Jemimah Rodriguez shines as Indian women trounce Sri Lankan women in their Asia Cup opener

It was a sumptuous start from Team India in the Women’s Asia Cup as they eased their way past the Sri Lankan women in a lopsided encounter in Sylhet to get their campaign rolling in the best possible way. Despite a few questions looming on the horizon about the Indian batting unit, the remainder of the equation was simple and worked in India’s favour to iron out the chinks.

Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bowl first on a surface that had some early drift needing to be weathered. Much to India’s woes, they lost two quick wickets with Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana departing early that wasn’t a fine herald to be talked about in the Indian dugout.

However, a returning Jemimah Rodriguez seemed repose in her disposition and what followed thereafter was a blitzkrieg blasted by the former while the Indian captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, played the perfect partner to Jemimah’s madness.

Despite a late collapse, Team India managed to secure a warring 150 that seemed competitive considering the assistance that the surface had in store for the bowlers. Jemimah finished with a fine 76 that came from just 53 deliveries.

Chasing 151, Sri Lanka couldn’t get the momentum rolling at all as they started losing wickets early in their innings with their opening batter, Harshitha Samarawickrama being one of the two warriors who kept the side rumbling against a marauding Indian attack.

Deepti Sharma and Pooja Vastrakar shared 4 wickets between them while Dayalan Hemlathan bagged three in the end to remove the Sri Lanka tail that helped the Women in Blue win the contest comprehensively.

The Indian bowlers kept things tight in the middle that didn’t augur well for the Lankans and by the time they opted to pull out the anti-grav missiles, the Indian bowling unit swarmed over them leaving them in smoke and shatters. India will be up against Maldives next where they will be hoping to put up another reverberating display as the hunt for the continental crown intensifies.