India all-rounder Deepti Sharma first produced a brilliant bowling display before guiding India to victory with the bat against Sri Lanka in the first ODI in Pallekele.
Sri Lanka win the toss
Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat in the first ODI in Pallekele. It was a beginning of a new era for India – one without the great Mithali Raj in the team – with Harmanpreet Kaur beginning her innings as India's full-time ODI captain.
Sri Lanka have won the toss and will bat in their first ICC Women's Championship ODI with India.
— ICC (@ICC) July 1, 2022
Watch #SLvIND live and FREE on https://t.co/MHHfZPyHf9 📺
📸 @BCCIWomen pic.twitter.com/CFdBIwGqkh
India get the big fish early
Renuka Singh was welcomed into the attack by Hasini Perera but the Indian pacer came back strongly in the next over, removing the dangerous Chamari Athapaththu in the third over of the innings.
The introduction of spin early worked immediately as Hansima Karunaratne, trying to get off the mark with a big one, charged Deepti Sharma and was out caught at mid-off for an 11-ball duck.
Despite losing two wickets inside the Powerplay, Sri Lanka maintained a decent scoring rate, thanks to Perera. Her patient 34-run stand with Harshitha Madavi settled the early jitters before Deepti worked her magic again and trapped Perera in front of the stumps for 37.
Skipper Harmanpreet struck in the next over to send Kavisha Dilhari packing. Sri Lanka were soon in a whole lot of trouble when they lost their set batter Madavi and had half the side back in the hut for 84.
Lower order resistance propels Sri Lanka to fighting total
Sri Lanka were in danger of being bowled out before a fighting innings of 43 from Nilakshi de Silva bailed them out of trouble. Anushka Sanjeewani and Inoka Ranaweera made valuable double-digit contributions to take Sri Lanka's total to 171.
Deepti Sharma and Renuka Singh claimed three wickets apiece as India bowled Sri Lanka out for 171.
— ICC (@ICC) July 1, 2022
Watch #SLvIND live and FREE on https://t.co/CPDKNxoJ9v 📺 pic.twitter.com/4w7CesaLsX
Renuka Singh and Deepti Sharma were the pick of the bowlers with three wickets each and were well supported by the rest of the pack.
India recover after early wobble
Like Sri Lanka, India too lost two wickets inside the Powerplay – Oshadi Ranasinghe scalped Smriti Mandhana and Yastika Bhatia in consecutive overs to put some early pressure on India.
Captain Harmanpreet Kaur walked out on the fall of the second wicket and together with Shafali Verma ensured Sri Lanka didn't inflict any more damage in the first 10 overs.
The partnership was starting to look dangerous when Shafali was out stumped trying to charge Inoka Ranaweera.
Playing her first ODI since 2019, there would have been some butterflies when Harleen Deol walked out to bat in a precarious position. Deol, though, put the pressure right back on Sri Lanka by hammering two boundaries in quick succession.
Deepti, Vastrakar guide India home
Harmanpreet too got in on the act but Ranaweera struck again to send the skipper back six runs short of a fifty. The slow left-arm orthodox picked up two more wickets in the next two overs, including that of Deol.
Inoka Ranaweera's four-wicket haul goes in vain as India seal victory in the first #IWC ODI against Sri Lanka 👏#SLvIND | 📝 https://t.co/NY56ejIEaa pic.twitter.com/JXUUw8sdEu
— ICC (@ICC) July 1, 2022
Still 34 runs away from a win, a wicket or two could have put massive pressure on India. But Deepti and Pooja Vastakar batted sensibly to take India close to victory before the former finished the game off with two sixes to take a 1-0 lead in the series.
Trending News
-
1
1 Prize money announced for ICC World Test Championship 2021-23 cycle
The ICC have announced the prize pot for the World Test Championship 2021-23 cycle with a total purse of $3.8 million to be shared between the nine teams.
-
2 Ricky Ponting reveals best combined Australia-India Test XI
-
3 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2023 - All the squads
-
4 Huge blow in Australia's Ashes campaign as Meg Lanning ruled out
-
5 India WTC final squad: All the talking points