With a commanding eight-wicket victory at Dambulla on Sunday (July 28), Sri Lanka shocked seven-time champion India thanks to half-centuries from Harshitha Samarawickrama and skipper Chamari Athapaththu.
India reached 165/6 from their 20 overs thanks to Smriti Mandhana‘s second consecutive half-century and a masterful finish from Richa Ghosh. This was a score that was about average for the conditions as Sri Lanka continued to strike at critical moments to prevent the reigning champions from building a proper batting momentum.
After losing her well-established captain, Harshitha, who had earlier dismissed Mandhana and Ghosh, made amends by hitting a match-winning 69* to get her team across the finish line with eight balls remaining.
As was to be expected, Athapaththu (61 off 43) drove the 87-run partnership that laid the groundwork for the chase.
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Brief scores: India 165/6 in 20 overs (Smriti Mandhana 60, Richa Ghosh 30, Jemimah Rodrigues 29; Kavisha Dilhari 2-36) lost to Sri Lanka 167/2 in 18.4 overs (Harshitha Samarawickrama 69*, Chamari Athapaththu 61, Kavisha Dilhari 30*’; Deepti Sharma 1-30) by 8 wickets.
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