India beats Sri Lanka

By Steve Whiting

CHRISTCHURCH, DEC 15. Things are at last starting to come right for an Indian team which has been dogged by bad luck ever since the CricInfo Women's World Cup began here over two weeks ago.

On Friday India defeated Sri Lanka by the almost embarrassingly large amount of 141 runs and so confirmed its third place in the round robins and a semifinal tie against New Zealand next Wednesday.

It would be hard, if not impossible, to find a single soul at these World championships who does not sympathise with India and the problems it has faced since the tournament began over two weeks ago.

Today India won the toss, batted first, and even took the opportunity of experimenting with its batting line-up. Smitha Harikrishna was promoted to open where she did a sterling job with her 32 off 58 balls. Anjum Chopra dropped to No.3, where her 68 not out off 104 balls was enough to propel her to second place on the leader board for the Player of the Tournament award.

But it did not gain her the NZ$ 200 as Player of the Match. That went to Chanderkanta Kaul, who hammered a demoralised Sri Lanka attack for 80 off 82 balls, with eight fours, that took India along to 230 for four. By then Sri Lanka was dead on its feet-it lost two wickets for no runs, suffered four run outs, and was all out for 89, giving India its fifth win in seven round robin ties.

lBrief scores: India 230 for four in 50 overs (Smitha Harikrishna 32, Chanderkanta Kaul 80, Anjum Chopra 68 not out) bt Sri Lanka 89 all out in 49.2 overs. India won by 141 runs.

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