Harmanpreet, Reddy help India complete whitewash over Sri Lanka

India women and Sri Lanka women clashed for one final time in the series at the Greenfield International Stadium, Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday, December 30.

Chamari Athapaththu won the toss and elected to field first again. Both the teams made two changes - India rested Smriti Mandhana and Renuka Singh, bringing in Sneh Rana and debutant wicketkeeper-batter G Kamalini while the visitors dropped Kawya Kavindi and Malsha Shehani for Inoka Ranaweera and Malki Madara.

Shafali Verma (5 off 6), one of the stars of the previous match, fell early while playing an attacking shot down the ground. Harleen Deol joined Kamalini (12 off 12) as the duo formed a promising partnership only to be cut short by Kavisha Dilhari. India finished the powerplay at 40/2.

The partnership between skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and Deol (13 off 11) did not last long as the latter was clean bowled by Rashmika Sewwandi just after the powerplay. India started to rebuild mostly through Harmanpreet as the new batter Richa Ghosh was dismissed for a lowly score of five. The home team found themselves in a precarious position at this stage with the scoreboard reading 64/4 after 8.3 overs.

Next batter Deepti Sharma, too, could not contribute much (7 off 8). A partnership of note was required for some time and Harmanpreet and Amanjot Kaur finally provided it. The skipper reached her half century off 35 balls as the Indian innings gained momentum for a late flourish.  But the morale-boosting 61-run partnership ended with Amanjot (21 off 18) trying to up the ante.

Harmanpreet followed her soon after a marvellous knock of 68 runs off 43 balls, comprising nine fours and a six. India received a much-needed boost in the form of Arundhati Reddy's fiery innings of 27* off just 11 balls. The home team, courtesy of that knock, got to a score of 175/7 which looked more than a par one.

For Sri Lanka, Dilhari was the standout bowler with figures of 2-0-11-2. Puzzlingly, she was not given an over in the middle phase despite her good first over.

In response, the visitors suffered an early blow in the form of Athapaththu (2 off 5), but Hasini Perera and Imesha Dulani did not let it affect them. The pair scored boundaries at regular intervals, taking the team to a good-looking score of 48/1 at the end of the powerplay.

The duo continued to attack intermittently aided by the conditions as Harmanpreet started to look worried. But, the threatening partnership of 79 runs off 56 balls finally came to end as Dulani (50 off 39) could not contribute after reaching her half century. This blow broke the momentum for the Lankans as the batters to come next could not find their footing.

The opener Perera was going strong at the other end, but her challenge too ended for 65 runs off 42 balls. Sewwandi (14* off 8) tried her best but it looked clear that Sri Lanka would fall short. In the end, India won by a margin of 15 runs and completed a whitewash. All the Indian bowlers picked up a wicket each.

The Indian captain was declared the Player of the Match for her stellar knock while Verma was adjudged the Player of the Series for her 241 runs scored at an average of 80.33.