India Women vs Sri Lanka Women, ICC Womens T20 World Cup 2020, Today Match Prediction 29 Feb 2020

indw vs srlw Match Prediction & Analysis

India Women showed their class in the ICC Women's T20 World Cup by winning all three games they have played so far. They started by defeating hosts Australia Women by 17 runs in the inaugural match of the tournament and followed it up with another solid performance against Bangladesh Women and won that match by 18 runs. In their third game against New Zealand Women, they clinched a thriller by just 3 runs courtesy a good all-round show. India Women now sits pretty at the top of their group with a net run rate of +0.650.

Sri Lanka Women, meanwhile, have lost both their games in the tournament so far and are 5th on the points table with no points and a horrible net run rate of -0.609. It will be a huge challenge for them to upstage India who has dominated them always. It will be interesting to see whether Sri Lanka can somehow manage their best and surprise India or will Indian Women continue their unbeaten run in the tournament.

TEAMS PREVIEW

India Women Preview

India Women's batting hasn't been in the best of the form of late and has let them down in the tournament so far. Smriti Mandhana's return is a help but she failed in the last match against New Zealand. However, Shafali Verma, the 16-year-old dashing opener, top-scored again in the last game with a sublime 46 on a slow track. She can be an impact player in this match as the youngster has been the best batter for India in the World Cup.

Furthermore, in Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur, Deepti Sharma and Veda Krishnamurthy, India has great depth and skills in the batting unit. If only they can perform collectively, they can really dent the opposition. Captain Harmanpreet, especially, has been woefully short of runs with scores of 1, 8 and 2 in this World Cup.

However, against a relatively weaker bowling side like Sri Lanka's, the Indian batters should do a better job. It is their bowling which has won all the games for India. Radha Yadav, Poonam Yadav, and Rajeshwari Gayakwad will be India's key weapons again. The three spin bowlers have managed to choke oppositions with their spin and would look to dominate once again in this game. Shikha Pandey has been superb as the lead seamer of the team and will provide good support.

India Women Predicted Playing XI:

Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Taniya Bhatia(w), Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur(c), Deepti Sharma, Veda Krishnamurthy, Shikha Pandey, Radha Yadav, Poonam Yadav, Rajeshwari Gayakwad

India Women Actual Playing XI:

Smriti Mandhana, Veda Krishnamurthy, Taniya Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Shikha Pandey, Poonam Yadav, Jemimah Rodrigues, Radha Yadav, Harmanpreet Kaur, Shafali Verma, Rajeshwari Gayakwad

Sri Lanka Women Preview

In both the matches that Sri Lanka Women have lost so far in the tournament - against New Zealand Women by 7 wickets and against Australia Women by 5 wickets - they have produced below-par performances with the bat. Barring captain Chamari Athapaththu , who scored a 41 and a 50 in those two games respectively, the rest of the batting order has failed.

There is a lot of responsibility on opener Hasini Perera, along with the likes of Umesha Thimashini, Anushka Sanjeewani and Nilakshi de Silva to deliver in this important game. On the bowling side, Sri Lanka Women have been better. Udeshika Prabodhani and Shashikala Siriwardene have been among the wickets and will look to apply pressure on the Indian top-order straightaway. Other than these two, however, Sri Lanka's bowling has looked brittle.

Sugandika Kumari hasn't taken a wicket yet and has given plenty of runs away. Off-spinner Kavisha Dilhari bowled a miserly spell in the last match against Australia Women but would need to pick up wickets in this match to help the team win.

Sri Lanka Women Predicted Playing XI:

Shashikala Siriwardene, Chamari Athapaththu (c), Udeshika Prabodhani, Nilakshi de Silva, Hasini Perera, Ama Kanchana, Harshitha Madavi, Anushka Sanjeewani (wk), Sugandika Kumari, Kavisha Dilhari, Umesha Thimashini

Sri Lanka Women Actual Playing XI:

Hasini Perera, Kavisha Dilhari, Umesha Thimashini, Hansima Karunaratne, Shashikala Siriwardene, Harshitha Madavi, Chamari Atapattu, Nilakshi de Silva, Udeshika Prabodhani, Anushka Sanjeewani, Sathya Sandeepani

PITCH AND WEATHER CONDITIONS

Weather Conditions

The Junction Oval in Melbourne has been a very good T20 wicket in recent times. The batters have made merry whenever they have spend some time at the wicket. The seamers too have found purchase on the wicket while spinners have done well in the middle stages. The weather at Melbourne for the match day is expected to be cloudy but pleasant.

Venue Details

The Junction Oval in Melbourne is generally a slow surface and the average total while batting first here is 145. However, it can be good for batting too. Recently, India Women chased down a target of 174 here against Australia Women with relative ease. In this match, a total of 150 or thereabouts awhile batting first might prove to be a match-winning one.

Toss: To Bowl

Teams winning the toss in this tournament have looked to bowl first and the trend should continue in this game as well.