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The victorious Sri Lanka Women’s team with the trophy after their win over Bangladesh in the Commonwealth Games Women’s Qualifier.
By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
Sri Lanka claimed the final spot in the women’s T20 cricket competition at the Commonwealth Games 2022 when they beat Bangladesh by 22 runs in the qualifying tournament held in Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia on Monday.
Head Coach Hashan Tillekeratne said the win was a great morale booster for the girls after the disappointment of failing to qualify for the 2022 Women’s World Cup in New Zealand.
Sri Lanka and Bangladesh came to this game unbeaten with the winners earning a place as the eighth team in the Commonwealth Games 2022. Sri Lanka beat Scotland by 109 runs, Kenya by nine wickets and Malaysia by 93 runs, while Bangladesh defeated Malaysia, Kenya and Scotland. Monday’s clash between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh was thus a virtual final.
Sri Lanka Captain Chamari Athapaththu was the star player against Bangladesh. The veteran opener first top-scored with 48 off 28 balls to carry Sri Lanka to 136/6 and then returned figures of 3/17 in her four overs of off-spin to restrict Bangladesh to 114/5. Chamari took the Player of the Match and Player of the Series awards, being the leading run-getter with 221 runs with a strike rate of 185.71 and four wickets at an economy rate of 3.85.
The Commonwealth Games cricket qualifying tournament was held in a round-robin league format with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Scotland, Malaysia and Kenya, all playing each other once. The table-toppers earned a spot for Birmingham 2022. All the matches were played at the Kinrara Oval and were accorded T20 International status.
Sri Lanka will join Australia, England, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and Barbados, who had booked their spots for the Commonwealth Games 2022 earlier. Sri Lanka completes the eight-team line-up. They will make up the second group with England, New Zealand and South Africa. India, Australia, Pakistan and Barbados form the other group. The top two in each group will advance to the semi-finals. The Commonwealth Games 2022 is scheduled to begin on 29 July and conclude on 7 August.
“Missing out on a World Cup, the players were disappointed, this was a good test for them, and they got through it very well. It will boost their confidence levels,” said Tillakaratne, speaking to Daily FT from Kuala Lumpur after Sri Lanka’s win over Bangladesh.
“Looking at the track, we wanted to bat first and get a score on the board and put pressure back on Bangladesh. We won the toss, but unfortunately, we got stuck in the middle overs and played down too many dot balls. The experienced girls in middle order came and rescued the innings. Our strength is spin and our bowlers bowled very well. I was not impressed with the way they fielded today, but the other games they fielded okay. There are a few loose ends which we need to work on.”
Tillakaratne said the atmosphere in the dressing room was “electrifying” following Sri Lanka’s win over Bangladesh.
“Everyone started singing songs and enjoying because we had won a T20 title after seven years, the last was in Sharjah in 2015 (Sri Lanka beat Pakistan 2-1). This win will lead to encouragement for all of us. The last six months the girls have been working very hard and that has helped them.”
“This win is a tremendous boost for our youngsters. With the exception of Chamari, the youngsters did really well. Even in Zimbabwe we played well but unfortunately because of COVID-19 the tournament got cancelled. After the win I got calls from two schools asking me to come and have a meeting with them,” said SLC Women’s Cricket Convener Apsari Tillakaratne.
“It was a fantastic performance, the team spirit, the way they fought back after Bangladesh were 60-1 in the first 10 overs. Of course, the fielding was not up to standard; our best fielder missed two sitters but our spinners were terrific,” said Manuja Kariyapperuma, Consultant in charge of Women’s Cricket International and Domestic Operations and Development at SLC.
“The good thing is earlier we were dependent only on one player but to get some runs there are more batters. That’s a good positive very unfortunate that we are not in the World Cup, but those things can happen. Our strategy was for Chamari to go to the franchises and play and for the rest of the cricketers to play with the boys and that has worked well, you can see from their performances.”
Scores:
Sri Lanka Women 136-6 (20) (Chamari Athapaththu 48, Harshitha Madavi 19, Nilakshi de Silva 28, Anushka Sanjeewani 20*, Nahida Akter 2/24)
Bangladesh Women 114-5 (20) (Murshida Khatun 36, Fargana Hoque 33, Nigar Sultana 20, Chamari Athapaththu 3/17)
