By Srian Obeyesekere

Sri Lanka Women lost by 8 wickets to India Women the opening T20 game as the recent ODI World champions made light of the mediocre Lankan score of 121 for 6 off 20 overs in coasting to 122 for 2 with 32 balls to spare on Player of the Match Jemimah Rodriguez’ top score of 69 at Vishakhapatam.
Sri Lanka’s top scorer was Vishmi Gunaratne 39 off 43 with a six and four after skipper Chamari Athapaththu had been cleaned up for 15 by quick Kranti Gaud by a 109.2kph length ball that nipped back taking Athapaththu’s inside edge to hit the stumps for her maiden T20I wicket.
Sri Lanka had only two other contributors Hasini Perera 20 and Harshitha Samarawiclrama 21, both of whom benefitted from dropped catches as India’s spinners Deepti Sharma 1 for 20 and N. Sree Charani 1 for 30 controlled the game despite the setting in dew.

India 122 for 2 (Rodrigues 69*, Mandhana 25, Ranaweera 1-17) beat Sri Lanka 121 for 6 (Gunaratne 39, Deepti 1-20, Gaud 1-23, Charani 1-30) by eight wicket