Anuja Patil's all-round brilliance leads India to series win

In the 4th Twenty-20 of India's tour of Sri Lanka, the tourists won by seven wickets, with eight balls to spare. The match was reduced to 17 overs a side due to a wet outfield because of heavy rainfall the previous day.

In the first innings, Sri Lanka batting first, posted 134-5 on the board. Yasoda Mendis and Chamari Athapththu got their team off to a flyer of a start, taking 27 runs off the first 2.4 overs before the former was dismissed for 19 off 12. Athapththu continued the onslaught on her way to 31 off 26. She put on a 52 run third-wicket stand with Shashikala Siriwardene, who top scored with 40 off 32.

Deepti Sharma and Poonam Yadav took a wicket each, finishing with figures of 1-26 and 1-21 respectively. However, the true star for India was Anuja Patil. First, she was the pick of the bowlers having claimed three scalps for 36 runs. Then, her maiden half-century guided her team to the win.

India started off their innings positively, taking 13 runs off the first over. In the next over, however, both openers Smriti Mandhana (5 off 3) and Mithali Raj (11 off 7) were dismissed by Oshadi Ranasinghe within three balls of each other. Ranasinghe then claimed Taniya Bhatia's wicket in her next over. India were 3-41. But, that was the last wicket to fall. Jemimah Rodrigues and Anuja Patil combined for a 96 run partnership to see their team over the line. Patil reached her fifty first, bringing it up in 36 balls. Rodrigues followed suit to register back-to-back half-centuries, reaching the milestone off the last ball of the match with a stylish six.

Courtesy of this partnership, India won by seven wickets to win the series.