal, for a two-ball duck. The Sri Lankan skipper drove the ball to third man region and took off for a single but Atapattu changed her mind. The captain-vice-captain duo were both at the non-striker's end when Deepti Sharma sent in the throw at the striker's end and Sushma Verma did the rest. Nipuni Hansika combined with her vice-captain for a 33-run stand to revive their innings but Ekta Bisht sparked a dramatic collapse and the tourists lost five wickets for 11 runs. Hansika made 24-ball 13 before she was undone by some smart work from Verma behind the stumps.
Deepti struck soon after as she had Atapattu caught by Mandhana for 21. The Bisht-Verma duo combined again to send Karunarathne back for just 1 and leave the visitors reeling at 40 for 5 after 12 overs.
Gayakwad got her first wicket when Prasadani Weerakkody, batting on 3, edged an easy one to Mandhana and Bisht picked her third as Mithali Raj latched on to an edge from Nilakshi de Silva's bat. Eshani Lokusuriyage and Ama Kanchana provided their team the much-needed burst towards the end. Kanchana added 17 to the 39-run stand with the senior batter before Sharma led to her run out in the penultimate over. Verma effected her third stumping in the game as Patil got her second wicket with the final ball of the innings. It was Lokusuriyage's unbeaten knock of 25 that propelled them to a respectable 89 but with the Indian top-order in pristine form, the total was never going to prove enough.
