Radha Yadav and Shefali Verma were the star performers for India, who finished the group stage at the top of their table with eight points from four games.
The Indian eves continued their stellar form in the ongoing Women’s T20 World Cup as they registered a seven-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in what was their final group game at the Junction Oval on Saturday. Radha Yadav and Shafali Verma were the star performers for India, who finished the group stage at the top of the table with eight points from four games. Having already qualified for the semi-finals, the Indian eves first restricted Sri Lanka to a below par 113/9 with left-arm spinner Radha scalping 4 wickets in her four overs, giving away just 23 runs.
Spin partner Rajeshwari Gayakwad returned with figures of 2/18 while Poonam Yadav, Deepti Sharma and Shikha Pandey all scalped one wicket each.
For Sri Lanka, skipper Chamari Athapaththu was the lone batswoman who could make some significant contribution of 33. Apart from her, Kavisha Dilhari made 25* down the order and helped Sri Lanka cross the 100-run mark. During their chase, it was once again 16-year-old Shafali who starred with the bat. She along with Smriti Mandhana, shared a 34-run opening stand before the left-handed opener was dismissed for 17. Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, who has been struggling for form, promoted herself to No. 3. However, that didn’t make much of a difference as she could score only 15 runs before getting out.
Shafali, however, continued from the other end and kept on scoring boundaries and looked all set to smash her first half-century of the ongoing tournament. But, she fell just three runs short as she got run-out and missed out on a well-deserved fifty. Deepti then completed the formalities alongwith Jemimah Rodrigues as the duo helped India chase down the target with as many as 32 balls to spare. Radha was adjudged the Player of the Match. India will now take the field when they play in the first semi-final of the tournament on 5 March in Sydney.
Brief Scores: Sri Lanka 113/9 (Chamari Athapaththu 33; Radha Yadav 4/23) India 116/3 (Shafali Verma 47; Udeshika Prabodhani 1/13). IANS