Picture Credit: Twitter
The first T20I between India Women and Sri Lanka Women has been an exciting contest between bat and ball. After winning the toss, Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur opted to bat first hoping to get a solid start from the openers, but Sri Lankan bowler O Ranasinghe provided an early breakthrough to the hosts by dismissing Smriti Mandhana (1 off 6) in the third over of the first innings.
Sabbhineni Meghana joined Shafali Verma in the middle hoping to steady India's innings, but Ranasinghe was unstoppable as she dismissed the batter on the very next delivery of the over. In a span of two balls, India lost two batters and soon was reduced to 17-2 in 3.4 overs.
However, skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (22 off 20), Jemimah Rodrigues (36 off 27) and brief cameos from Pooja Vastrakar (14 off 12) and Deepti Sharma (17 off 8) helped visitors to post 138/6 in 20 overs. After Deepti Sharma played a fine knock to add valuable runs on board, she wasted no time in providing an early breakthrough by dismissing Lankan opener Vishmi Gunaratne (1 off 5) in the second over of the second innings.
However, Deepti Sharma's all-round performance was once again evident in the 7th over of the second innings when she took a brilliant catch in the field to dismiss Lankan batter Harshitha Madavi (10 off 17). It all happened in the fifth delivery of the 7th over when Radha Yadav bowled a short delivery which Madavi tried to pull but Deepti came running from the deep backward square and surprised everyone with a spectacular catch and a tumble to her right.
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With that catch, Radha Yadav provided two back-to-back breakthroughs to her side as she dismissed Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu earlier in the same over. India registered a comprehensive 34-run victory in the first T20I as they restricted the hosts to 104/5 in 20 overs.
Deepti Sharma emerged as a standout performer as she scored valuable 17 runs off 8 balls and later, picked one wicket and took a stunning catch to put India in a commanding position.