Chamari Atapattu and Shashikala Siriwardene starred in a stunning 10-wicket win for Sri Lanka Women in their 2nd and final warm-up game ahead of the T20 World Cup against England at the Karen Rolton Oval in Adelaide.
England won the toss and elected to bat first, perhaps hoping to give a few of their batters a good hit in the middle, but Sri Lanka had other ideas, restricting the World No. 2 team to 122 in their allotted 20 overs.
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Sri Lanka got off to the perfect start with off-spinner Siriwardene picking up the dangerous Danni Wyatt with her 1st delivery in the game. However, England then raced to 42 by the end of the 5th over with Amy Jones and Fran Wilson in the middle. Sri Lanka did well to pull things back, picking up 4 wickets in the next 5 overs, at the expense of just 19 runs.
Atapattu then chipped in with the ball to send Tammy Beaumont back into the pavilion, leaving England in a spot of bother on 78/6. Sri Lanka’s spinners tightened the screws on England, restricting them to a below-par 122. England did however, promote the likes of Fran Wilson, Lauren Winfield and Katherine Brunt up the order ahead of skipper Heather Knight (19) and Natalie Sciver (DNB) to give the fringe players a bit of game time ahead of their 1st game this weekend, nevertheless, Sri Lanka will be more than pleased with their performance.
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Even with just 122 runs on the board, England would still have been confident of defending their score, given Sri Lanka’s track record from the recent past – but to do so, they would have to get rid of Sri Lanka’s superstar Atapattu. And that was exactly what they failed to do. Atapattu, who had unprecedented success during Sri Lanka’s tour of Australia late last year, scoring a century each in the ODIs and the T20Is, took the English bowlers to the cleaners scoring an unbeaten 78 off 50 deliveries, with 5 sixes and 8 fours.
By the end of the 5th over, Sri Lanka had cruised to 45/0, with Atapattu’s partner Hasini Perera having contributed just 2 runs to the total. The left-hander eventually finished with 29* off 25, playing exactly the kind of knock Sri Lanka would have wanted from her with Atapattu firing on the other end.
With the warm-ups done and dusted, Sri Lanka will hope they haven’t used up their best performance already, as they prepare to face New Zealand in their tournament opener on Saturday (22nd).
Brief Scores
England Women 122/9 (20) Amy Jones 23, Tammy Beaumont 23, Shashikala Siriwardene 4/22, Chamari Atapattu 3/21
Sri Lanka Women 123/0 (12.3) Chamari Atapattu 78*, Hasini Perera 29*
Sri Lanka Women won by 10 wickets
