India won the first T20I of the three-match series against Sri Lanka, at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium. Opting to bat, India piled 138/6 on a slow pitch that offered little bounce and made strokeplay difficult. They then restricted Sri Lanka to 104/5.
Shafali Verma (31 in 31 balls) began well, but Sri Lanka struck in the fourth over, when off spinner Oshadi Ranasinghe (2-22) struck with consecutive balls: Smriti Mandhana hit to mid on and S. Meghana to mid off. Verma herself hit Chamari Athapaththu to long on, while Inoka Ranaweera (3-30) trapped Harmanpreet Kaur (22 in 20 leg before). India were 58/4 at this point. Richa Ghosh (11 in 15 balls) and Pooja Vastrakar (14 in 12) played cameos, but in the end it was left to Jemimah Rodrigues (36* in 27) and Deepti Sharma (17* in 8) to take India to a reasonable score.
Sri Lanka started slowly, and reached 25/1 after the Powerplay overs. They ran out of fight after Radha Yadav (4-0-22-2) took out Athapaththu (16 in 19 balls) and Harshita Madavi (10 in 17) in the seventh over. Kavisha Dilari (47* in 49) batted until the end, but at no point Sri Lanka seemed set for a win. Bowling in international cricket for the first time, Verma (2-0-10-1) had Ama Kanchana stumped to pick up a maiden career wicket.
Brief scores
India 138/6 in 20 overs (Jemimah Rodrigues 36*; Inoka Ranaweera 3-30) beat Sri Lanka 104/5 in 20 overs (Kavisha Dilhari 47*; Radha Yadav 2-22) by 34 runs. Player of the Match: Jemimah Rodrigues.