Mithali leads India to World Cup Super Six stage

Sydney (PTI): Mithali Raj stood tall amid the ruins as India edged out Sri Lanka by 35 runs to book a place in the Super Six stage of the ICC Women's World Cup cricket tournament here on Thursday.

Opting to bat first in the Group B match at the Bankstown Oval, India slumped to 78 for seven before an unbeaten 59-run stand for the seventh wicket between former captain Mithali (75) and incumbent Jhulan Goswami (24) guided the side to 137 for seven, a total that looked far from imposing.

Fortunately for them, Sri Lankan batters did even worse as Amita Sharma (3/19), Rumeli Dhar (2/10) and Gouher Sultana (2/16) shone with the ball to skittle out the islanders for 102 in 44.2 overs.

India's second victory did earn them a place in the group stage but their batters looked far from convincing today. India had a disastrous start to their innings and by the sixth over, they had lost their two top-order batters to slump to 11 for two.

Mithali, who had contributed 59 out of 169 against England, came to India's rescue once again and the fact that she hit just one four in her unbeaten 120-ball knock speaks volumes of her grit when wickets kept tumbling at the other end.