ICC Women’s Under-19 T20 World Cup Sri Lanka confronts USA in opening game today

The 16 captains pose before start of ICC Women’s Under-19 T20 World Cup, Fifth from left: Sri Lanka Captain Vishmi Gunaratne

Sri Lanka open their campaign to win the inaugural ICC Women’s Under-19 T20 World Cup when they confront USA at Benoni today.

Following their victory against USA in the first of two warm-up matches, Sri Lanka followed that up with another impressive display against Scotland which they won by six wickets in the lead up to today’s game.

Spinners Vidushika Perera and Dewmi Vihanga shone with the ball capturing seven wickets between them after which skipper Vishmi Gunaratne anchored the Lankan run chase with an unbeaten 39 to see them home.

Winning the toss Sri Lanka invited Scotland to bat first and bowled them out for 87 in 16.3 overs with off-spinner Dewmi capturing four wickets and left-arm spinner Vidushika three as the Scots women floundered against spin.

The highlight of the innings was Dewmi’s hat-trick in the 10th over where she sent back Katherine Fraser, Molly Paton and Emily Tucker as the Scots slumped to 56-7, a position from which they were unable to recover.

Sri Lanka got off to a poor start with openers Nethmi Senarathna and Sumudu Nisansala falling in the first five overs, but Sri Lanka’s most experienced player, Vishmi played a cool and calculated innings putting together valuable partnerships with Dewmi and Manudi Nanayakkara to see her team home with 11 balls to spare.

Scores:

Scotland (U19) 87 (16.3) (Darcy Carter 16, Dewmi Vihanga 4/17, Vidushika Perera 3/18)

Sri Lanka (U19) 91-3 (18.1) (Vishmi Gunaratne 39*, Manudi Nanayakkara 17*, Katherine Fraser 1/13)