The Sri Lankan spinners were at their best and almost pulled off a successful defense of 107 runs in the 3rd and final T20I on their tour to Pakistan. However, it wasn’t to be as the hosts snuck home on the last delivery of the game.
Sri Lanka had the chance to tie the game with the last ball, but the fielder in the deep could not get in a good enough through to the non-striker’s end allowing Kainat Imtiaz to cross for two and give Pakistan the win. The fielding lapse was symbolic of Sri Lanka’s performance throughout the series, where they have let themselves down in critical moments of the game.
After winning the toss for the 3rd consecutive time, Sri Lanka got off to a good start, the best from either team in the series, moving to 31/0 in the powerplay. Chamari Athapaththu managed to survive Anam Amin’s opening overs (she was dismissed twice by the left arm spinner in this series) and she along with Hasini Perera, got Sri Lanka into a strong position in the first 11 overs.
However, a calamitous 6-over period from over No. 12 – 17, saw them lose 7 wickets for 14 runs, undoing all the good work done by the opening pair. The rut started with the run-out of Perera, followed by Athapaththu in the same over. Of the 7 wickets that fell in that period, 4 were runouts – 5 wickets eventually fell to run-outs, the most in a Women’s T20I innings.
Pakistan started steadily in their chase, but the spinners, led by Sugandika Kumari and Oshadi Ranasinghe and later Kavisha Dilhari put the hosts under the pump and they crumbled under pressure.
In both previous games, Pakistan had lost early wickets but held on to get home comfortably in the end and things were heading in the same direction, however, Ranasinghe
managed to dismiss Aliya Riaz, Ayesha Naseem and Omaima Sohail in the middle overs and when Dilhari took care of Nida Dar, Sri Lanka really looked in with a chance.
With 8 required off the last over, all Pakistani hopes rested on skipper Bismah Maroof’s shoulder and she calmly took them home to a 4-wicket win.
The ODI series between the sides is set to commence on the 1st of June at the same venue.
Result
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hasini Perera | run out (Bismah Maroof) | 24 | 30 | 2 | 0 | 80.00 |
| Chamari Athapaththu | c Iram Javed b Nida Dar | 37 | 38 | 2 | 1 | 97.37 |
| Nilakshi de Silva | lbw b Tuba Hassan | 9 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 75.00 |
| Oshadi Ranasinghe | run out (Bismah Maroof) | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Harshitha Madavi | run out (Muneeba Ali) | 1 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 12.50 |
| Kavisha Dilhari | b Kainat Imtiaz | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 28.57 |
| Ama Kanchana | run out (Ayesha Nasem) | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Anushka Sanjeewani | not out | 14 | 13 | 2 | 0 | 107.69 |
| Sugandika Kumari | run out (Muneeba Ali) | 10 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 125.00 |
| Extras | 8 (b 4 , lb 0 , nb 0, w 4, pen 0) |
| Total | 107/8 (20 Overs, RR: 5.35) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anam Amin | 4 | 0 | 24 | 0 | 6.00 | |
| Diana Baig | 4 | 0 | 23 | 0 | 5.75 | |
| Omaima Sohail | 2 | 0 | 13 | 0 | 6.50 | |
| Tuba Hassan | 4 | 0 | 23 | 1 | 5.75 | |
| Kainat Imtiaz | 4 | 0 | 19 | 1 | 4.75 | |
| Nida Dar | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0.50 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Muneeba Ali | st Anushka Sanjeewani b Kavisha Dilhari | 25 | 33 | 3 | 0 | 75.76 |
| Iram Javed | b Sugandika Kumari | 10 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 83.33 |
| Omaima Sohail | st Anushka Sanjeewani b Oshadi Ranasinghe | 4 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 36.36 |
| Aliya Riaz | c Nilakshi de Silva b Oshadi Ranasinghe | 17 | 23 | 1 | 0 | 73.91 |
| Ayesha Nasem | c Nilakshi de Silva b Oshadi Ranasinghe | 10 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 166.67 |
| Nida Dar | lbw b Kavisha Dilhari | 14 | 14 | 2 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Bismah Maroof | not out | 15 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Kainat Imtiaz | not out | 4 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 57.14 |
| Extras | 9 (b 0 , lb 3 , nb 1, w 5, pen 0) |
| Total | 108/6 (20 Overs, RR: 5.4) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Udeshika Prabodhani | 1 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10.00 | |
| Ama Kanchana | 2 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 3.50 | |
| Sugandika Kumari | 4 | 0 | 13 | 1 | 3.25 | |
| Oshadi Ranasinghe | 4 | 0 | 18 | 3 | 4.50 | |
| Sachini Nisansala | 4 | 0 | 25 | 0 | 6.25 | |
| Kavisha Dilhari | 4 | 0 | 28 | 2 | 7.00 | |
| Chamari Athapaththu | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5.00 | |
