At the Women’s Asia Cup at Dambulla, Sri Lanka defeated Malaysia with a resounding victory led by Chamari Athapaththu T20I best of 119 off 69 balls.
Additionally, 15-year-old ambidextrous wristspinner Shashini Gimhani had a dream performance. Using her left-arm wristspin, she went 3 for 9 on the powerplay, sending Malaysia into a spiral from which they were unable to recover, meaning it was one-way traffic the entire time.
Athapaththu starts sedately
In the second over, Vishmi Gunaratne, who had scored half a century in Sri Lanka’s victory against Bangladesh, was dismissed for only one run as she chipped a check drive to short cover. Athapaththu, however, continued to sometimes store the stray balls, so it rarely had any influence on him. A string of mistakes made by the Malaysian fielders also proved to be helpful to her.
After hitting back-to-back boundaries in the sixth over, Athapaththu lifted Sri Lanka’s half-century in the next over. Throughout the most of the first part, Athapaththu’s grace rather than her signature ferocity, was the main attraction. Despite having very little pace on the ball, she occasionally found ways to go wide beyond the line for flicks and sweeps, giving Harshitha Samarawickrama some room to breathe and get her game together during a second-wicket partnership that saw 64 runs scored.
Athapaththu reached her half-century off 35 balls in the eleventh over after hitting back-to-back sixes off her opposite number, Winifred Duraisingam. It seemed as though Sri Lanka wasn’t quite out of third gear even at that point.
On 56, Athapaththu was given a lifeline when Dhanusri Muhunan put her down at backward point during the 12th over. That was what set her off in a whole other direction.
With 11 overs remaining, Sri Lanka reached 99 for 2, up from 85 for 2. Athapaththu scored 68 runs on her own, most of which came in the final three overs. Athapaththu, who was unbeaten on 76 off 57 at the conclusion of the 17th over, smashed five sixes and one four in the final three overs. This includes the first-ever century in the history of the Women’s Asia Cup, two consecutive sixes off Aisya Eleesa’s military medium to raise the score to 19 runs.
Athapaththu operated in a straightforward manner. Muscle the ball into the arc from long-on to deep midwicket after clearing the front leg. Due to their extreme lack of depth, Malaysia played most of the second half against Athapaththu with very little protection on the leg side boundary.
In their 115-run stand off only 62 balls, Anushka Sanjeewani had the finest seat in the house. Sanjeewani’s personal part in it was 24 minus 31. Other than taking their opening wicket, Duraisingham’s two consecutive wickets to conclude the innings was the only consolation for Malaysia.
To give every member of the team a chance to play in the run-up to the T20 World Cup, Sri Lanka made four changes, including the addition of Gimhani. And with her left-arm wristspin, she answered, taking three wickets, including two in two overs during the powerplay.
Gimhani was not scared to toss the ball high and gave it lots of revs. Sure, the opposition wasn’t the greatest to test her, but three wickets in nine overs will give her more confidence. Malaysia’s chase never got off the ground and became worse from 17 for 3 in the sixth over. As Malaysia was knocked out, Aina Najwa bravely batted out 43 balls for her nine.
Among Gimhani’s three victims was Elsa Hunter, who scored the only two boundaries of the Malaysian innings.
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