Women's Asia Cup 2022: India thrash SriLanka by 41 runs

Powered by Jemimah Rodrigues's career-best 76 and Hemalatha's 3-wicket haul, India Women started off their Asia Cup campaign with a terrific performance, beating Sri Lanka by 41 runs on Saturday. 

Rodrigues put up a boundary-hitting exhibition as she whacked 11 fours and a maximum in her counter-attacking 53-ball innings to help India post 150 for six on a wicket where batters struggled due to low bounce.

The Indian bowlers then struck at regular intervals to bowl Sri Lanka out for 109 in 18.2 overs.

The Indian Innings

The Indians were better than their Sri Lankan counterparts in all three departments. India were not off to the best of starts after being asked to bat. Vice-captain Smriti Mandhana (10) was the first to be dismissed, while her fellow opener Shafali Verma's (6) batting woes continued as she became spinner Oshadi Ranasinghe’s (3/32) first victim of the day.

But Rodrigues, who is coming off a wrist injury, was in control from



the beginning, timing the ball to perfection. She kept sending the ball to the fence every over and punished the Sri Lankan bowling attack all over the field. Rodrigues raced to her half-century in 38 deliveries and together with skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (33 off 30) steered India over the 100-run mark.

The two got 92 off 71 balls with Kaur also looking dangerous. The skipper got a reprieve in the 15th over when she has dropped off Sugandika Kumari (1/26) but couldn’t capitalise on it as Ranasinghe had her stumped in the next over. Sri Lankan bowlers then staged a comeback in the death overs with a flurry of wickets.

While Rodrigues continued to score at a good pace, going past her previous career-best T20I score of 72, her fabulous innings soon came to an end off a Chamari Athapauththu (1/8) slow and low delivery as the Indian was bowled. Dayalan Hemalatha chipped in with an unbeaten 13 towards the end while Richa Ghosh (9) slammed a six. Spinners, led by Ranasinghe did the bulk of the work for Sri Lanka.