Smriti Mandhan and Shafali Verma's unbeaten stand of 174 runs powered India to a superb win in the second ODI against Sri Lanka.
Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma put on an unbeaten 174 in just 25.4 overs to seal India Women’s 10-wicket win in the second of three ODIs in Pallekele on Monday, July 4.
India Women were somewhat challenged in their run-chase of 172 in the first of three ODIs on Friday, with them stumbling to 17/2, 61/3 and later to 138/6, before Deepti Sharma and Pooja Vastrakar ensured that the game was secured with four wickets and 12 overs remaining.
However, there was out and out dominance in the second ODI on Monday, with Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana entering record books with a monumental 174-run unbeaten stand to seal a series-clinching win. It’s now the highest-ever opening stand in a q10-wicket win in Women’s ODIs history, bettering Belinda Clark and Joanne Broadbent’s 167 in a 1997 Women’s World Cup game in Bengaluru.
Mandhana and Verma were watchful for the first three overs of the chase, and a stedied approach thereafter meant that the 50-run stand was brought up at run-a-ball with the former hitting a boundary with a well-timed flick off Achini Kulasuriya. The left-hander would bring up her fifty with a brace off her 56th ball, and a boundary an over later brought up the century stand.
Shafali, till that point was somewhat slower contrary to her relatively belligerent style, reaching her half-century off 57 balls. There was carnage from either end after the milestone, with the final 61 runs in the chase coming in just 5.4 overs.
Mandhana remained unbeaten with an 83-ball 94 with 11 fours and a six, while Verma’s run-a-ball 71 included four hits to the fence and one over it.
Earlier, Sri Lanka’s batting crumbled for the second straight time in the series, with India’s new ball pair of Renuka Singh and Meghna Singh doing the early damage after Harmanpreet Kaur opted to bowl. Renuka’s early triple strikes reduced the hosts to 11/3 in 6.1 overs, and the right-arm quick returned with a career-best 4/28.
Meghana and Deepti Sharma bagged two scalps each, while Ama Kanchana top-scored for Sri Lanka with an unbeaten 47 off 83.
The third and final ODI will be played on Thursday, July 7.
