India captain Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues greet the Sri Lankan players (PTI Photo) Jemimah Rodrigues played a brilliant innings to help India record a comfortable win over Sri Lanka in the first women’s T20 international on Sunday. She remained unbeaten on 69 runs from 44 balls, displaying great control and confidence throughout the knock. Her performance helped India win the match by eight wickets to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series. India chose to field first and did well to restrict Sri Lanka to 121 runs for six wickets. Sri Lankan batsmen have struggled to score freely even when given loose balls. The dew arrived earlier than expected but the Indian bowlers adjusted well and kept things under control. During the chase, India made light work of the target and finished the match with 32 balls to spare. Jemimah Rodrigues played the role of anchor and built important partnerships. She added 54 runs to this with Smriti Mandhana, who scored 25 runs off 25 balls, and later shared a 55-run stand with skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, who was not out on 15 balls from 16. Rodrigues played some brilliant knocks but the standout moment of her innings came when she smashed four boundaries in a single off being bowled by left-armer Shashini Gimhani. This tilted the game firmly in India’s favour. India’s innings started aggressively with Shafali Verma hitting three boundaries in the very first over. However, she could not stay at the crease for long and was released soon after. Mandhana had some lucky moments early on but settled in well before becoming the latest batsman to surpass 4000 T20I runs. Her innings was broken by Inoka Ranaweera, but by then India were well in control. Earlier, Sri Lanka’s innings was held together by opener Vishmi Gunaratne who top scored with 39 runs off 43 balls. Hasini Perera and Harshitha Samarawickrama also contributed small but useful scores. India’s bowlers remained disciplined despite the wet ball. Deepti Sharma bowled economically while debutant Vaishnavi Sharma impressed on her international debut with a tight four-over spell conceding just 16 runs.
