Dambulla: Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur contributed with both the bat and ball to steer the Indian women's cricket team to a series sealing five-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the second T20I here on Saturday.
Vice-captain Smriti Mandhana's (39 off 34 balls) experience complemented by the exuberance of both Shefali Verma (17 off 10 balls) and Sabbhineni Meghana (17 off 10 balls) helped India chase down the 126-run target in 19.1 overs.
India stuttered in what should have been a comfortable run chase before Harmanpreet took India home with an unbeaten 31 of 32 balls.
Sri Lanka squandered a fine start to post a below par 125/7.
The third and final T20I will be played here on Monday.
It was a day to remember for Mandhana who became the second fastest Indian woman to reach 2,000 runs T20 runs.
Mandhana reached the feat in her 84th innings, becoming the third Indian woman after Mithali Raj (70 innings) and current skipper Harmanpreet (88 innings) to cross the mark.
Opting to bat and with the series on line, the duo of captain Chamari Athapaththu (43 off 41 balls) and Vishmi Gunaratne (45 off 50 balls) provided an ideal start for the Lankans by taking the Indian bowlers to the cleaners.
The two also put up Sri Lanka's best opening stand (87) in T2I0s to leave the Indians frantically rummaging for breakthroughs.
However, once Athapaththu and Gunaratne departed, it was a sorry state of affairs for Sri Lanka as they lost a slew of wickets, only managing a below-par total.
Deepti Sharma (2/34 in 4 overs) was certainly the best bowler on view while the likes of Radha Yadav and Pooja Vastrakar also helped India claw back with the ball.
