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Jemimah Rodrigues played a brilliant innings scoring an unbeaten 69 from 44 balls as India beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets in the first Womens T20I on Sunday. Her calm and stylish batting made the chase easy for the hosts. India chose to bowl first and kept Sri Lanka to a below-par total of 121 for 6. The Sri Lankan batters struggled to make the most of loose deliveries even though dew arrived earlier than expected. India chased down the target of 122 with 32 balls remaining. Rodrigues added 54 runs with Smriti Mandhana who scored 25 from 25 balls and then shared a 55-run stand with captain Harmanpreet Kaur who remained unbeaten on 15 from 16 balls. This helped India take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series. Rodrigues played several classy shots during her knock with the standout moment being four boundaries in one over against left-arm spinner Shashini Gimhani. Earlier Shafali Verma gave India a fast start with three boundaries in the first over but was dismissed soon after caught off Kawya Kavindi’s bowling. Mandhana had some luck when an inside edge ran away for four while Rodrigues found the boundary with a late cut off Malki Madara. India reached 30 for 1 in four overs before Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu brought herself into the attack. Mandhana hit two boundaries off her and reached 4000 T20I runs before being dismissed by Inoka Ranaweera. After that Rodrigues and Harmanpreet finished the match without further trouble. Earlier in Sri Lanka’s innings opener Vishmi Gunaratne was the top scorer with 39 from 43 balls. Hasini Perera and Harshitha Samarawickrama supported with scores of 20 and 21. Athapaththu started confidently hitting a boundary early. Deepti Sharma made an excellent effort in the field to save a boundary and later bowled tightly finishing with 1 for 20 in four overs. Kranti Gaud provided India’s first wicket by bowling Athapaththu with a delivery that beat both bat and pad. India’s bowlers kept things under control during the powerplay restricting Sri Lanka to 31 for 1. Debutant Vaishnavi Sharma impressed with a neat spell giving away just 16 runs in four overs. Hasini survived an early chance but was dismissed soon after while trying to play a reverse sweep. Despite the dew making conditions difficult India’s bowlers did well to limit Sri Lanka to 55 for 2 after 10 overs setting up a comfortable win.