The Indian women’s cricket team beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the ongoing five-match IND-W vs SL-W T20 2025 series.
India had earlier defeated the Lankans in the two matches played at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam – the first by eight wickets and the second by seven.
After Indian T20 captain Harmapreet Kaur won the toss and elected to field, the hosts restricted the Lankans for a modest 112/7 in 20 overs thanks to Renuka Singh and Deepti Sharma’s spells.
Shafali Verma scored her second fifty on the trot to lead India to an easy victory at the Greenfield International Stadium.
Hasini Perera looked to get Sri Lanka off to a quick start and looked to take on the Indian bowlers early on with captain Chamari Athapaththu holding up the other end.
The opening stand, however, was broken by Deepti Sharma in the fifth over after forcing the Lankan skipper to spoon one straight to her Indian counterpart at mid-on.
Renuka Singh struck twice in the very next over, removing Perera and Harshitha Samarawickrama within a span of three balls to reduce the Island Nation to 32/3.
Following that, the visitors kept losing regular wickets as the run rate kept dipping.
A 40-run-stand between Imesha Dulani (27) and Kavisha Dilhari (20) and a knock from Kaushini Nuthyangana (19 not out) offered some brief resistance before the Lankans laboured to 112/7.
Renuka Singh picked up 4/21 while Deepti Sharma registered figures of 3/18 to share the wickets between themselves. This was Renuka’s first match of the series as she replaced Arundhati Reddy in the starting XI for Friday’s match.
Deepti was also returning to the line-up after missing the second match due to illness. She became the first woman to bag 150 wickets in both T20I and ODI cricket during the match.
Her tally of 151 wickets in WT20Is also places her as the joint-highest wicket-taker in the format with Australia’s Megan Schutt.
With 333 wickets, Deepti also became the third-highest wicket taker in women’s international cricket across all formats. She went past Elyssa Perry (331 wickets) and only has Jhulan Goswami (355 wickets) and Katherine Sciver-Brunt (335 wickets) ahead of her now.
With Shafali Verma anchoring India’s chase for the second straight match, the hosts’ innings was short and crisp.
Smriti Mandhana was dismissed for just one and Jemimah Rodrigues walked back for just nine but it hardly caused any difficulties as Verma continued the rampage she had started on the Lankan attack back in Visakhapatnam in the second match.
Verma completed her 50 in just 24 balls – her 13th half-century in the format and second in a row – and finished with an unbeaten 79 off just 42 balls.
With Harmanpreet (20 not out) providing support at the other end, the hosts reached the target in just 13.2 overs.
India and Sri Lanka will face off in the fourth match of the series at the same venue on Sunday.
IND-W vs SL-W 3rd T20 2025 brief scores: Sri Lanka 112/7 in 20 overs (Imesha Dulani 27; Renuka Singh 4/21, Deepti Sharma 3/18) lost to India 115/2 in 13.2 overs (Shafali Verma 79*; Kavisha Dilhari 2/18) by eight wickets.
READ MORE: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/india-vs-sri-lanka-women-t20-2025-cricket-match-3-report
