Mithali Raj leads India to series win

India Women inflicted a fifth straight defeat on Sri Lanka Women by registering a five-wicket win in the second game of the ongoing Twenty20 International series, at the JSCA International Stadium complex in Ranchi on Wednesday (February 24).

Mithali Raj led from the front, scoring her eighth T20I fifty to bail India out after a shaky start as the hosts took 2-0 lead with one more game to go.

Chasing 108 for an unassailable lead in the series, both openers got off the mark with a boundary each before some smart work behind the stumps by Prasadani Weerakkody ended Vellaswamy Vanitha's stay on 5.

Smriti Mandhana, assuming the role of team vice-captain today in the absence of Harmanpreet Kaur, had her stumps rattled by Shashikala Siriwardena, the Sri Lankan skipper. Inoka Ranaweera picked up her second as Prasadani Weerakkody's sharp reflexes meant Deepti Sharma had to walk back for an eight-ball duck.

Raj held one end together even as destructive bat Veda Krishnamurthy was trapped in front of her stumps by Inoka Ranaweera. With India reeling at 27 for 4, Anuja Patil, India's star in the first game on Monday, combined with her skipper for a game-changing 77-run stand to bring the equation down to 17 required off the final 18 deliveries.

Player of Match Raj raised her bat to acknowledge the cheers from a handful of young crowd, shortly after India lost Patil, who gave away an easy return catch to Eshani Lokusuriyage when India were just four runs shy.

Earlier in the day, the visitors started slowly after electing to bat. Opener Yasoda Mendis was the first to depart with just 13 runs on the board, as Krishnamurthy took a smart catch at long on, off the bowling of all-rounder Shikha Pandey.

Coming in to bat at one down, Dilani Manodara added 24 runs with vice-captain Chamari Athapaththu before the latter was bowled by Poonam Yadav for 32-ball 22.

In-form Manodara them combined with Siriwardene for the best partnership of their innings - 47 runs off 41 balls. Playing her first game of the series, it was offspinner Sneh Rana who got India the much needed breakthrough with the wicket of the Sri Lankan skipper. Siriwardene made a run-a-ball 26 before handing an easy one to Krishnamurthy.

Yadav returned in the 18th over to get rid of Eshani Lokusuriyage and Dilani Manodara on successive deliveries before Ekta Bisht produced a three-wicket penultimate over to restrict Sri Lanka to just 107 from their allotted overs.

India made one change to their playing XI by resting senior bat Harmanpreet and bringing in Rana while the tourists decided to field an unchanged side despite a crushing loss in the series opener.

Brief scores: Sri Lanka 107/8 from 20 overs (Dilani Manodara 27, Shashikala Siriwardena 26; Poonam Yadav 3-17, Ekta Bisht 3-22) lost to India 108/5 from 19 overs (Mitahli Raj 51 not out, Anuja Patil 34; Inoka Ranaweera 3-10) by five wickets.