• Source:JND

IND-W vs SL-W: India's spinners were masters of control, restricting Sri Lanka to a modest 121/6 with their disciplined bowling in the 1st T20I of the five-match series at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.

Deepti Sharma, Kranti Goud, and Shree Charani bagged one wicket each, while Sri Lanka's Vishmi Gunaratne led the resistance with a 39-run top score.

Opener Vishmi Gunaratne scored the highest for the visitors with a 43-ball 39, while Hasini Perera and Harshitha Samarawickrama chipped in with 20 and 21, respectively.

Put to bat first, Sri Lanka skipper Chamari Athapaththu got into the front straightaway, slamming an innocuous Kranti Gaud delivery off her pads for a four.

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Deepti Sharma (1/20 in 4 overs) dipped to keep what looked like a specific boundary to just one run in the next over, before Athapaththu got two fours in three balls off Gaud.

The left-handed Athapaththu's assertive approach pushed Gaud to go around the wicket and the young seamer slapped with a difference in angle, the ball going through the gap between bat and pad to trouble the Sri Lankan captain's stumps and give India their first breakthrough.

Hasini found a boundary when she laboured a Gaud delivery towards the deep fine leg area before home skipper Harmanpreet Kaur presented Deepti inside the powerplay.

Hasini missed on a couple of open balls to help Deepti form with a maiden, which saw the Islanders stay at 31 for one at the end of the power play.

Bowling a lot slower than her other left-arm spin colleague Shree Charani, debutant Vaishnavi Sharma (0/16 in 4 overs) started her journey in international cricket with a neat spell. The 20-year-old conceded just three runs in her first over.

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Hasini played a deliberate reverse sweep to compile a four off Shree Charani, who dribbled a relatively straightforward opportunity at short fine leg in the next over to give the Lankan batter a rescue.

Dew was already putting in and even though the Indian bowlers were stumbling to grip the ball, they did extremely well to keep Sri Lanka at 55 for two in the first 10 overs.


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