Earlier in the tournament, Sri Lanka beat India for only the , in a match where Harmanpreet Kaur and Co were caught short by their conservative approach with bat and ball. On Sunday, as the two teams face each other in the final of the Women’s ODI Tri-series final in Colombo, India would look to avoid the same mistakes they made – with already signs of more aggression on display against South Africa in their subsequent match after their solitary defeat.
On Wednesday, India were more proactive in their batting approach right from the word go. Even though they lost the wickets of Pratika Rawal and Harleen Deol early, Harmanpreet set the tone at No 4 with a smooth start even though her boundary-filled innings was quickly cut short. But, walking in early at No 5, Jemimah Rodrigues played a blinder of a knock, first supported by Smriti Mandhana and then by Deepti Sharma. , and they needed that cushion too as South Africa made a fist of the run-chase later.
While ideally India wouldn’t like to lose three early wickets in the name of proactive batting, there were clear signs from the top five to keep the scoreboard ticking and minimise dot balls, an aspect of their game that has cost them often against the top sides. While Smriti finally crossed 50 on this tour, Pratika and Harleen would like to return among runs, the former now missing out on back-to-back occasions after her dream start to life as an international cricketer. A good performance from the top five can set up Richa Ghosh to go big in the end, with India’s wicket-keeper batter being a definite X-Factor across both sides.
As for India’s bowling, there are concerns around the depleted unit’s wicket-taking abilities. They are without some key names for this series and the make up of the bowling attack has largely appeared experimental but in Sneh Rana and Deepti Sharma, they have two off-spinners who hold the key. With Kashvee Gautam’s debut series ending prematurely due to an injury, and Arundhati Reddy left out, India fielded just one pacer in Amanjot Kaur and the allrounder did a solid job on her comeback to international cricket. If India once again decide to go with two rookie left-arm spinners, Sri Lanka could potentially target the inexperience of Sree Charani and Shuchi Upadhyay.
For Sri Lanka, the positives so far in this tournament have been offspinner Dewmi Vihanga – the newcomer picked up a five-for against South Africa – and the batting unit’s decreasing dependency on their captain Chamari Athapaththu. While Athapaththu demoted herself to No 4 in the last couple of matches to offer some middle-order stability, the runs haven’t been flowing from the skipper’s bat like we are used to seeing. But the likes of Harshitha Samarawickrama, Hasini Perera and Kavisha Dilhari have increased their output of runs to make sure Sri Lanka don’t collapse on days Athapaththu doesn’t fire.
India have batted first in all but one of their matches in Colombo so far, but their preference would be to chase on the big day. Harmanpreet’s side start clear favourites but as we have seen in the Asia Cup T20 final last year and a few days back in this very tournament, they’d be wary of Sri Lanka’s threat.
Tri-series final: India vs Sri Lanka starts at 10 am IST, live on FanCode
