The Indian women’s cricket team beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets in the first match of the IND-W vs SL-W T20 2025 series at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Sunda
Jemimah Rodrigues was the star of the show for the hosts with an unbeaten 69 off just 44 balls as India comfortably chased down Sri Lanka’s total of 121/6 in just 14.4 overs.
After Indian T20 captain Harmapreet Kaur won the toss and elected to field, Sri Lanka looked to make a brisk start with Chamari Athapaththu taking the charge, but Kranti Gaud cleaned up the Lankan skipper in the third over to thwart their plans.
Deepti Sharma, fresh off her ODI World Cup heroics, gave India the second breakthrough after having Hasini Perera caught at short third.
Just in the preceding delivery, Perera was given a lifeline after Shree Charani dropped her off Vaishnavi Sharma’s bowling, denying the young spinner a maiden wicket on debut.
Vaishnavi, however, did exceptionally well to starve the Lankan batters for runs and finished with figures of 0/16 in her four overs. Alongside Deepti, who registered 1/20 from her quota of four, the debutant was responsible for keeping the visitors in check in the middle overs.
Sri Lanka also kept losing wickets at regular intervals and despite a couple of respectable knocks from Vishmi Gunaratne (39 off 43) and Harshitha Samarawickrama (21 off 23), could only post 121/6 in their allotted 20 overs.
Chasing 122 to win, India lost opener Shafali Verma in only the second over after she was caught in the deep off Kawya Kavindi’s bowling.
However, Smriti Mandhana and Jemimah Rodrigues joined forces in the middle and kept the scoreboard ticking with regular boundaries. Mandhana hit Athapaththu for a boundary over extra cover to cross the 4000-run mark in T20I, becoming only the second player in history after New Zealand’s Suzie Bates to achieve the feat.
By the time Inoka Ranaweera sent Mandhana back in the ninth over for 25, India were placed comfortably on 67/2.
Jemimah, meanwhile, stepped up a gear after Mandhana’s dismissal and brought up a half-century – her 14th in the format – in just 34 balls. She hit Gimhani for four fours in the same over.
With captain Harmanpreet at the other end, Jemimah, the hero of India’s sensational semi-final win over Australia at the Women’s ODI World Cup earlier this year, guided India past the finish line with more than five overs to spare.
India and Sri Lanka will face off in the second match of the series at the same venue on Tuesday.
Brief Scores:
Sri Lanka 121/6 in 20 overs (Vishmi Gunaratne 39; Deepti Sharma 1/20) lost to India 122/2 in 14.4 overs (Jemimah Rodrigues 69; Inoka Ranaweera 1/17) by eight wickets.
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