The Sri Lanka Women cruised to a comfortable 25-run victory over Bangladesh Women to secure their first win of the Women’s World T20 Gros Islet on Wednesday night and exit Bangladesh from the tournament.
Sri Lanka was inserted to bat first and had a slow start that saw them putting on just 17-1 during the powerplay. Former-captain Shashikala Siriwardene was the mainstay of the Sri Lankan innings as she top-scored with 31 off 33 balls (two fours, one six) to earn herself the Player of the Match award.
Bangladesh’s in-form opening pacer Jahanara Alam (3-21 in four overs) showed her skill with the ball once more as she led the bowling attack to restrict Sri Lanka to just 97-7 in their allotted overs. Salma Khatun (0-11, econ 2.75) and Khadija Tul Kubra (1-15, econ 3.75) played their part in restricting the Sri Lankan batters.
Bangladesh continued their struggles with the bat and Nigar Sultana’s laboured 20 (41 balls, two fours) was the only notable contribution as the rest of the batters meekly succumbed. Four of the Bangladesh Top 7 scored 1 run or less as Bangladesh dropped out of contention for a place in the semi-final after their third straight loss of a disappointing tournament that has seen them fail to reach 80 in any of their three matches. Their final match of the tournament is against the Proteas on Monday.
Sri Lanka’s captain Chamari Atapattu (3-17 in three overs) was deadly with the ball and took the 10th Bangladesh wicket to fall with the last delivery of their 20 overs to dismiss Bangladesh for 72 all out – 25 runs short of the target.
‘Our bowling was very good. Special performance from Siriwardene. I think she used her experience very well,’ said Atapattu. ‘I wasn’t happy with 97. In T20, we must score 120 at least. But these conditions aren’t good for batsmen, or for T20 cricket. But our bowlers were very good.’
Udeshika Prabodhani (2-6, econ 2.11), Oshadi Ranasinghe (1-9, econ 2.25) and Siriwardene (2-10, econ 2.50) all kept the Bangladesh batters under huge pressure to score in a highly professional team effort with the ball.
‘It was a bad day for us,’ admitted Bangladesh’s skipper, Shamima Sultana. ‘I think Rumana and Kubra and I bowled well with Jahanara, but our batters let us down. The pitch was good, but we couldn’t do it. It’s our first time with the review, we will learn it with time.’
‘I was advised to bat through the innings,’ said Player of the Match Siriwardene. ‘I’m really happy to contribute to the team like this, it was an honour. We tried some things with the batting order but it didn’t work. I’m sure next match Chamari and I will be higher in the order. I’m enjoying playing freely without the pressure of captaincy.’
GROUP A
| TEAM | M | W | L | T | N/R | PT | NRR |
| England Women | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2.80 |
| Sri Lanka Women | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0.38 |
| West Indies Women | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3.00 |
| South Africa Women | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.56 |
| Bangladesh Women | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2.16 |
Quotes: ESPNCricinfo
Photo: Matthew Lewis-IDI/IDI via Getty Images
