Chamari’s troopers on the cusp of emulating the men

 Rival skippers, Sri Lanka Chamari Athapaththu (right) and India Harmanpreet Kaur with the Women’s Asia Cup

• Women’s Asia Cup final against India today

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Reaching the final of the Women’s Asia Cup after 14 years was quite an achievement for the Sri Lanka women cricketers led by Chamari Athapaththu, but now the final touches need to be put and what better way than winning the final against India which would be the perfect icing on the cake.  

It’s not that India is unbeatable. Pakistan beat them in the round-robin league stage and Sri Lanka has also had success against them as recently as June this year when they beat them by seven wickets in a T20I at Dambulla.

“We know that India is one of the best teams. In the last 2-3 weeks they have been performing well especially in England where they played good cricket. We lost our first game to India but we learnt a lot of things,” said Chamari ahead of the final.

“We know that India are a top ranking team but on the day if we are playing the best cricket I know we can win. We are not concerned about India’s ranking and the number of star players they have in their side, we will stick to our plans and try to play our best cricket.”

“Success comes from hard work. Our men’s team struggled and we as a women’s team and as a country we have also struggled. Now we are happy because the men won the Asia Cup. We will try our best to do well in the final and try to emulate them.”

Sri Lanka won through to the final beating Pakistan by one run in a thrilling semi-final contest, while India defeated Thailand by 74 runs in the other semi-final.

“After 14 years we are in the final of the Asia Cup. It’s really good for us as a team and as a nation, we are really excited. I am really happy with my team’s performance. All the players contributed to the win,” said Chamari.

Pakistan at one stage looked like walking away with a win when they were 107-3 in the 18th over chasing 123. But the dismissal of the Pakistani captain Bismah Maroof for 41 changed the course of the game.

“After Bismah got out I told my girls to just stick to our plans not to celebrate her wicket. Not try to overdo things but relax and be calm and cool and stick with what we have to do,” said Chamari.

“Achini followed my directions to the very letter. We planned a few things yesterday (Wednesday).  We know that Nida Dar is a hard hitter. It was all about denying the batters Aliya Riaz and Nida Dar the room to hit the ball over the 25-yard circle. Achini Kulasuriya is a really good bowler in our line up. I always trust that she can do it.”

“I have two good spinners and two good senior players, especially my vice-captain Oshadi (Ranasinghe) and Inoka (Ranaweera). They always help me in the middle. They are the ones who help me make the decisions on the field.”

Oshadi, describing the win, gave credit to the bowling changes made by the captain at crucial phases of the game.

“I must say it’s a very good team effort. Bismah and Nida Dar had a good partnership and it looked like they were going to win but Kavisha (Dilhari) and Malsha (Shehani) bowled crucial overs in the middle overs and built up pressure. The good bowling changes brought about by our captain to get Sugandika (Kumari) into the attack was brilliant. The game changer was Sugandika getting the wicket of Bismah.”

Chamari admitted that Sri Lanka has got a lot of support from the Bangladeshi spectators and hoped they would continue to do so in the final as well.

“We feel that we are in our second home because Bangladesh is supporting us a lot. Bangladesh is not in the semis or in the final so they have turned their support for us which is really good,” said Chamari. 

“As women cricketers we want to increase our levels. The spectators and the media are watching the final so we have to play good cricket which is what we intend to do.”