Taniya Bhatia’s maiden ODI fifty leads India women to victory over Sri Lanka

Brief scores: India women’s team  219/10 (Taniya Bhatia 68, Mithali Raj 52; Chamari Athapaththu 3/42, Sripali Weerakkody 2/32) beat Sri Lanka women’s team  (Chamari Athapaththu 57, Shashikala Siriwardane 49; Mansi Joshi 3/51, Rajeshwari Gayakwad 2/37) by seven runs.

The Mithali Raj-led Indian women’s cricket team entered the second match of the three-match ODI series in Sri Lanka with a 1-0 lead. Raj won the toss and elected to bat first having made one change to the playing XI from the first game as they rested the experienced Jhulan Goswami to give Shikha Pandey a chance to play. 

Opener Smriti Mandhana, who starred with a half-century in the first match, failed to get going this time around and was dismissed for just 14. India was struggling at 36/3, after the Harmanpreet Kaur was also sent back to the pavilion after she could add only seven runs to the score. But Raj came to the rescue as she made her way to a hard-fought 52 from 121 balls as India lost wickets at regular intervals at the other end. But it was wicket-keeper - Taniya Bhatia who stole the show in the first innings as she smashed her way to a brilliant 68 from 66 balls, which included nine boundaries. With some good contribution down the order from Dayalan Hemalatha and Shikha Pandey, India registered a total of 219/10 in 50 overs.

Chasing 220 to win, the Lankans started off on a poor note again as Prasadini Weerakkody was picked up by Mansi Joshi in the fifth over. In the very next over, a combined effort of Rajeshwari Gayakwad and wicket-keeper Taniya ensured another dismissal as Nipuni Hanshika walked back into the pavilion without troubling the scorers. Slow left-armer Rajeshwari then trapped Dilani Manodara in front of the stumps for three and the hosts were left reeling at 40/3 in 10.1 overs. Skipper Chamari Athapaththu and the experienced Shashikala Siriwardane carried on the recovery work by adding 89 runs for the fourth wicket. Siriwardane missed out on a fifty as he was run-out for 49. Athapaththu soon followed her after getting to her fifty and the Lankans were once again in a dire-strait. Nilakshi de Silva displayed her batting skills in the lower order and brought the Lankans closer to the target by playing a quick cameo of 31 runs off just 19 balls. However, it proved to be inconsequential when Deepti Sharma scalped Inoka Ranaweera in the 49th over to hand the Islanders a seven-run defeat.