India defeated Sri Lanka by eight wickets in the first T20I of the series at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. Opting to bowl first, the hosts controlled the game as the Chamari Athapaththu-led side struggled heavily with the bat. The captain, who is known for leading the team from the front, has been struggling to get going in recent times and Sunday saw another instance of the same, which didn’t allow Sri Lanka to control the momentum.
For Sri Lanka, Vaishnavi Sharma made her debut in international cricket against Sri Lanka and the youngster made an immediate impact. She didn’t register a wicket to her name but the 20-year-old conceded only 16 runs in four overs, which is commendable, to say the least. Kranti Gawd, Deepti Sharma and N Charani were among the wickets for India as the hosts restricted Sri Lanka to a subpar 121 runs in the first innings.
Meanwhile, despite a strong bowling performance, the fielding unit has once again let them down in the middle. The trend was seen in the ODI World Cup 2025 as well and it seems that little has changed. It is arguably the most important aspect as it can bite them back in a crucial game. Notably, the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side dropped at least four easy chances tonight in Visakhapatnam and that is one area that the team management needs to address immediately, especially with the T20 World Cup in six months’ time.
The Jemimah Rodrigues show
When it came to batting, senior batter Smriti Mandhana made 25 runs off the same number of deliveries. With that, she became the first Indian and second cricketer overall to score over 4000 runs in T20Is. After she departed, Jemimah Rodrigues took over the business, scoring an unbeaten 69 runs off 44 balls to help India register an easy eight-wicket win.
Overall, it was a compact performance from the cricketers but again, fielding is one area that might give headaches to the team management, since it’s a recurring issue for the team.
