SYDNEY, Sunday - Chamari Atapattu became the first ever Sri Lankan women cricketer to smash a century in T20 Internationals but her superlative effort was still not enough to prevent Australia from taking a 1-0 lead in the series.
Atapattu put on a show despite losing partners regularly at the other end and smashed 113 off just 66 balls to help Sri Lanka register their highest total in the format – 176-7. But Australia, led by Beth Mooney’s second T20I ton, had enough on the board – 217-4 to withstand the Sri Lankan skipper’s onslaught.
“She’s a clean striker of the ball and can take the game away from the opposition, which she has done pretty often in the past and has done against us before,” Mooney said. “So we’ll have to have a sit down and rethink our plans against her, but she was very impressive.”
Batting first, Australia got off to a rollicking start in the powerplay smashing boundaries at will. Alyssa Healy, who had raced to 35 off 18, then smashed her first six of the innings before getting dismissed off the very next ball. Oshadi Ranasinghe then gave Sri Lanka a double break by getting rid of skipper Meg Lanning for just 1 but a century stand between Mooney and Ashleigh Gardner blew the visitors away.
While Gardner missed her half-century by one run, Mooney went onto register a century that had 20 fours in it.
For a side that has never gotten anywhere closer to the 200-run mark in this format, chasing 218 was always going to be a tough task. Atapattu kicked off the chase with a boundary first ball, but a needless run out saw Sri Lanka lose an early wicket nevertheless. By the end of the powerplay, they had lost one more wicket and had just 34 on the board.
Atapattu then took charge to send the Australian bowlers on a leather hunt even though Hansima Karunaratne found the going tough. Karunaratne made a 21-ball 16 before losing her wicket, but the dismissal didn’t stop the fireworks at the other end. Atapattu smashed a six off the very next ball after the wicket and took Tayla Vlaeminck for a couple of fours and a six in the following over. Despite finding no support whatsoever at the other end, Chamari brought up her century off just 60 balls and in the process, guided Sri Lanka to their record total. A bit more help from the rest might actually help Sri Lanka come closer to an upset in the second encounter.
Scores:
Australia Women 217/4 in 20 overs (Beth Mooney 113, Alyssa Healy 43, Ashleigh Gardner 49; Oshadi Ranasinghe 2/44)
Sri Lanka Women 176/7 in 20 overs (Chamari Atapattu 113; Georgia Wareham 2/19)
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