Siriwardena stars in Sri Lanka Women Cricket win

Days after she stepped down as captain of Sri Lanka’s women’s team, Shashikala Siriwardena steered the national team to an impressive 82-run win over touring Bangladesh at Dambulla on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka batted first and posted 238 for eight in its 50 overs. The other key contributor for Sri Lanka was Chamari Atapattu (48). Siriwardena scored 53 off 92 balls with three boundaries and a six. For Bangladesh Khadiza Tul Kubra (3-44) was the main wicket-taker. In the chase, Bangladesh lost wickets at regular intervals. There were handy contributions from Rumana Ahmed (35), Salma Khatun (31) and Lata Mondal (35), but that was not enough.

Suwini de Alwis (3-22) and Siriwardena (2-33) were the key wicket-takers for Sri Lanka.

Explaining her reasons to quit Siriwardena said: “In my eight-year career, I led Sri Lanka for six years. So, I thought this is the time to give a chance to another player to lead the team and I can contribute as a normal player and also due to personal reasons.”