Sri Lanka Tour of India: Shafali Verma leads hosts to second win

A blistering half-century from opener Shafali Verma led India to a seven-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the second T20I at the ACA-VDCA Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday.

Verma struck an unbeaten 34-ball 69 with 11 boundaries and a six as India chased down the target of 129 in under 12 overs to go 2-0 up in the five-match series.

Chasing a partly total after opting to chase, Smriti Mandhana provided India the early aggression before she fell for an 11-ball 14.

Jemimah Rodrigues, who was named the captain of WPL franchise Delhi Capitals, then joined hands with Verma to take the match away from the visitors.

Together the duo stitched a 58-run stand in just 27 deliveries as India went from 29-1 in 3.1 overs to 87/2 in 7.4 overs. Rodrigues hit a six and four boundaries as she contributed a 15-ball 26 in the partnership.

Once Rodrigues fell to Kawya Kavindi, Verma took the onus on herself to steer India to victory. Her aggression amped up further as she brought up a half-century off just 27 deliveries with a pull off the hips to send the ball rolling to the mid-wicket boundary.

Even though skipper Harmanpreet Kaur lost her wicket late in the chase, Richa Ghosh got a single of the only delivery she faced to wrap up the match.

Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka had got to a good start with the bat as Chamari Athapaththu looked in ominous tough. But once she was prized out by Sneh Rana in the final over of the powerplay for 24-ball 31, the rest of the batters struggled to get going.

Hasini Perera (22) and Harshita Samarawickrama (33) did battle in the middle, but they were largely kept quiet as the Indian bowlers dried up the boundaries expertly.

Spinners Vaishnavi Sharma (2-32) and Sree Charani (2-23) were the pick of the bowlers for India as the restricted the visitors to 128/9 in their 20 overs.