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SLW won by 7 wickets

11:18 PM IST, 18:18 Local Time: Sri Lanka Women thump Ireland Women by seven wickets with 20 balls to spare, taking a 1-0 lead in the series. An impressive performance in both bowling and batting departments from Asia champions in the absence of their regular skipper and key player, Chamari Athapaththu. 

Earlier, after being invited to bat first, Amy Hunter and Gaby Lewis batted carefully and focused on the strike rotation. However, they could add only 24 runs for the opening wicket, with Hunter departing for 17 runs off 12 balls. Lewis (39 off 33) and Orla Prendergast (29 off 27) paired up in the middle, and the duo displayed immense maturity, rotating strikes and pouncing on loose balls to maintain the scoring rate. They added 59 runs for the second wicket and laid a solid foundation.  

Laura Delany contributed a valuable 25 runs off 21 balls, while Rebecca Stokell's unbeaten 21 runs propelled Ireland's score to 145 runs in 20 overs. 

Inoshi Priyadharshani bagged a couple of wickets for Sri Lanka Women, while Udeshika Prabodhani and Sugandika Kumari celebrated a solitary wicket.

In pursuit of 145 runs, Vishmi Gunaratne and Harshitha Samarawickrama provided a rollicking start to Sri Lanka Women. The opening duo scored briskly from the word game and added 83 runs for the opening wicket, with Gunaratne departing for 30 runs. 

Kavisha Dilhari and Anushka Sanjeewani departed cheaply but Samarawickrama continued her merry ways and hammered up her career-best 86* runs. She smashed a hat-trick of boundaries to seal the game for her side with 20 balls to spare. 

Freya Sargent, Arlene Kelly, and Laura Delany were the three Irish bowlers who grabbed one wicket each. 

Stay tuned for the post-match presentation....

86* - This is the highest score for Harshitha Samarawickrama in T20Is. 

Player of the Match: Harshitha Samarawickrama

Harshitha Samarawickrama (Player of the Match): "I enjoyed the new batting position thoroughly. I played according to the merit of the ball and enjoyed it. It's a nice country and people here are very nice."

Laura Delany (Ireland Women Captain): "Yeah, I thought Gaby and Orla set it up really well. Looking back at that first innings, 145 is probably below par. Unfortunately, we didn't back it up with the ball, and I think that was the area that really let us down today. 

Look, we've been playing a lot of domestic and club cricket, and I believe we're better than what we showed out there today, particularly in the powerplay. We'll go back to training, have a team discussion later on, and hopefully come back stronger with a solid performance on Tuesday.

Yeah, I think the powerplay is a crucial area. In T20 cricket, that's often where the game can be won or lost. We didn't take any wickets during our powerplay and found ourselves on the back foot. Coming out of it was quite tricky. But, yeah, that's definitely one area where we'll discuss our plans and figure out what we can do better."

Anushka Sanjeewani (Sri Lanka Women Captain): "I am really happy about my team's performance. The pitch was good and our batters did well today. We are confident and our players are doing well but we need to continue this momentum in T20 World Cup as well."

A comprehensive victory for Sri Lanka Women in the series opener and they go 1-0 up in the 2-match T20I series. Both sides will meet again for the final match of the series on Tuesday and it will be interesting to see if the hosts stage a comeback and end the series on a level term. Time to wrap up this coverage, folks! For now, this is me Deepak Prakash signing off on behalf of scorer/analyst Chandan Kumar Singh. CHEERS!