Thiruvananthapuram: A dominant India will look to seal the five-match series with another ruthless display when they take on a low-on-confidence Sri Lanka in the third women’s T20 International here on Friday.
India has been outstanding with both the bat and the ball in the first and second T20Is, registering comprehensive eight-wicket and seven-wicket wins respectively in Visakhapatnam to underline their overall dominance over Sri Lanka.
It was India’s ninth win in their last 11 T20Is against the island nation, who last tasted victory against the hosts in July 2024 at Dambulla.
The Indian Women’s team is on a roll, winning the first two T20I matches of this five-match series against the Sri Lanka Women. After picking up a dominant 8-wicket victory in the opening match, the team continued their brilliant streak and picked up another dominating victory by 7 wickets in the third match to extend their lead to 2-0 in the series.
Sri Lanka has failed to deliver with their batting; they were restricted to only 128 runs in their innings. All credit goes to the Indian bowlers, who bowled as per their plans. Sree Charani and Vaishnavi Sharma took two wickets each. India chased the total within 11.5 overs, thanks to the power-packed knock from Indian’s ODI World Cup final hero, Shefali Verma, who again took the match with her 69-run knock from just 34 deliveries.
Sri Lanka Women will be disappointed with their performance in the first two matches, especially how they have thrown their wickets away in loose running between the wickets. They lost the second match by 7 wickets and must be feeling the pressure of losing the series now. Sri Lanka, despite being an asian giant in this format, has failed to deliver as per their plan and is struggling to score runs against the Indian spinners. The visitors will have to put in some miraculous efforts to pull themselves back in the series and keep themselves alive.
The Greenfield International Stadium pitch in Thiruvananthapuram is generally considered a balanced surface, offering a good amount of assistance to the batters to play their shots and bowlers during the initial overs. Batters will enjoy their time at the crease during the middle overs as the pitch will get eased out a little, and the ball will come nicely to the bat. Spinners can make an impact in the middle and later stages, offering turn and grip.
The weather is expected to remain warm and pleasant during the entire match, with no rain interruption in the match. The temperature is likely to be around 24-29°C.
Teams
India Women: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Arundhati Reddy, Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma/Sneh Rana, Shefali Verma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Jemimah Rodrigues, Shree Charani, Kranti Goud, Vaishnavi Sharma, Amanjot Kaur
Sri Lanka Women: Hasini Parera, Chamari Athapaththu (c), Vishmi Gunaratne, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Kavisha Dilhari, Nilakshi de Silva, Kavya Kawindi, Kaushini Nuthyangana (wk), Malki Madara, Shashini Gimhani, Inoka Ranaweera.
