Follow UsThe Indian women’s team registered a huge victory over Sri Lanka by 97 runs in the final of the Women's ODI tri-nation cup to finish off a highly successful tour of Sri Lanka. India just lost one game in the series (against the hosts), which also featured the South African team.
Coming to the tri-series final, India won the toss and Harmanpreet Kaur had no qualms in batting first on a surface that looked good to bat on. The Indian openers Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal batted sedately to start with and added 70 runs for the first wicket. Mandhana continued the momentum and upped the ante to bring up her century off 92 deliveries.
With useful and quick-fire contributions from Jemimah Rodrigues and Harmanpreet, who both got out after scoring 44 off 29 and 41 off 30 deliveries respectively, India handed Sri Lanka a massive 343-run target in 50 overs.
In reply, none of the Sri Lanka batters managed to bat at above a run a ball, and skipper Chamari Athapaththu’s 51 off 66 deliveries needed much more support from the other end to even get close to the target. Only Nilakshi Silva looked like being in the flow, but she perished after scoring 48 in 58 deliveries.
Sneh Rana, who was selected as the Player of the series, was once again brilliant for India with the ball and picked four wickets for just 38 runs in 9.2 overs. Overall, she picked 15 wickets in five games during the series. Amanjot Kaur also bowled well for 3/54 but was a tad bit expensive as she leaked runs at an economy of 6.75 RPO.
Earlier, India won three group stage games out of the four they played and maintained the winning momentum in the final to lift the tri-series.