India Women vs Sri Lanka Women, 3rd T20I - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

So India wrap up the series with two games to play. The next one is at the same venue on the 28th of this month. We will be there for that. Do join us for that one. For now it's escape time!

Renuka Singh Thakur | Player of the Match (translated from Hindi): I'm very happy. I get four wickets only but to get five I need to work harder. I go to the NCA before every series for practice. It helps a lot, so that I can work extra on my bowling and fitness and that's what I execute. (on using more variations) I have been working on these for the last 6 months to 1 year on executing this. I wanted to during this series, so that when I play in the future against Australia or the World Cup, there shouldn't be any doubt about my slower one or anything else, so that I can mentally prepare myself. If my first over doesn't go well, I think on what I need to do and what to bowl on this wicket when the captain throws the ball next. Harmanpreet was fully motivating me to get 5 as she also knows that I get only 4 wickets every time. I remember Jhulan (Goswami) di's words when she said to take 5 wickets, you need to work harder. So that's what I was thinking - to work harder to get the 5 wickets.

Harmanpreet Kaur | India captain: It was a great series for all of us. That's what we discussed when we get-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. (highlight of the series) 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 all our bowling lineup, the way they bowled in this series. They are the one who always giving us breakthrough, first six overs - their top-order is very important to get the wicket. Today we wanted to go with Renuka, so that she can give us those breakthrough. First over was not something we were expecting. After that how she came back, and took those crucial four wickets - that is something we were looking for.

Chamari Athapaththu | Sri Lanka captain: I feel we are not playing our best cricket throughout the tournament. So as a batting unit we struggle a lot. We need to improve those areas. We are playing our best batting lineup, till last 6 months we are using those players as a batting unit. We try a few things in bowling unit, but we always trust our youngsters and top-order, still we are not finding the good way in this format. We give opportunity to Imesha Dulani today, she batted really good in the middle-order. Kavisha batted really good. These are the positives in today game. Still we try to find a few players before the World Cup, because we rest 5-6 players in our team. We need to improve those areas before next World Cup. We have two bilateral series coming up, so I hope we can perform in both bilateral series.

Highest scores for IND-W vs SL-W in T20Is
79* - Shafali Verma, Thiruvananthapuram, 2025 (3rd T20I)*
76 - Jemimah Rodrigues, Sylhet, 2022 AC
69* - Jemimah Rodrigues, Visakhapatnam, 2025 (1st T20I)
69* - Shafali Verma, Visakhapatnam, 2025 (2nd T20I)

Shafali Verma today
vs pace: 7 off 6, one four, SR: 116.7
vs spin: 72 off 36, 10 fours, 3 sixes, SR: 200.0

Shafali Verma’s innings (by footwork)
Back foot: 17(10), 3 fours, SR: 170.0
Front foot: 30(22), 4 fours, 1 six SR: 136.4
Down the track: 32(10), 4 fours, 2 sixes, SR: 320.0

Shafali Verma scored 68.69 percent of India's runs today, which is the highest percentage of runs scored by a single Woman batter in a completed innings for India in WT20Is, bettering Harmanpreet Kaur’s 66.12% runs she scored against Australia at Billericay in 2011.

Most wins as a captain in Women's T20Is
77 - Harmanpreet Kaur (130 mats)*
76 - Meg Lanning (100 mats)
72 - Heather Knight (96 mats)
68 - Charlotte Edwards (93 mats)
*including super over wins

Most wins as a captain against a team in WT20Is
16 - Harmanpreet Kaur vs SL-W (20 mats)*
14 - Charlotte Edwards vs AUS-W (24 mats)
14 - Harmanpreet Kaur vs BAN-W (17 mats)
14 - Heather Knight vs NZ-W (15 mats)

Fourth consecutive series victory for India Women against Sri Lanka in T20Is. The only time they lost a series against them was when both played the first series in 2014 in India.

21:36 Local Time, 16:06 GMT, 21:36 IST: Such a convincing win again for India. All three games have been one-sided. Shafali Verma started off with three dots in the opening over but then came the big shots. Smriti fell early and Jemimah struggled but there was no stopping Shafali. She crunched boundaries and sixes to put the Sri Lankans under tremendous pressure. The visitors gave chances to the youngsters who had no answers to Shafali's onslaught. Harmanpreet Kaur did her bit with a neat knock but it was Shafali all the way. A chase of 113 was finished with 6.4 overs to spare. Stay tuned for the post-match stuff...