Harmanpreet, Pooja shine as India complete a 3-0 series sweep against Sri Lanka
The Hindu
Harmanpreet and Pooja first bailed the team out with a 97-run seventh wicket stand that ensured a decent total of 255 for 9 for the visitors
Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and Pooja Vastrakar produced solid all-round performances as Indian women cantered to a 39-run victory over a clueless Sri Lanka in the final ODI on Thursday to complete a 3-0 rout.
Harmanpreet (75 off 88 balls and 1/21 in 5 overs) and Vastrakar (56 not out off 65 balls, and 2/32) first bailed the team out with a 97-run seventh wicket stand that ensured a decent total of 255 for 9 for the visitors.
The bowlers then executed the plans perfectly to shot out the hosts for 216 in 47.3 overs with both Harmanpreet and Vastrakar chipping in with crucial breakthroughs.
With this series win, the Indian women clinched their fourth consecutive bilateral series victory against the island nation.
The women's side had earlier won ODI series in 2013, 2015, and 2018.
Having already sealed a series win, Harmanpreet's unit came into the final game as a confident bunch, something which the Lankans distinctly lacked from the very onset.
With nothing to lose, Sri Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu won the toss and sent the Indians to bat on a surface that is mostly known to favour teams batting first.
Asian Games champion Avinash Sable opened his season in the 3000m steeple chase with a silver in the Portland Track Festival, a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze event, in Oregon on Saturday. He clocked 8:21.85s. Asian champion Parul Chaudhary took the bronze in the women’s 3000m steeple chase in a season-best 9:31.38s. Former Asian bronze medallist Sanjivani Jadhav struck gold in the women’s 10,000m in 32:22.77s, a time which was a second off her personal best, while Seema was sixth in 32:55.91s.