India women 100 for 1 (Mandhana 73*, Raut 24) beat Sri Lanka women 98 (Atapattu 33, Joshi 3-16, Goswami 2-13, Poonam 2-13) by nine wickets
India's bowlers shot out Sri Lanka for only 98 in 35.1 overs at the Galle International Stadium before Smriti Mandhana stroked an unbeaten 73 off 76 balls to bring up victory in 19.5 overs.
Opting to bat, Sri Lanka were in trouble early, with Mansi Joshi having Prasadani Weerakkody caught behind in the sixth over with the score on just 8. Sri Lanka had started slow, and were consistently hindrered by the new-ball tandem of Jhulan Goswami and Joshi, who returned to international cricket after 14 months, recovering from a knee injury sustained during the limited-overs home series against Bangladesh A in December last year. The duo reduced the hosts to 18 for 3 in the Powerplay, and the spinners mounted further pressure thereafter.
Goswami snared No. 3 Nipuni Hansika in the ninth over, for her 300th international wicket, the first woman to get that many. Goswami, who called time on her T20I career ahead of the tour, would later return to get No. 9 Udeshika Prabodhani, and now has 40 wickets in Tests, 205 in ODIs and 56 in T20Is.
Joshi ended with the best figures on the day, 3 for 16 in 6.1 overs, while Goswami took 2 for 13 in eight. Poonam Yadav, who became the third-fastest Indian to 50 ODI wickets, finished with 2 for 13 in four. Save for Harmanpreet Kaur, who bowled only one over, every Indian bowler had at least one wicket, including debutant D Hemalatha.
For Sri Lanka, the only notable contributions came from captain Chamari Atapattu, who made 33 and was seventh out at the score of 78, and No. 8 Sripali Weerakkody, who scored 26.
Coming off a prolific run at the Kia Super League in the UK, where she finished as the leading run-getter and the Player of the Tournament, Mandhana took the lead in India's chase, getting into her stride quickly and finding the fence regularly. At the break, India had already reached 43 without loss in in seven overs, with Mandhana on 31 off 29.
The lunch interval didn't hamper Mandhana's momentum, with two fours hit in the first over on resumption. She reached her half-century - her fifth in last six ODI innings - in only 42 balls, with a six off Sripali Weerakkody.
India looked set for a 10-wicket victory before Punam Raut miscued an inside-out lofted drive to backward point off Inoka Ranaweera to end the opening stand at 96 in 18.4 overs. Mandhana, who appeared to be in visible discomfort against offspinner Shashikala Siriwardene, escaped at least three edges in what turned out to be the last over of the chase. She then hit a boundary off the fifth ball of the 20th over - off Siriwardene - to seal the chase.
Mithali Raj faced only two balls and didn't score off them, but this was still a landmark match for her. She went past Charlotte Edwards (117) as the most-capped captain in women's ODIs with her 118th appearance. Raj also equalled Edwards with her 72nd ODI win as captain, which is second overall behind Belinda Clark's 83 wins from 101 matches.
