The women’s cricket dished out a nail biting affair this morning at the R Premadasa International Stadium as Sri Lanka women lost by 3 runs the game going into the final over in the T20 encounter vs the touring West Indies women.
The bowling and fielding of West Indies arraigned them for a victory adjacent to Sri Lanka in the first Twenty 20 match held at Premadasa grounds today. The Sri Lankan women won the toss and decided to bat
Sri Lankan women failed to get any sort of momentum crumbling to 87 for 7 in the 20th over.
Right hand batswoman Eshani Kaushalya Lokusooriya, escalated at the end with a fighting 25 runs which was the highest in the Sri Lankan innings ballooning the finals overs for the home team while left hander Dilani Manodara made 17 runs. The rest of the batswoman Shashikala Siriwardane, Chamini Senewirathne, Deepika Rasangika Chamari Athapaththu, Chamani Polgampola and Oshadi Ranawira all scored runs of below 10.
West Indian bowling combination kept the Sri Lankans pegged down with Shakera Selman having the best figures with 2 wickets for 14 runs while Stafanie Taylor, Subriana Munroe and Tremayne Smarit chipped in with 1 wicket each.
The West Indian women could not show the usual flamboyance as wickets fell at regular intervals. The lionesses removed the 1st wicket in the very first over and scalped further in the 4th and 5th over and it seemed like Sri Lanka were on the way to defending the meager score they put on the board. S. Tailor held on with 25 runs while the rest remained below 10 runs similar to the home team. Captain Merissa Aguilleria was the aggressor taking the fight to the Sri Lankans. Her unbeaten 34 managed to tip them over the 87 made by the home team. Appropriately she brought up the winning runs with a slash to the ropes in the 19th over that took the West Indies score to 90.
Eshani Lokusooriya took 3/18 and Oshadi Ranavira 3/1 to hold back the strong West Indian girls. Udeshika Prabhodhini, was amazing in the field effecting two run out of Dendra Dottin and Kycia Knight. S. Tailor and Treymaine smart were beaten by run outs.
The 2nd match will be played at the same venue on Sunday the 3rd of March 2013.
Scores in brief
Sri Lanka 87/7 (Eshani Lokusooriya 25, Dilani Manodara 17*, Stafanie Taylor 1/21, Subriana Munroe 1/11, Tremayne Smartt 1/22, Shakera Selman 2/14)
West Indies 90/8 (Merissa Aguilleira 34*, S. Tahlor 25, Shashikala Siriwardane 1/14, Eshani Lokusooriya 3/18, Chamani 1/25, Oshadi Ranavira 1/3)
