The seasoned duo of Smriti Mandhana and Harmanpreet Kaur were back to their sizzling best as India gave a massive boost to their net run-rate (NRR) with an 82-run hammering of Sri Lanka in the Women’s T20 World Cup here on Wednesday.

The 98-run opening stand between Shafali Verma (43 off 40) and Smriti (50 off 38) set the tone for the innings after India opted to bat at the Dubai International Stadium. Captain Harmanpreet (52 not out off 27) then got welcome runs in the death overs to push India past 170, the highest total of the competition thus far.

Sri Lanka, who had got the better of India in the Asia Cup, could never really get going and were all out for 90. It was Sri Lanka’s third loss in as many games.

With their second win in three games, India remain in the hunt for a last-four spot from Group A. The loss to New Zealand had put a severe dent in India’s net run-rate.

It was also India’s biggest margin of victory in the tournament, pushing their NRR to positive (+0.576) from negative. Their last group game is against Australia.

In an earlier match, South Africa defeated Scotland by 80 runs.

Written with PTI inputs