Harmanpreet pleased by unbeaten opening partnership in second ODI win

Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur was satisfied with her team's ability to build partnerships after openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma took them to 10-wicket victory in the second ODI against Sri Lanka on Monday.

Set a target of 174 by the hosts, India chased down the target in just 25.4 overs with Mandhana scoring an unbeaten 94 off 83 balls and Verma scoring run-a-ball 71.

Kaur felt that the partnership will give the team confidence after struggling to chase to 172 in the first ODI.

"We have been talking about long partnerships and thankfully we got it today. I am happy with the way we batted, it was outstanding to watch," she said at the post-match presentation.

Pacer Renuka Singh justified Kaur's decision to bowl first at Pallekele with 4-28, restricting Sri Lanka to 173 all out in 50 overs.

"I am very happy that the bowlers are giving breakthroughs whenever need," Kaur said.

Medium pacer Meghna Singh said that working in bowling partnerships helped the team in getting wickets at regular intervals.

"The idea definitely was to build a strong bowling partnership and with someone like Renuka, who is extremely a smart player and puts her talent and skills to best use, everything fell in place today," Meghna said.

India are without veteran pacer Jhulan Goswami, but sharing experiences between themselves helped the young bowling attack in the ongoing series.

"The current team members share their own experiences and that's why, despite the absence of someone like Jhulan Goswami, who has done so much for the team, we are able to perform brilliantly in the bowling department," Meghna said.

India have won the three-match T20I series 2-1 and have sealed the ODI series 2-0. The third and final ODI will be played at Pallekele on July 7.