Women’s T20 WC: Dominant India boost semi-final hopes and eliminate Sri Lanka

India gave their semi-final hopes a major boost with an 82-run win over Sri Lanka to knock them out of the Women’s T20 World Cup.

After being thumped by New Zealand in their opening match last week, India beat rivals Pakistan at the weekend and delivered a dominant performance against Sri Lanka on Wednesday, which left the losing side to join Scotland as the second team to crash out of the World Cup.

India are now second behind Australia in Group A with a run rate of 0.58, which is 0.02 higher than Pakistan in third, who have one less win but played one less match.

India set a tournament-high run chase of 172-3 after they won the toss, with opening batters Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana taking 98 runs between them.

Mandhana was on a half century when Sri Lanka finally got their first wicket and ran her out, before Verma quickly followed with the next ball.

India captain Harmanpreet Kaur, who recovered from a minor neck injury after slipping towards the end of their win against Pakistan, added 52 more runs to her country’s total.

Jemimah Rodrigues was caught by Udeshika Prabodhani but herself and Richa Ghosh contributed to India’s impressive score.

Sri Lanka got off to a terrible start in the run chase as opener Vishmi Gunaratne went for a duck after a great catch from India substitute fielded Radha Yadav.

That set the tone for the rest of the match and Sri Lanka never looked like challenging India’s run total as they were bowled out for 90.

“I think after losing two back-to-back wickets Jemimiah and I were thinking how to get down the road,” said Kaur, who was player of the match.

“It was one of those days I was in the zone and I just wanted to be there for the team. I wanted to go for it.

“We thought positively and played very good cricket. I’m really happy with the way we played.”

Captain Kaur smashed an unbeaten 52 off 27 balls that propelled India to 172-3 and bettered their previous best 79-run victory against Bangladesh in the 2014 edition of the tournament and also lifted their net run-rate to 0.576 after two wins and a shocking loss to New Zealand in Group A.

Opening pair of Smriti Mandhana (50) and Shafali Verma (43) laid a solid foundation of a huge total as they combined in a 98-run stand off 76 balls.

Both batters fell off successive deliveries when Mandhana got run-out and Verma holed out in the covers off Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu’s off-spin.

But Kaur, who hurt his neck during India’s win over archrival Pakistan, bludgeoned pace and spin in the last five overs as she hit eight boundaries and an 84-metre six over wide mid-wicket. She raised her half century with a boundary off the final ball as India plundered 59 runs off the last five overs.

Sri Lanka’s chase got off to a disastrous start when they limped to 6-3 as fast bowler Renuka Singh claimed two wickets in her first two overs and Athapaththu edged off-spinner Shreyanka Patil in the lone slip.

Fast bowler Arundhati Reddy and leg-spinner Asha Sobhana both ended up with identical figures of 3-19 as India avenged their recent loss at the final of Asia Cup against Sri Lanka with an emphatic win.

Kavisha Dilhari top-scored with 21 and Anushka Sanjeewani made 20 while Ama Kanchana (19) the only other notable contributor for Sri Lanka.

India return return to action against Australia in Sharjah on Sunday, with that match live on Sky Sports from 2.30pm ahead of the first ball at 3pm.

Sri Lanka face New Zealand on Saturday at 11am in a crucial match for the White Ferns.

Source: Sky Sports