Chamari Athapaththu put on a batting spectacle to take her team to the Asian Games final
A week after Sri Lanka met India in the Women’s Asia Cup final in Dubai, the two teams will clash again in another final when they meet for the Gold medal in the Asian Games women’s T20I tomorrow (22) at Nisshin, Japan.
In the semi-finals played yesterday, Sri Lanka beat Pakistan by eight wickets and India outplayed Bangladesh by 114 runs.
Sri Lanka’s victory over Pakistan was engineered by their Captain Chamari Athapaththu, who put on a batting spectacle to ease her team to the final in what was a difficult run chase after Pakistan had hit up a challenging score of 177-4.
Sri Lanka started cautiously, with Athapaththu taking her time to settle in. But once she found her rhythm, she unleashed absolute carnage, taking the Pakistan attack apart and dispatching them to all corners of the ground. Her blistering 83 off just 50 balls was studded with 7 boundaries and 6 towering sixes. It was her second successive half-century in the ongoing Asian Games, having scored 63 against Malaysia in the opening match.
Athapaththu and her opening partner Imesha Dulani made a stroke-filled start to the chase before Fatima Sana cleaned up Dulani for 27. That brought Hasini Perera to the middle, who threw her bat at almost everything in a feisty partnership with her Captain worth 95 off just 56 balls. Perera hit three fours and three sixes in a knock of 42 from 26 deliveries.
Athapaththu was at her brutal best as Pakistan were made to chase shadows. She got to her half-century with a big six and stayed till the end to see the chase through in just the 18th over.
Sri Lanka needed Athapaththu to go full throttle because Pakistan did well in the first half of the match, posting a solid 177-4. Opener Shawaal Zulfiqar laid the foundation with a 50-ball 54 (3 fours, 2 sixes) before no. 4 batter Ayesha Zafar took over, hitting nine fours and two sixes en route to a 40-ball 71. The pair added 115 off just 70 balls for the third wicket to revive the innings from 35-2 in the sixth over. Pakistan amassed 46 runs off the final five overs to get themselves a good total.
Pakistan was poor across the board, disciplined neither with the ball nor in the field, turning what could have been a tense chase into a walk in the park.
With this victory, Sri Lanka moved one step closer to Gold, looking to make amends after missing out in the Asia Cup against India. Pakistan will now move on to play the third-place play-off in quest of Bronze against Bangladesh.
Scores:
Pakistan 177-4 (20) (Shawaal Zulfiqar 54, Ayesha Zafar 71, Fatima Sana 20*, Kawya Kavindi 1/13) lost to Sri Lanka 178-2 (17.5) (Imesha Dulani 27, Chamari Athapaththu 83*, Hasini Perera 42)