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It was a night to remember for the Sri Lankan women, who beat their opponents and hosts South Africa in the opening match of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup in Cape Town on Friday (February 10) night. In what was a low-scoring affair, the Lankans successfully defended 129 runs courtesy of their spin trio of Sugandika Kumari, Oshadi Ranasinghe and Inoka Ranaweera.
Sent in to bat first by the Proteas, the batting for Sri Lanka was controlled by their skipper Chamari Athapaththu, who also opens for her side. Striking the ball at a rate of 136.00, Athapaththu scored 68 runs in just 50 balls as the remaining batters in their team failed to perform at the same level.
Only one other Sri Lanka batter managed to get into double figures, and that was Vishmi Gunaratne, who scored 35 runs in 34 balls before being run out.
Athapaththu's innings included 12 fours as well before Nadine de Klerk took a good, low catch off Marizanne Kapp's bowling. In addition to Kapp, Shabnim Ismail (1/22) and de Klerk (1/38) were the other players who bagged a wicket each.
It is interesting to note that the top five South African batters reached double figures, but the Sri Lankans piled the pressure as wickets fell at regular intervals. The spinners delivered seven wickets amongst each other, while the remaining two were run-outs.
Sune Luus was the only player among the South African batters who crossed 20 runs, but the batter eventually lost her wicket to Ranaweera's bowling after she was stumped by wicketkeeper Anushka Sanjeewani.
Heading into the final over of the match, the Sri Lankans were given an over-rate penalty which meant that they had only three fielders on the boundary line. With 13 runs needed from the final 6 balls, Sugandika Kumari was handed the responsibility, and she completed the task with much aplomb after she bowled in a very calm manner to seal the game for Sri Lanka and shock their hosts.
