Sri Lanka suffered another heavy loss at the hands of Australia, going down by 110 runs in the 2nd Women’s Championship ODI between the sides at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane. The win gave the hosts an unassailable 2-0 lead in the 3-match series.
After being asked to chase on a deteriorating pitch for the 4th time on tour, Sri Lanka got off to a poor start with the ball as they were put to the sword once again by the Aussie openers Alyssa Healy and Rachel Haynes. The pair raced to 166 in under 20 overs before a tiring Healy was dismissed by Sri Lankan skipper Shashikala Siriwardene for 69.
The departure of one dominant right hander brought another in Meg Lanning. The Australian skipper found her feet immediately as she combined with Haynes for yet another 100-run partnership. Australia were cruising along as Player of the Match Haynes brought up her maiden international 100, to the delight of her teammates.
At 219/2 at the end of the 40th, Australia looked set to push past the 300-run mark, but some tight bowling by the visitors, particularly by Siriwardene and medium pace bowler Achini Kulasuriya, saw the hosts finish on 282/8.
Sri Lanka started their chase off well, with Chamari Atapattu finding the cover boundary on a few occasions off the bowling of Tayla Vlaeminck. However, with Anushka Meegama struggling to turn over the strike on the other end, a frustrated Atapattu tried to take on the left arm spin of Jess Jonassen, only succeeding in finding debutant Heather Graham at the square leg boundary.
All-round Aussies too good for Sri Lanka
Jonassen had made the big breakthrough for the Australians and with Atapattu gone, Sri Lanka were believed to be out of the fight. However, no. 3 Harshitha Samarawickrama injected some intent into the Sri Lankan batting effort and alongside Meegama, kept the visitors within striking distance of the required rate.
The 70-run stand was broken by Nicola Carey, who managed to sneak one past Meegama, who walked across her crease, exposing the leg stump.
Sri Lanka were unable to keep up as the required rate ballooned and despite contributions from Nilakshi de Silva (25*) and Siriwardene (22), they were never quite in the game beyond the half-way stage of their chase.
Samarawickrama (39) was impressive once again but will be disappointed that she missed out making a big score after getting yet another good start.
The game held significance for the Australians in many aspects, the chief of them being that with the win, they clinched the ICC Women’s Championship title, winning 16 of their 17 games.
Sri Lanka on the other hand languish at the bottom of the Championship table, have done the opposite of what Australia has, winning just 1 of their 17 games.
The 3rd and final ODI between the sides will be played on Wednesday, 9th October.
Result
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alyssa Healy | c Ama Kanchana b Shashikala Siriwardene | 69 | 62 | 10 | 1 | 111.29 |
| Rachael Haynes | c Achini Kulasuriya b Sugandika Kumari | 118 | 132 | 8 | 0 | 89.39 |
| Meg Lanning | c Anushka Sanjeewani b Achini Kulasuriya | 45 | 62 | 3 | 0 | 72.58 |
| Ellyse Perry | c Nilakshi de Silva b Shashikala Siriwardene | 5 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Ashleigh Gardner | c Dilani Manodara b Sugandika Kumari | 8 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 200.00 |
| Beth Mooney | b Achini Kulasuriya | 18 | 16 | 2 | 0 | 112.50 |
| Nicola Carey | c & b Achini Kulasuriya | 5 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 71.43 |
| Heather Graham | not out | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 80.00 |
| Jess Jonassen | run out (Anushka Sanjeewani) | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Extras | 8 (b 0 , lb 0 , nb 0, w 8, pen 0) |
| Total | 282/8 (50 Overs, RR: 5.64) |
| Fall of Wickets | 1-116 (19.3) Alyssa Healy, 2-219 (39.5) Meg Lanning, 3-235 (43.1) Ellyse Perry, 4-246 (44.4) Rachael Haynes, 5-252 (44.6) Ashleigh Gardner, 6-266 (47.1) Nicola Carey, 7-280 (49.4) Beth Mooney, 8-282 (49.6) Jess Jonassen, |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Udeshika Prabodhani | 8 | 0 | 41 | 0 | 5.12 | |
| Achini Kulasuriya | 10 | 1 | 50 | 3 | 5.00 | |
| Sugandika Kumari | 10 | 0 | 66 | 2 | 6.60 | |
| Inoka Ranaweera | 10 | 0 | 69 | 0 | 6.90 | |
| Chamari Athapaththu | 2 | 0 | 15 | 0 | 7.50 | |
| Shashikala Siriwardene | 10 | 0 | 41 | 2 | 4.10 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chamari Athapaththu | c Heather Graham b Jess Jonassen | 14 | 23 | 3 | 0 | 60.87 |
| Anushka Sanjeewani | b Nicola Carey | 36 | 69 | 1 | 0 | 52.17 |
| Harshitha Madavi | c Alyssa Healy b Tayla Vlaeminck | 39 | 61 | 4 | 0 | 63.93 |
| Dilani Manodara | b Jess Jonassen | 7 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 70.00 |
| Shashikala Siriwardene | b Georgia Wareham | 22 | 37 | 3 | 0 | 59.46 |
| Nilakshi de Silva | c Ellyse Perry b Jess Jonassen | 25 | 42 | 2 | 0 | 59.52 |
| Ama Kanchana | c Heather Graham b Georgia Wareham | 1 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 8.33 |
| Sugandika Kumari | lbw b Jess Jonassen | 4 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 36.36 |
| Udeshika Prabodhani | not out | 5 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 31.25 |
| Achini Kulasuriya | c Alyssa Healy b Heather Graham | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 20.00 |
| Inoka Ranaweera | not out | 1 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 7.14 |
| Extras | 17 (b 1 , lb 3 , nb 0, w 13, pen 0) |
| Total | 172/9 (50 Overs, RR: 3.44) |
| Fall of Wickets | 1-25 (7.3) Chamari Athapaththu, 2-95 (22.4) Anushka Sanjeewani, 3-110 (26.5) Dilani Manodara, 4-120 (29.3) Harshitha Madavi, 5-137 (35.4) Shashikala Siriwardene, 6-151 (39.6) Ama Kanchana, 7-164 (43.5) Sugandika Kumari, 8-165 (45.1) Nilakshi de Silva, 9-167 (46.3) Achini Kulasuriya, |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ellyse Perry | 5 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 1.40 | |
| Tayla Vlaeminck | 6 | 0 | 30 | 1 | 5.00 | |
| Jess Jonassen | 10 | 1 | 31 | 4 | 3.10 | |
| Ashleigh Gardner | 2 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 6.00 | |
| Heather Graham | 8 | 0 | 29 | 1 | 3.62 | |
| Nicola Carey | 9 | 0 | 30 | 1 | 3.33 | |
| Georgia Wareham | 10 | 1 | 29 | 2 | 2.90 | |
