India's Jemimah Rodrigues
Credit: Reuters Photo
Visakhapatnam: Jemimah Rodrigues executed her shots with great skill and style en route to a scintillating, unbeaten 44-ball 69 as India crushed Sri Lanka by eight wickets in the first Women's T20 International here on Sunday.
Opting to field, India restricted Sri Lanka to a modest 121 for six after the visiting batters struggled to put away the loose balls, even as dew made its presence felt earlier than expected.
India completed the chase of 122 with as many as 32 balls to spare, as Rodrigues added 54 runs with Smriti Mandhana (25 off 25 balls) and 55 with skipper Harmanpreet Kaur (15 not out off 16 balls) to help the home side take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
While she played some delectable strokes during her stay in the middle, the highlight of Rodrigues' innings was the four boundaries she struck in a single over bowled by left-arm wrist spinner Shashini Gimhani.
Earlier, the swashbuckling Shafali Verma launched the India innings with three boundaries in the first over, but could not sustain that for long as Gimhani took a neat catch after the batter flicked Kawya Kavindi in the air.
Mandhana was lucky as she got a boundary off a thick inside-edge off Kawya, and then, Rodrigues played a late cut off Malki Madara to find the fence.
With India reaching 30 for one in four overs, Sri Lanka skipper Chamari Athapaththu brought herself in, and Mandhana rocked back to work the ball through backward point for a boundary before getting another four with a lofted shot over extra-cover to bring up her 4000 runs in the T20I format.
Inoka Ranaweera cut short Mandhana's knock but Rodrigues and Harmanpreet got the job done for India without any further setback.
Earlier, opener Vishmi Gunaratne top-scored for the visitors with a 43-ball 39, while Hasini Perera and Harshitha Samarawickrama chipped in with 20 and 21 respectively.
Sri Lanka skipper Chamari Athapaththu got into the act straightaway, clipping an innocuous Kranti Gaud delivery off her pads for a four.
Player of the Series in India's triumphant campaign in the recent ODI World Cup, Deepti Sharma (1/20 in 4 overs) dived to keep what looked like a certain boundary to just one run in the next over, before Athapaththu got two fours in three balls off Gaud.
The left-handed Athapaththu's aggressive approach forced Gaud to go around the wicket and the young seamer struck with a change in angle, the ball going through the gap between bat and pad to disturb the Sri Lankan captain's stumps and give India their first breakthrough.
Hasini found a boundary when she worked a Gaud delivery towards the deep fine leg region before Harmanpreet introduced Deepti inside the powerplay.
Hasini missed out on a couple of loose balls to help Deepti start with a maiden, which saw the Islanders remain at 31 for one at the end of powerplay.
Bowling a lot slower than her other left-arm spin colleague Shree Charani, debutant Vaishnavi Sharma (0/16 in 4 overs) began her journey in international cricket with a tidy spell. The 20-year-old conceded just three runs in her first over.
Hasini played a premeditated reverse sweep to collect a four off Shree Charani, who spilled a relatively straightforward chance at short fine leg in the next over to give the Lankan batter a reprieve.
Had Charani held on to that ball, it would have given Vaishnavi his maiden wicket.
Desperately looking for quick runs, Hasini, however, fell in the next over when she played the ball to Gaud at short third after attempting a reverse sweep against Deepti.
Dew was already setting in and even though the India bowlers were struggling to grip the ball, they did exceedingly well to keep Sri Lanka at 55 for two in the first 10 overs.
Having a bad day on the field, Charani then dropped Harshitha Madavi off Arundhati Reddy.