India leads the 5-match T20I series against Sri Lanka 4-0.
After being asked to bat first, Smriti Mandhana (80) and Shafali Verma (79) pummeled the Sri Lankan bowlers, adding a record 162 runs for the opening wicket. Then Richa Ghosh hammered 40* in just 16 balls with 4 fours and 3 sixes as India posted their best T20I score of 221/2 in 20 overs.
Sri Lanka women’s captain Chamari Athapaththu top-scored for them, scoring 52, but the visitors only managed to muster 191/6 in 20 overs. Arundhati Reddy and Vaishanavi Sharma took two wickets each as India won by 30 runs.
After the match, during the presentation ceremony, Harmanpreet Kaur revealed that she had to tell her bowlers to hustle through their overs at the end to avoid slow over-rate penalty.
Harmanpreet was observed working up to the end, advising her teammates to rush to their fielding positions near the end of Sri Lanka's innings in the second part of the game.
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Asked about it at the post-match presentation, she said, “We were getting short on time, and I wanted everyone to be on time. I didn’t want three fielders outside the infield. I try to improve from my mistakes.”
With the five-match series already wrapped up, Harmanpreet hinted that additional changes could be made for the final T20I here on Tuesday.
“We should give credit to Shafali and Smriti, and then I and Richa finished well. We thought we would give a chance to Harleen (Deol), but (given) how it went (today), we sent (in) Richa early. Smriti and Shafali didn’t let Harleen bat,” Harmanpreet stated.
The fifth and final T20I of the series will be played on December 30, also in Thiruvananthapuram.