India’s batwomen soar!

Shafali Verma during the tie v Sri Lanka at Dubai yesterday; (right) Smriti Mandhana en route her half-ton. Pics/AP, PTI

After struggling in their first two games, India finally got their act together and notched up a much-needed win against Sri Lanka in a Women's T20 World Cup match at the Dubai stadium yesterday. The huge 82-run victory has brought them roaring back into contention for a place in the semi-finals.

After the big defeat against New Zealand at the same venue, their Net Run Rate had plummeted to a dangerous level, which they have now improved to a great extent (climbed to second spot in Group A with NRR 0.576). Such a dominating performance augurs well as they are slated to take on defending champions Australia in a must-win last league match on Sunday.

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Riding on a superb 98-run partnership by openers Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma, and a scintillating half-century by skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, India notched up a formidable 172 for three in their 20 overs. Sri Lankan innings crumbled under pressure (asking rate of over 8.5 runs per over) and lost three wickets for just 6 runs in 2.2 overs, including that of their captain and batting mainstay Chamari Athapaththu.

They struggled for 19.5 overs before being bundled out for 90 in the face of some fine bowling and excellent catching by the Indians.

After opting to bat, Mandhana and Verma were circumspect to begin with. But after they spent a bit of time in the middle, their timing and rhythm returned. Mandhana was particularly impressive. When the left-hander starts hitting inside-out strokes with fluency, you know she's back at her best. She stepped out and hammered left-arm spinner Inoka Ranaweera over long-on for a six. And in the following overs, struck Chamari and Udeshika Prabodhani twice over the covers for boundaries. Verma, who is generally more aggressive, was happy to let her senior partner steal the thunder. After Mandhana was run out, Harmanpreet took over and struck some fine boundaries and the biggest six of this World Cup so far (84 metres off Sugandhi Kumari).

Brief scores
India W 172-3 (H Kaur 52', S Mandhana 50, S Verma 43; A Kanchana 1-29) beat Sri Lanka W 90 all out in 19.5 overs (K Dilhari 21, A Sanjeewani 20; A Sobhana 3-19, A Reddy 3-19) by 82 runs