Chamari Athapaththu’s unbeaten 83 leads Sri Lanka into final

Chamari Athapaththu hit six sixes in an unbeaten 50-ball 83 to lead Sri Lanka into the final of the Asian Games Women’s Cricket Competition. Her innings helped Sri Lanka equal their highest total in a successful chase, after fifties from Shawaal Zulfiqar and Ayesha Zafar had helped Pakistan set them a target of 178.

Athapaththu was quiet at the start of her innings, and she could afford it because her opening partner Imesha Dulani gave Sri Lanka immediate impetus in their chase, hitting five fours in the first four overs before falling for a tone-setting 21-ball 27. At that point, Athapaththu was batting on 4 off 9. By the end of the powerplay, she had moved to 7 off 12, and hadn’t hit a single boundary.

The change of gear took place in a 20-run eighth over, in which she tonked Momina Riasat for 6, 4, 6, 4. The second six was a fortuitous one, a slog-sweep that Fatima Sana caught at deep midwicket only to step on the rope while attempting to toss the ball back into the field of play. A clean catch would have sent Athapaththu back for 18 off 19 balls.

Instead, the left-handed Athapaththu continued to take full toll of her match-up against left-arm spin, hitting two fours and a six off Nashra Sandhu in the 10th over to bring the equation down to 90 off 60 balls.

[File photo] – Ayesha Zafar scored 71 off 40 balls [Cricinfo]

It was still far from straightforward, but Sri Lanka were unstoppable, with Hasini Perera catching up with her captain’s rate of scoring by hitting Tuba Hassan for two sixes and a four in the 13th over. Hasini fell at the end of the 14th over for a 26-ball 42, having put on 95 with Athapaththu in 56 balls.

When Hasini fell, Sri Lanka needed 47 off 36 balls; Athapaththu and Harshitha Samarawickrama needed just 23 of those balls to finish the job.

Sent in to bat, Pakistan posted their highest-ever T20I total against Sri Lanka, but they may have ended their innings feeling they had left a few runs out in the middle. Zulfiqar scored her second T20I half-century, but her 54 consumed as many as 50 balls. The impetus for Pakistan’s total came from Zafar, who came in at No. 4 and smacked 71 off just 40 balls, hitting nine fours and two sixes.

Zafar and Zulfiqar put on 115 for the third wicket in 70 balls, and nearly all the heavy hitting came from one end, with Zulfiqar contributing 37 off 30 to the partnership.

Sri Lanka Women 178 for 2 in 17.5 overs (Imesha Dulani 27, Chamari Athapaththu 83*, Hasini Perera 42, Harshitha Samarawickrema 17*; Fatima Sana 1-24, Nashra Sandhu 1-38) beat Pakistan Women 177 for 4 ( Shawaal Zulfiqar 54, Saira Jabeen 17, Ayesha Zafar 71, Fatima Sana 20*; Sugandika Kumari 1-31, Chamari Athapaththu 1-30, Kavya Kavindi 1-13 ) by eight wickets