SL Women vs IND Women, 1st Match at Colombo, Women's Tri-Series (SL), Apr 27 2025 - Ball by Ball Commentary

And on that note, it's a wrap from us. South Africa and India will be playing again on Tuesday, but until then, on behalf of Fidel and the rest of the team, have a good one!

Harmanpreet Kaur: [toss?] Yeah we came and we thought the cloud conditions would play a big role, but when we played the game there were no clouds [after a while], it was very sunny and hot. The way we bowled today was special, and especially our fielding, everyone was on their toes and saved so many runs for the team. The spinners gave us those crucial breakthroughs, and even at the death. [Pratika] has been really great for us, and last few games she's shown us that she's taking that responsibility. Every match she's playing a special knock and really happy to see her best is coming for the team."

Player of the Match goes to Pratika Rawal for her 50 off 62: "It's years of hard work that's coming into place now. I'm very lucky, very fortunate I got this opportunity. I'm just trying to play on the merit of the ball, nothing more goes into my mind. I'm very lucky that I have partner like Smriti, who just makes the game so easy and I just have to play the ball according to merit. It makes my job very easy. I think it was a good effort by the bowlers, but in the second innings there was not a lot for the bowlers, ball was coming on very nicely. It was not swinging as much, we just had to look for the gaps and play on merit."

Chamari Athapaththu: "First of let me congratulate the Indian team, they played really good cricket. Sometimes the toss could be the reason, but today we didn't bat well. The first 10 overs we didn't play positive cricket, and the Indian bowlers bowled really well. We have to execute the plans at the right time. The pitch wasn't good in the first few overs, but we can't use that as an excuse. We have to play our best cricket. 200 was the minimum score, India have a good lineup and we needed that to defend."

Time for the post-match presentation...

5:15pm So as dominant a win as India could have possibly wished, starting off this series with a true statement victory. Pratika Rawal topped the scoring with yet another fifty but there were forties for both Smriti Mandhana and Harleen Deol, as India ran down Sri Lanka's sub-par total of 147 with nearly 10 overs to spare. In Sri Lanka's defence they got the worst of the conditions, having been put into bat after a rain-delayed start. It meant the surface was more conducive to pace early on, and once India's spinners came into play after that - accounting for seven of the wickets to fall - Sri Lanka's innings never really got going. That's not to take anything away from India, who excelled in all departments, and showed that they were the team to beat in this tri-nation series. Sri Lanka though will know they have plenty to work on.