India Women vs Sri Lanka Women, 5th T20I - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

A great 2025 for the Indian Women's side. They became World Champs in the ODI format at home - a cherished life-long dream for many under the captaincy of Harmanpreet. And now they have thumped Sri Lanka 5-0 as they whitewash them in the T20 series. The T20 World Cup is in June in England and the Indian side are currently looking a very good outfit. Meanwhile Sri Lanka have questions to answer as they aim to process this whitewash. On that note, we sign off from here. That's it from all of us. Have a great 31st and Jan 1st. Party hard but responsibly. And remember to snore well and sleep tight. See you.

The series trophy is presented to Harmanpreet who is all smiles. She then goes over to the Indian team standing behind the WINNERS hoarding. She gives the trophy to Vaishnavi and Kamalini who are the newcomers in this team. The duo lift it and then the whole team pose for the cameras. Jemimah goes forward and takes a selfie with her lying flat on the ground and capturing the team behind her. Then the support staff join in including the coach.

Harmanpreet Kaur | Player of the Match and India captain: Yeah, I mean, 2025 has been really great for us. And I think it's been all the hard work we have done. And I think this year we have got the credit and now it's only about keep repeating good habits and keep winning the way we have done this year. (change of mindset, was it easy to adapt after the high of winning the ODI World Cup) Well, one thing is there, all of us played a lot of T20 cricket together and it was only believing in ourselves that we can do that. And everyone was very positive when sir spoke about strike-rates and then lifting our standards. So everyone was very positive about that and really happy we all came together and wanted to set that standard for us. So going forward, we can look, think about this series, what we have done and that we can do in the future also. (on her as a batter and as a leader) Well, as a batter, it's my responsibility to give that strength to our batting order and always want to contribute however my team wants. And as a captain, I'm really happy in the way we played this series. And as earlier we mentioned that after ODI cricket, shifting to T20 mode was something, not easy, but everyone was so positive. Everyone was so excited to play this series after the World Cup. So really happy how things came together. And we fought for this and really happy how all things came together and we all gave our 100 percent. (on the next 7 months with lots of T20 cricket being played) Yeah, definitely. This series was very important for us. That's why we want everyone to be available for this series so that later on we can see how things are going for us. Now next is WPL, which is also very important for all of us. So all are going to again be in T20 mode and hopefully we all play our best cricket and enjoy ourselves over there. And the next six months are very important for us. We just want to keep working hard, keep raising the bar for all of us and hopefully the way how things work well for us in ODI cricket, the same way things work well for in T20.

Shafali Verma | Player of the Series (translated from Hindi): My work throughout the year has paid off. I'm so happy that whatever I worked on I have been able to execute. But the way I got out tonight and in the first game, I wouldn't want to repeat that. Want to contribute more to the team. The aim is to play long innings and become a better player every day. Sometimes everything you work on comes off, like 10 out of 10 which gives you a lot of confidence and sometimes it will be 5 out of 10. That pushes me to work harder and I will work harder to get better for the team. (ODIs vs T20Is, how do you shift?) Both are different games. In ODI you have to play along the ground because it is a very long format, 50 overs. T20 is my favourite, I like it a lot. Day by day I am improving and I will become a better player for the team.

Chamari Athapaththu | Sri Lanka captain: Actually, we are not playing our best cricket in this tournament. So definitely we have to improve a couple of areas, especially power-hitting area and the batting. But we have good positive things in this tournament. We carry forward like some of the youngsters playing really good cricket in the middle. So these are the positive things and looking forward to playing our best cricket in next few months. (takeaways from this series) Actually, few seniors with me like Inoka, Nilakshi, and Hasini, so they are playing good cricket but I feel we are not playing our best cricket, especially as a seniors. And the youngsters doing little bit good and some of the youngsters would take that opportunity and they are playing their best cricket in the middle. So we have to think lot of things before the World Cup. So we need to improve couple of areas and I hope we can play our best cricket in the World Cup. (talk in the changeroom) So we talk about positive things in the dressing room because we playing really good cricket 6-7 months ago. So our coach is really good. He always told to the team, play with your potential, trust your skill and play your game freely. That's the most important thing. These are the positive things we talk in the dressing room. Actually, some of the batters execute the right time in the middle. So we give good fight for India but unfortunately we lost the game. Thank you very much for BCCI and the people here. We enjoyed this tournament.

Stats by Shashikant Singh

Most PoTM awards for India Women in T20Is
12 - Harmanpreet Kaur*
12 - Mithali Raj
8 - Shafali Verma
8 - Smriti Mandhana

Most PoTS awards for India Women in T20Is
3 - Mithali Raj
3 - Harmanpreet Kaur
3 - Deepti Sharma
3 - Shafali Verma*

Spin bowling in this series
IND-W: 17 wickets in 60 overs, ER: 6.65
SL-W: 11 wickets in 53 overs, ER: 9.54

Most wins by a team against an opponent (WT20Is)
33 - AUSW vs NZW
32 - ENGW vs NZW
26 - AUSW vs INDW
25 - INDW vs SLW*
24 - ENGW vs INDW

This is India Women’s third 5-0 series win in T20Is. They previously achieved this feat against the West Indies in 2019 (away) and Bangladesh in 2024 (away).

Sri Lanka Women have played only four five-match T20I series, and this is the first instance they lost by a 5-0 margin.

22:21 Local Time, 16:51 GMT, 22:21 IST: A 5-0 whitewash! Sri Lanka batted better again tonight but just not enough. Chamari went early but the impressive Imesha and Hasini added 79 for the 2nd wicket and kept their side in the hunt. Imesha got her fifty but Amanjot came on and got her first ball. Hasini carried on and till she was there, there was hope for Sri Lanka. But she didn't get the support from the others. Once she fell, victory was a foregone conclusion. All the 6 bowlers employed by India were among the wickets but it was Deepti who was the pick. This is a strong show from India on their home turf and they deserve their 5-0 win. The first three games were totally one-sided and even though Sri Lanka fought hard in the last two, India manage to complete the whitewash. Stay tuned for the post-match stuff...

Just legal balls will do for India.

First fifty for Hasini Perera in her 81st T20I innings. Among full-member teams, only New Zealand’s Maddy Green (92 innings) has taken more innings for her first fifty in this format.