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Sri Lanka women’s captain Chamari Athapaththu's record-breaking unbeaten 140 led Sri Lanka to historic first-ever ODI series win over New Zealand. In a rain-affected encounter at Galle International Stadium, Athapaththu dominated the proceedings as she batted with a strike rate of 175 and smashed 13 fours, nine sixes in her scintillating knock.
In the decider clash, Sophie Devine won the toss and opted to bat first. The White Ferns lost wicketkeeper-batter Bernadine Bezuidenhout to a run out early on in the innings. Melie Kerr could not carry on and hit big runs after playing herself in as she got bowled by Oshadi Ranasinghe. Suzie Bates and Devine shared an unbeaten 74-run partnership for the third wicket before rain played spoilsport. Bates scored 63 runs from 87 balls whereas Devine scored 38 runs from 48 deliveries.
After the rain, DLS came into play and Sri Lanka needed 196 from 29 overs. Sri Lanka did not get off to an ideal start as Vishmi Gunaratne got out for a three-ball duck to Lea Tahuhu. In the fourth over, Devine got the wicket of Harshitha Madavi for a single-digit score. Athapaththu broke free with a six and two fours against Devine in the sixth over. She did not hold back and hit Eden Carson for two consecutive sixes in the eighth over. Soon enough, she got to her half-century from 30 deliveries.
Nilakshi de Silva played second fiddle to the Sri Lankan captain. The southpaw dealt mostly in fours and sixes. She reached her century from just 60 deliveries in the 22nd over. After that she looked to end the run chase alive. Sri Lanka won the third ODI by eight wickets with 13 balls to spare. Nilakshi played a patient knock as well scoring 43 runs from 65 deliveries.
The 33-year-old scored 140 runs out of 196 in the run chase. With 71.42 percentage of team's total, Athapththu broke the record for highest percentage by a batter in a team total in ODI cricket. Interestingly, the previous record belonged to her as well. She scored an unbeaten 178 against Australia in 2017 which amounted to 69.26 per cent of the team total.
Earlier in the series, Sri Lanka registered their first ever ODI win against New Zealand In the second ODI, they lost by a big margin of 111 runs which was followed by a convincing eight-wicket win to seal the series.
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