India’s talismanic captain Harmanpreet Kaur scripted history in Women’s T20Is on Friday (December 26) by becoming the first captain ever to lead her side to 77 wins. As India beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets
in Trivandrum, she broke the record of Australian legend Meg Lanning’s 76 wins as a captain, with English greats Heather Knight (72) and Charlotte Edwards (68) in their stead.
Although Lanning took 100 matches for the feat, and Harmanpreet went past the record in her 130th, it’s a testament to the latter’s longevity. The Punjab superstar’s skills can’t be discounted either, considering she took over a much more inexperienced team than Lanning’s Australia.
India’s win over Sri Lanka was a series-clinching one. The visitors began brightly through Hasini Perera, but India quickly seized control after Deepti Sharma removed skipper Chamari Athapaththu and Renuka Singh Thakur ripped through the top order on her return, reducing the visitors to 32/3.
Renuka added two more wickets, while Deepti chipped in regularly, becoming the joint-highest wicket-taker in women’s T20Is as Sri Lanka were restricted to 112/7.
In reply, Shafali Verma set the tone immediately, smashing an unbeaten 79 off 42 balls. Despite brief strikes from Kavisha Dilhari, Shafali’s dominance sealed an eight-wicket win and a 3-0 series lead for India.
“It has been a great series for all of us,” Harmanpreet said after the match. “That’s what we discussed when we got together after the World Cup: we have to raise our standard. Be a little more aggressive in T20, we all know the T20 World Cup is coming up, this is the right time to push ourselves, so really happy with the overall performance. Contribution from our bowling because T20 bowling is very important. If you keep ticking all the boxes in your bowling department, you have more chances to win the game.”
“Today, we are in this position because of our bowlers. Credit goes to our bowling lineup for the way they bowled in this series,” she added.
