India completed a clinical whitewash of Sri Lanka on Tuesday with a 15-run win in the fifth and final T20I of the series. The 5-0 series win made sure that the team ended the year on a high, with their captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, winning the player of the match award, her 12th in the shortest format of the game. She equalled former India cricketer Mithali Raj in this aspect who also won 12 player of the match awards during her illustrious career.
Kaur deserved the award in the final game of the series as she helped India recover from a poor start in Smriti Mandhana's absence. Coming out to bat at four, Kaur smashed 68 runs off 43 balls with nine fours and a six to her name. She also led the team well, even as the two teams played out the closest match of the series.
Most PoTM awards for India Women in T20Is
12 - Harmanpreet Kaur*
12 - Mithali Raj
8 - Shafali Verma
8 - Smriti Mandhana
Harmanpreet Kaur reflects on a successful 2025
After the match, India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur reflected on the team's performance in 2025, where they won the ODI World Cup for the first time, at home. She also noted that it wasn't easy for the team to adapt to the T20 format after playing as many as 23 ODIs throughout the year.
"Yeah, I mean, 2025 has been really great for us. And I think it's been all the hard work we have done. And I think this year we have got the credit and now it's only about keep repeating good habits and keep winning the way we have done this year. Well, one thing is there, all of us played a lot of T20 cricket together and it was only believing in ourselves that we can do that.
"And everyone was very positive when sir spoke about strike-rates and then lifting our standards. So everyone was very positive about that and really happy we all came together and wanted to set that standard for us. So going forward, we can look, think about this series, what we have done and that we can do in the future also," Kaur said.
Also Read
