Indian women’s cricket team led by Harmanpreet Kaur thrashed Sri Lanka by seven wickets on Thursday at the Royal Selangor Club, Kuala Lumpur, to reclaim the top spot in the points table.

On Thursday (June 7), asked to field first, disciplined Indian bowlers restricted Sri Lanka to a mediocre total of 107 in their allotted 20 overs.

Indian women chased the target with ease even as they lost elegant opener Smriti Mandhana (12 runs off 16 balls) early in the game.

After Mandhana’s departure, Mithali Raj (23 runs off 33 balls) and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (24 runs off 25 balls) took charge of the Indian innings. However, Nilakshi de Silva broke Raj and Kaur’s partnership by removing Mithali and soon Kaur was bowled out by Oshadi Ranasinghe. Meanwhile, Veda Krishnamurthy played a cameo of 29 runs off 23 balls and guided India to victory along with Anuja Patil.

Earlier, after winning the toss, Yasoda Mendis (27 runs off 39 balls) along with Nipuni Hansika (2 runs off 8 balls) opened Sri Lankan innings.

Ekta Bisht gave India breakthrough by sending Nipuni Hansika back to stands. After Hansika’s departure, skipper Perera (46 runs off 43 balls) joined Yasoda at the crease and added 38 runs for the second wickets. However, Poonam Yadav broke their partnership by removing Yasoda.

In the 14th overs of the game, pacer Ekta took the third wicket for India by sending Nilakshi de Silva to pavilion at the score of 7 runs. In the 17th over of the game, star Indian pacer Jhulan Goswami bagged her first wicket of the match by sending Rebeca Vandort back to the stands.

Meanwhile, Malsha Shehani and Shashikala Siriwardene were run out by Ekta Bisht.

From India, Ekta Bisht bagged two wickets. Jhulan Goswami, Poonam Yadav and Shikha Pandey took a wicket each.

Fall of Wickets:

India:

21-1 (Smriti Mandhana, 5.2), 55-2 (Mithali Raj, 11.2), 70-3 (Harmanpreet Kaur, 13.3)

Sri Lanka:

12-1 (Nipuni Hansika, 3.6), 50-2 (Yasoda Mendis, 10.3), 67-3 (Nilakshi de Silva, 13.2), 69-4 (Malsha Shehani, 13.5), 74-5 (Shashikala Siriwardene, 14.4), 89-6 (Rebeca Vandort, 16.3), 96-7 (Anushka Sanjeewani, 17.3)

Teams:

Sri Lanka (Playing XI): Yasoda Mendis, Nipuni Hansika, Anushka Sanjeewani, Hasini Perera(c), Rebeca Vandort(w), Oshadi Ranasinghe, Nilakshi de Silva, Shashikala Siriwardene, Sugandika Kumari, Udeshika Prabodhani, Malsha Shehani

India (Playing XI): Mithali Raj, Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Deepti Sharma, Anuja Patil, Veda Krishnamurthy, Jhulan Goswami, Taniya Bhatia(w), Ekta Bisht, Shikha Pandey, Poonam Yadav