1st Women’s T20I at Hambantota Athapaththu’s career best 4/29 gives Sri Lanka 1-0 lead over West Indies

Tuesday, 25 June 2024 02:16 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lanka women’s Captain Chamari Athapaththu (extreme right) being congratulated by teammates after her career best performance

Scores: West Indies Women 134-8 (20) (Hayley Matthews 30, Qiana Joseph 20, Aaliyah Alleyne 26, Chamari Athapaththu 4/29, Inoshi Priyadharshani 3/28)

Sri Lanka Women 137-6 (18.4) (Vishmi Gunaratne 35, Harshitha Samarawickrama 35, Hasini Perera 20, Afy Fletcher 2/29)

The return of their Captain Hayley Matthews after recovering from ill-health couldn’t shift the fortunes West Indies’ way when they lost the first Women’s T20I of a three-match series to Sri Lanka by four wickets at the Mahinda Rajapaksa Cricket Stadium, Hambantota yesterday.

Sri Lanka who made a clean sweep of the WODI series 3-0, now lead the WT20I series 1-0 with two more matches to play on 26 and 28 June.

It was Sri Lanka’s first win over West Indies in a women’s T20I since 2015 and it was set up by their captain Chamari Athapaththu and Inoshi Priyadharshani – both off-spinners.

Athapaththu returned career best figures of 4/29 and Priyadharshani took 3/28 as they combined effectively to restrict West Indies to 134-8 after Sri Lanka opted to field first. Matthews top scored with a run-a-ball 30 (5 fours) and there were knocks of 20s from Qiana Joseph and Aaliyah Alleyne.

Alleyne (26 off 22 balls) and Afy Fletcher (14* off 11) put on an enterprising stand of 33 off 23 balls to enable West Indies score 35 off the last four overs and reach a decent total.

Although Matthews managed to see the early back of Athapaththu in the third over for one, Vishmi Gunaratne and Harshitha Samarawickrama came together in a 46-run stand for the second wicket. Gunaratne was the aggressor of the two hitting six fours in her 25-ball knock for 35. Samarawickrama then took over the responsibility to score 35 off 34 balls using her feet to the spinners to hit three fours.

Following her dismissal Sri Lanka lost three wickets for 20, but there was no denying them the win with the experienced Nilakshi Silva seeing them home with eight balls to spare scoring an undefeated 17 off 15.

Sri Lanka has gone into this series making five changes to the 16-player squad that won the three-match WODI series against West Indies.

Rested from the ODI side are key players Hansima Karunaratne, Anushka Sanjeewani (wk), Achini Kulasuriya, Udeshika Prabodhani and Inoka Ranaweera. They have been replaced by youngsters Shashini Gimhani (15 years), Rashmika Sewwandi (17), Kaushini Nuthyangana (21, wk), and Imesha Dulani (21) along with Ama Kanchana.

“The 3 WT20I matches against the West Indies our aim is to feed in another 4-5 players and see where they stand in case we need help from the bench. We want to try and see who can fit in where,” said head coach Rumesh Ratnayake.

“It’s very important for the players who have been left out, because we have to manage their workload. Some of them are our main players. We are trying out a lot of youngsters as well as some experienced hands. We will try to give a few chances to see how well they adapt because they know how fast they need to adapt coming into a situation where they have to replace a good player.” – (ST)