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Harmanpreet Kaur-led India Women restricted Sri Lanka for just 112/7 in 20 overs in the third T20I of the five-match series at the Greenfield International Stadium, Thiruvananthapuram on Friday.
India won the toss and elected to bowl first. Women in Blue continued their dominant bowling form against Sri Lanka. The headlines were stolen by the returning pair of Renuka Singh Thakur and Deepti Sharma, who both made significant impacts in their comeback to the XI. Renuka, returning to the side after a long hiatus, was particularly lethal at the top, dismantling the Sri Lankan top order with a fiery spell to finish with figures of 4/21, while Deepti Sharma, returning to the XI after missing the previous game due to illness, maintained immense pressure from the other end, claiming 3/18. Sri Lanka's innings struggled to find any momentum as they were pinned back by the early breakthroughs, being 32-3 in six overs. Captain Chamari Athapaththu and Hasini Perera provided a brief flicker of resistance at the start, but the middle order once again failed to convert starts into a competitive score. The visitors were left reeling at various stages before a late, unbeaten cameo of 19 runs from wicketkeeper-batter Kaushini Nuthyangana helped push the total past the 100-run mark. Opener Hasini Perera (25 runs off 18 balls), Imesha Dulani (27 runs off 32 balls) and Kavisha Dilhari (20 runs off 13 balls) were the only batters for Sri Lanka to go past the 20-run mark. Despite the late effort from Nuthyangana, the target of 113 appeared well below par on a Thiruvananthapuram surface that favoured the disciplined Indian bowling unit, leaving the hosts in a commanding position to seal the five-match series. (ANI)
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