Hyderabad, TELANGANA :

India Women 80-3 (Raj 34no) beat
Sri Lanka Women 76 (Sultana 4-4) by 7 wickets
First One-Day International, Visakhapatnam

Gouher Sultana returned figures of four for four as India Women dismissed Sri Lanka Women for 76 on their way to a seven-wicket win in the first One-Day International in Visakhapatnam.

Sultana took her career-best figures, Rajeshwari Gaekwad took two for 11 and Jhulan Goswami two for 16 as Sri Lanka were bundled out in just 39.3 overs.

Yasoda Mendis, who had been Sri Lanka’s mainstay as they beat India ‘A’ in a warm-up game, top scored with 17 and was the only player to reach double figures.

India opted to pack their team with slow bowlers and the tactic paid off with pacer Goswami opening alongside Nagarajan Niranjana (1-35) before turning to Sultana, Gaekwad and Sneh Rana (1-7), who picked off wickets in quick succession.

Sri Lanka were reduced to 65 for nine in the 29th over before last-wicket pair Udeshika Prabodhani (3 not out in 39 balls) and Chandima Gunaratne (6 in 33) resisted for more than 10 overs until Gaekwad ended the innings with Gunaratne’s wicket.

India also found it difficult to score quickly with openers Karuna Jain (6 in 42 balls) and Smriti Mandhana (13 in 31) struggling before falling to Gunaratne and Sri Lanka captain Shashikala Siriwardene respectively.

Anagha Deshpande then made 23 in 54 to get the innings moving again after they had slumped to 25 for two and after she was stumped off Oshadi Runasinghe, India finished off the match thanks to Mithali Raj’s unbeaten 34 and Harmanpreet Kaur’s one not out.

76 is Sri Lanka’s 11th lowest total in ODIs, second lowest score against India and lowest overall score in India.

Sultana’s four for four is the ninth best bowling analysis for India in an ODI and the fourth best by an Indian bowler on home soil.

The second game is in two days.

source: http://www.cricketworld.com / Cricket World / Home> Series> Series Arichive> Series Archive 2013-14 / by John Pennington / Sunday – January 19th, 2014