ICC Women's World Cup 2017: Twitter Reacts As India Beat Sri Lanka To Register Fourth Win On Trot 1

Riding on Deepti Sharma and Mithali Raj’s half-centuries, India defeated Sri Lanka by 16 runs to register its fourth consecutive win in the ongoing ICC Women’s World Cup.

Chasing 232, Sri Lanka never looked in contention as the required run-rate looked out of their reach for the most part of the innings. The island nation went off to a poor start with Jhulan Goswami accounting for Hasini Perera for 10. And Sri Lanka’s hopes of chasing the total all but ended when Nipuni Hansika and Chamari Atapattu departed in quick succession to leave their side reeling at 70 for 3 in the 24th over.

Shashikala Siriwardene and Dilani Manodara then steadied the ship with a 60-run stand but with the required run-rate close to 10, the former lost her wicket while trying to play a big shot. A flurry of boundaries in the next few overs from Manodra and Sripali Weerakkody gave Mithali Raj & Co. some anxious moments but Ekta Bisht once again gave India an edge by dismissing the latter. Manodara (61) waged a lone battle from one end but India managed to restrict Sri Lanka to 216 for 7.

Batting first, India rode on half-centuries from Deepti Sharma and Mithali Raj to post a challenging 232 for 8 in the allotted overs. The women in blues began the innings on a poor note with in-form Smriti Mandhana failing to score big for the second game in a row. The left-handed batswoman managed to score just 8 before Chandima Gunaratne sent her back. Punam Raut (16) also joined Mandhana soon, leaving India reeling at 38 for 2.

Mithali and Deepti then calmed down the nerves in the Indian dressing room and laid the platform for a respectable total with an 118-run stand before Ama Kanchana broke the partnership by dismissing the latter for 78. Deepti’s 78-run had come off 110 balls with the help of 10 fours. Mithali (53) and Jhulan Goswami then departed in quick succession as India were reduced from 156 for 2 to 169 for 5.

But just when it looked India would squander the platform led by Mithali and Deepti’s fifties, Harmanpreet Kaur and Veda Krishnamurthy chipped in with handy knocks of 20 and 29 respectively to help India post a good total.

Here is how Twitter reacted to the match:

 

https://twitter.com/MystiRoz/status/882626291056295937

https://twitter.com/Ibleed_sarcasm/status/882632355051184129