India obliterated Sri Lanka Women in the 4th T20I in the series, thanks to a record partnership between India’s openers, Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma. The dominant performance from India allowed them to take an unassailable 4-0 lead in the series.
On Sunday, December 28, Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma registered blitzing fifties and broke their own record of India’s highest partnership in the format. After both batters got out, Richa Ghosh came up with a brilliant cameo to help India post a record total in India’s T20I history.
Both Smriti and Shafali started attacking the Lankan bowlers from the get-go. However, Verma exploded in the latter half of the power play and raced to 37 from just 20 balls. At the same time, Mandhana got to another milestone of 10,000 runs in women’s international cricket. She became the fourth player to reach this milestone. Mandhana is also the quickest to reach the 10,000 international runs club. Verma continued with her onslaught and put pressure on the Lankan bowlers. She also got to her fifty in the process.
A few overs later, Mandhana also got to her fifty. After completing her fifty, she exploded and hit sixes and fours in every over. Both batters continued their assault but were eventually dismissed in quick succession.
After their dismissal, Richa Ghosh and captain Harmanpreet Kaur were tasked with keeping the momentum. Ghosh used this opportunity as a way to punish Sri Lankan bowlers and smashed 6,6,4,6 in the penultimate over. In the end, India reached a massive total of 221 runs, their highest total in the T20I format.
This target can frighten any opposition, but Sri Lanka started positively and punished bad bowling by Indian bowlers in the power play. They made 29 in just two overs. They continued their positive approach and got 50 runs in just 4 overs.
After that, Arundhati Reddy halted their onslaught by breaking the partnership in the last over of the powerplay. Sri Lanka continued their positive approach despite losing a wicket and ended up with 95/1 in 10 overs. Athapaththu brought up her fifty but was soon dismissed by Vaishnavi Sahrma. India got an opening, and they applied pressure on the batters, making the equation very hard. Lanka needed 67 in the last three overs
It was an impossible task for them, and they eventually lost the game by 30 runs.
