N.U. ABDUL RAZZAK UDAYAR
COLOMBO : Sri Lankan women national cricketers under the captaincy of highly talented Chamari Athathpaththu have consecutively continued to prove their might and superiority in T20I Cricket as they brilliantly won their third match that was against Uganda by 67 runs under the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier that was worked off at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on 1st May 2024. Sri Lanka who are competing under Group A have topped this group with 6 points by winning all three matches that they have encountered so far. Their fourth and last match under the first round of this tourney will be at Tolerance Oval in Abu Dhabi on 3rd May against the new comers United States of America that is placed last in this group with three straight losses. Certainly, it will be a cake walk for Sri Lanka as the whole Lankan squad in full form with the high morale.
Wednesday, 1st May 2024 was the 4th matchday of this Women’s World Qualifier that is being staged in Abu Dhabi, the capital of United Arab Emirates. There were 4 matches where Sri Lanka and Thailand got wins in group A while Netherland and Ireland became victorious in Group B. The architect of Sri Lanka victory is the Lankan prolific opener Vishmi Gunaratne who made a career-best knock of 73 not out off 64 balls with 7 fours and 2 sixers. She was ably supported by the Lankan Skipper Chamari Athathpaththu who got 24 runs and two down batter Hasini Perera. The latter made a quickfire 30 runs off 24 balls giving an invaluable support to the Player of the Match Vishmi Gunaratne. Sri Lankan openers got the 50 runs solid partnership off 45 balls to turn the match in their favour. For Uganda their Captain Janet Mbabazi and Rita Musamai took one wicket apiece. There were two run outs for Sri Lanka as Harshitha Madavi and Kavisha Dilhari were sent back to the pavilion when each of them were on 7 runs. At the end of 20th over Sri Lanka scored a challenging total of 154 runs losing only 4 wickets.
In reply Uganda were in deep trouble as they kept on losing wickets at regular intervals though their middle order batter Prosscovia Alako and the Captain Janet Mbabazi resisted resolutely scoring 36 and 14 runs respectively. In the 19th over they were shot out for 87 runs as the Sri Lankan spinners controlled the match effectively. Inoka Ranaweera, Shashini Gimhani and Kavisha Dilhari were the most effective bowlers collecting 2 wickets apiece to register this memorable victory for Sri Lanka.