Harmanpreet Kaur helps India win:
Captain Harmanpreet Kaur played a sensational game of cricket on Saturday to help India beat Sri Lanka by 5 wickets in the second T20 to win the series over Sri Lanka.
The skipper contributed with both bat and ball to hand Indian women’ cricket team a victory against the hosts.
Kaur remained unbeaten in the run chase with 31, while she took a wicket too with the bowling figure 12 for 1 in 3 overs.
India completed the 126-run chase in 19.1 overs. The top batter in the chase was Vice-captain Smriti Mandhana’s (39 off 34 balls). While Shefali Verma (17 off 10 balls), and Sabbhineni Meghana (17 off 10 ball) also played good roles to help their side win the second match.
After winning the toss Sri Lanka decided to bat. And the openers, captain Chamari Athapaththu (43 off 41 balls) and Vishmi Gunaratne (45 off 50 balls) provided an ideal start for the Lankans by adding 87 runs for the first wicket.
However, as both Athapaththu and Gunaratne departed, the hosts lost momentum. After their openers dismissalls, Sri Lanka only managed to add 38 runs.
For India, Deepti Sharma bagged 2 wickets. While Renuka Singh, Radha Yadav, Pooja Vastrakar and the skipper Harmanpreet kaur took a wicket each.
Chasing the target of 126, India lost their first 2 wickets at 48. After that both captain and vice-captain did a 38 runs partnership to help India cross 85 in 11 overs.
Mandhana walked back to pavilion after scoring 39. But skipper Harmanpreet Kaur took the whole responsibility on her shoulders. And she did her job nicely by playing a steady knock of unbeaten 31 to help her side the series.
Smriti Mandhana creates history:
During the second match, Vice-captain Mandhana made history by becoming the second-fastest Indian woman to amass 2,000 T20 runs. Mandhana, in her 84th innings, passed legendary Mithali Raj (70 innings) and current captain Harmanpreet Kaur (88 innings) to become the third Indian woman to accomplish the feat.
