Harshitha Samarawickrama and Nilakshi de Silva put on an unbeaten partnership of 104 for the 4th wicket to take Sri Lanka through in their chase of 127 against Bangladesh at the Wanderers in Cape Town.
Sri Lanka recovered from 25/3 to chase down the target set by Bangladesh, winning two consecutive games at a T20 World Cup for the first time.
A number of records tumbled and milestones were reached during the chase which looked tricky when Sri Lanka’s top-scorer from the last game, Chamari Athapaththu was dismissed for 15.
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Samarawickrama’s 69* surpassed Athapaththu’s 68 (from the last game) as the highest score by a Sri Lankan in a Women’s T20 World Cup while the partnership between her and De Silva is now the highest ever in Women’s T20Is for Sri Lanka (and the only 100+ partnership). They also became the 1st pair to put together a century for the 4th wicket or lower in a chase in a Women’s T20 World Cup.
It was not all plain sailing for Sri Lanka early on, however, with both bat and ball. The chase started in disastrous fashion, thanks to a fiery spell by 18-year-old star Marufa Akter. The right-arm pacer picked up Athapaththu and then dismissed Vishmi Gunaratne and Anushka Sanjeewani off consecutive deliveries in her next over as Sri Lanka slumped to 25/3.
Samarawickrama and de Silva did not panic but opted to try and work the singles and twos until they got their opportunity to launch later in the innings. The running between the wickets was excellent throughout the innings, with more than half of their partnership coming through 1s, 2s and 3s.
The pair kept the required rate in check palyign risk-free cricket and Bangladesh eventually made the mistakes as pressure began to mount. Going into the last 5, Sri Lanka needed 41 to win, no easy task with no real big hitters in the side. However, Ritu Moni’s 3rd over, the 16th of the chase proved to be the turning point. 1st the Bangladeshis were penalized for having only 4 fielders inside the circle (Samarawickrama found the boundary anyway) and then the southpaw cleared the boundary off the free hit. The over went for 17, bringing the equation down to a run-a-ball and it was a cruise home from there.
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Earlier in the day, after being asked to bowl first, Sri Lanka started poorly, giving away too many freebies in the powerplay as Bangladesh sailed to 48/2 in the powerplay. The fielding was sloppy as well for Sri Lanka, but they did manage to bring things back well to restrict Bangladesh to just 127. This was largely thanks to the spell by Athapaththu, who made the crucial breakthrough just when Bangladesh looked ready to launch, dismissing Sobhana Mostary for 29.
The game was set in Sri Lanka’s favour in the 12 overs bowled between Athapaththu, Oshadi Ranasinghe and Inoka Ranaweera as the trio gave away just 60 runs in 12 overs while picking up 6 wickets.
Sri Lanka now sit at the top of the table in Group A, with 2 wins in two and will have a realistic chance of making it through to the semi-finals of the tournament for the 1st time, if they can manage one win in their remaining two games against Australia and New Zealand.
Result
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shamima Sultana | c Anushka Sanjeewani b Oshadi Ranasinghe | 20 | 13 | 4 | 0 | 153.85 |
| Murshida Khatun | run out (Inoka Ranaweera) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Shohely Akhter | b Chamari Athapaththu | 29 | 32 | 5 | 0 | 90.62 |
| Nigar Sultana | c Harshitha Madavi b Oshadi Ranasinghe | 28 | 34 | 1 | 0 | 82.35 |
| Lata Mondal | st Anushka Sanjeewani b Oshadi Ranasinghe | 11 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 84.62 |
| Shorna Akter | c Kavisha Dilhari b Inoka Ranaweera | 5 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 83.33 |
| Mst Ritu Moni | run out (Sugandika Kumari) | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 66.67 |
| Salma Khatun | not out | 9 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 150.00 |
| Nahida Akter | c Oshadi Ranasinghe b Chamari Athapaththu | 8 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 80.00 |
| Jahanara Alam | not out | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Extras | 13 (b 4 , lb 0 , nb 0, w 9, pen 0) |
| Total | 126/8 (20 Overs, RR: 6.3) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Achini Kulasuriya | 2 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 8.00 | |
| Oshadi Ranasinghe | 4 | 0 | 23 | 3 | 5.75 | |
| Sugandika Kumari | 3 | 0 | 22 | 0 | 7.33 | |
| Ama Kanchana | 2 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 6.00 | |
| Inoka Ranaweera | 4 | 0 | 18 | 1 | 4.50 | |
| Kavisha Dilhari | 1 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 12.00 | |
| Chamari Athapaththu | 4 | 0 | 19 | 2 | 4.75 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harshitha Samarawickrama | not out | 69 | 50 | 8 | 1 | 138.00 |
| Chamari Athapaththu | c Lata Mondal b Marufa Akter | 15 | 17 | 3 | 0 | 88.24 |
| Vishmi Gunaratne | c & b Marufa Akter | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 20.00 |
| Anushka Sanjeewani | b Marufa Akter | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Nilakshika Silva | not out | 41 | 38 | 2 | 0 | 107.89 |
| Extras | 3 (b 0 , lb 0 , nb 1, w 2, pen 0) |
| Total | 129/3 (18.2 Overs, RR: 7.04) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jahanara Alam | 3 | 0 | 19 | 0 | 6.33 | |
| Salma Khatun | 4 | 0 | 32 | 0 | 8.00 | |
| Marufa Akter | 4 | 1 | 23 | 3 | 5.75 | |
| Nahida Akter | 3 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 4.67 | |
| Ritu Moni | 3 | 0 | 31 | 0 | 10.33 | |
| Shorna Akter | 1.2 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 8.33 | |
