So, that’s it from this encounter. India Women will face off against South Africa Women in a couple of days’ time. Until then enjoy all the other coverage in the network. Arijit Kundu taking your leave along with commentators, Pritam Dey, Anirudh Modi, and scoring assistant Bishal Mandal.
Harmanpreet Kaur (India Women Captain):"When we came out to bowl, we thought the clouds would play a part. But it wasn’t the case. We saved a lot of runs, it was great to see the girls saving so many runs for the team.
Yeah, Sneh Rana and Sree Charani did very well - they gave us the early wickets. And the last two overs from Deepti Sharma was good too. Yeah, really happy to see her [Pratika] do well. She is giving her very best in every match."
Pratika Rawal (Player of the Match): "Ah, I don't think so. I am very lucky, I am very fortunate to get this opportunity. I am very happy with my knock today.
I am just trying to play on the merit of the ball. I am very lucky that I have a partner like Smriti di. She makes my job pretty easy and my role is to find the gaps. I enjoyed batting today.
I think it was a brilliant effort by the bowlers to restrict them to a low total. In the 2nd innings, the ball was not swinging much so I just played every ball according to it's merit and just wanted to find the gaps."
Player of the Match: Pratika Rawal
Chamari Athapaththu (Sri Lanka Women Captain): "I would like to congratulate the Indian team, they played really well. Sometimes the toss can be the reason but we did not play good today, First 10 overs we were not positive and as a batting unit we need to execute our plans well.
The pitch is not good batting early on but it cannot be an excuse, we have to play our best score. 200 was the par score on this wicket because we knew they have a good batting lineup. Bowling at the stumps is important in this format, the wicket was good in the second innings and we tried to keep it straight."
5:22 PM IST & Local Time: Time for the post-match presentation..
5:14 PM IST and Local Time: A magnificent victory for the Women in Blue as Harmanpreet Kaur’s return as India Women captain sees them through with a convincing nine-wicket win over Sri Lanka Women in the Tri-Nation series opener that includes South Africa.
Fetching luck in a rain-curtailed 39-over per side contest to kick off the Tri-nation series against Sri Lanka, India opted to bowl first. Debutant Kashvee Gautam was accompanied by Arundhati Reddy with the new ball, and the latter outsmarted Chamari Athapaththu in the eighth over to wrap up a 23-run powerplay. Following a brisk second-wicket stand between Harshitha Madavi and Hasini Perera, the Indian spinners wreaked havoc in the Sri Lankan middle order as the score read 93/5 in 21.4 overs. The lower-middle order and the tail failed to perform under pressure as wickets and mix-ups curbed them to 147 with five balls to spare.
In reply, openers Smriti Mandhana and Pratika Rawal started off the chase with an observant manner before the southpaw cashed in on loose deliveries and fetched boundaries regularly. After a 39-run powerplay, she quickly moved to 43 off 46 balls before gifting a caught and bowled opportunity to Inoka Ranaweera in the tenth over. Subsequently, Harleen Deol and Rawal kept the scoreboard ticking steering India to 89/1 in 18 overs. The pair continued to marshall their way to a fifty-run partnership before switching one gear up as the equation came down under 50.
As the equation reduced with time, Rawal continued her purple patch in the format with a fifty, followed by a four to fetch the winning runs. Harleen's second-fiddle 48 laid the bedrock in the chase as India won by nine wickets and 56 balls left. Stay tuned for the post-match presentation and quotes.