Harmanpreet Kaur led from the front as India completed a 3-0 series sweep after defeating Sri Lanka by 39 runs in the third ODI in Pallekele on Thursday.
The Indian captain top-scored for India with a counter attacking 75 before picking up the crucial wicket of her counterpart Chamari Athapaththu.
With this win, India moved to six points out of a possible six in the new cycle of the ICC Women’s Championship.
ICC Women's Championship Standings 2022-25
| Pos | Team | Mat | Won | Lost | Tied | N/R | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | India | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 2 | South Africa | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 3 | Pakistan | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 4 | Sri Lanka | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 5 | Ireland | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | Australia | 0 | |||||
| 7 | England | 0 | |||||
| 8 | West Indies | 0 | |||||
| 9 | Bangladesh | 0 | |||||
| 10 | New Zealand | 0 |
Data check: Harmanpreet Kaur registers her career-best run tally in ODIs for a calendar year
Put into bat first, India lost Smriti Mandhana early on with the southpaw unable to replicate her heroics from the second ODI perishing for a 20-ball six.
Shafali Verma, however, picked up from where she left off taking Ama Kanchana to the cleaners. Yastika Bhatia joined in on the fun smashing three boundaries off the pacer.
The pair stitched a 59-run partnership for the second wicket before Sri Lanka fought back into the innings.
Bhatia was the first to depart mistiming a lofted shot straight to mid-off. Rashmi Silva, playing in only her second ODI, struck twice in an over dismissing Verma for 49 before getting rid of Harleen Deol two balls later.
Deepti Sharma and Richa Ghosh departed 14 balls off each other as India went from 89/1 to 124/6 within a span of nine overs.
Harmanpreet Kaur was then joined by Pooja Vastrakar as the duo began rebuilding the Indian innings.
Kaur, who missed out on a fifty in the first ODI, blunted the momentum gained by the Lankan spinners early on in her innings clubbing a six and a four off Rashmi Silva.
Vastrakar got an early reprieve when she was on four after Nilakshi de Silva misjudged an easy catch in the deep. The 22-year-old made the most of it ably supporting her captain as the pair took India past 200.
Kaur soon went past 500 ODI runs for 2022 before bringing up her 16th ODI fifty. 2022 is the Indian skipper’s best year in terms of runs scored and she follows Mithali Raj (5) and Smriti Mandhana (2) in in the list of Indian batters to score 500-plus ODI runs in a calendar twice.
Captain @ImHarmanpreet led from the front and bagged the Player of the Series award in the three-match ODI series against Sri Lanka. 👍 👍#TeamIndia | #SLvIND pic.twitter.com/k6w1tKLZvM
— BCCI Women (@BCCIWomen) July 7, 2022
India looked well on their way to cross 250 with even 275 seeming attainable with Kaur and Vastrakar in the middle. However, Chamari Athapaththu made the breakthrough for Sri Lanka.
Having already hit a boundary over cover in the over, Kaur looked to repeat the shot but couldn’t clear the fielder at the second time of asking.
Vastrakar took over from her captain as she brought up her third ODI fifty by clobbering Athapaththu for two sixes either side of Meghna Singh’s wicket. Vastrakar remained unbeaten on 56 as India finished their 50 overs scoring 255/9.
Chasing 256, Sri Lanka got off to the worst-possible start losing Vishmi Gunaratne in the fourth over.
Athapaththu and Hasini Perera didn’t allow the Indian bowlers to capitalise on the early wicket with the former mounting a superb counter-attacking innings smashing the Indian bowlers to all parts of the ground.
And just like in the first innings, the captain got the wicket of their counterpart. Kaur introduced herself into the attack and despite being swept for a four, enticed Athapaththu into coming down the track.
The Sri Lankan skipper could only loft the ball into the air as Vastrakar sprinted in from long on to take a good catch.
Perera and Kavisha Dilhari kept the scoreboard ticking before both fell to Gayakwad within the space of 18 balls.
Harshitha Samarawickrama, brought back into the side after the second ODI, and the in-form Nilakshi de Silva kept Sri Lanka in the hunt but found boundaries hard to come by.
It was yet another bowling change which triggered the Sri Lankan collapse. Kaur tossed the ball to Harleen Deol and the part-timer got India the breakthrough, albeit in a bizarre fashion.
Samarawickrama looked to sweep Deol to the square leg boundary but the ball ricocheted off the ground to her bat before hitting the wickets. Anushka Sanjeewani, Ama Kanchana and Oshadi Ranasinghe fell in subsequent overs as Sri Lanka went from 146/4 to 155/8 in four overs.
Rashmi Silva sparked faint hopes of a comeback win in her 24-ball stay but she perished trying to scoop Meghna Singh. Nilakshi de Silva, Sri Lanka’s best batter in the series, kept Sri Lanka in the game even as the asking rate went over nine as she chased after her first ODI fifty.
It wasn’t to be for the 32-year-old as Deepti Sharma castled Inoka Ranaweera leaving De Silva stranded on 48.
Skipper Kaur scooped up the awards for Player of the Match and Player of the Series as India joined South Africa at the top of the 2022-25 ICC Women’s Championship standings with six points.