Six-time champions Australia will get their T20 World Cup campaign underway in the field after Chamari Athapaththu chose to bat first on a warm afternoon in Sharjah. Sri Lanka became the first team to play two matches at the tournament, less than 48 hours apart. They lost their opener to Pakistan and have had an opportunity to suss out the Sharjah surface, which is slow, low and dry. This match is being played on a surface with significantly more green grass on it than Thursday’s strip.

Given the conditions, Australia sprung an immediate surprise by choosing neither Grace Harris not Alana King but instead opted for an extra seamer in Darcie Brown. That still gives them spin options in Sophie Molineux, Georgia Wareham, and Ashleigh Gardner.

Sri Lanka made one change to their XI from the first game and brought back experienced left-arm spinner Inoka Ranaweera, who replaced Sachini Nisansala. Their batting line-up, who could only muster 85 runs against Pakistan, is unchanged ahead of what is their toughest task this tournament. Sri Lanka have never beaten Australia in a T20I.

Australia: Alyssa Healy (capt & wk), Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry,  Ashleigh Gardner,  Phoebe Litchfield,  Tahlia McGrath,  Georgia Wareham,  Annabel Sutherland,  Sophie Molineux,  Megan Schutt,  Darcie Brown

Sri Lanka:  Vishmi Gunaratne,  Chamari Athapaththu (capt),  Harshitha Samarawickrama,  Kavisha Dilshari,  Nilakshika Silva,  Hasini Perera,  Anushka Sanjeewani (wk),  Sugandika Kumari, Inoshi Priyadharshani,  Udeshika Prabodhani,  Inoka Ranaweera

[Cricinfo]

Fatima Sana played a useful cameo down the order before Pakistan’s spinners tied down Sri Lanka on a slow-ish wicket in Sharjah to complete a resounding 31-run victory in the first T20 World Cup face off between these two teams in 10 years. Pakistan, who opted to bat first, were bowled out for 116 but successfully managed to keep Sri Lanka at bay, with the Asia Cup champions struggling and failing to find any momentum with the bat once Chamari Athapaththu fell early in the chase.

There may have been questions about Fatima Sana’s decision to bat but the Pakistan captain stood vindicated with Sharjah seeing little to no dew in the second innings, thereby allowing her spinners to hold sway despite the loss of fast bowler Diana Baig to an apparent calf injury early in the target defence.

Incidentally, Athapaththu was happy to chase and had even set sights on restricting Pakistan to under 120. Her team came good on that count with a good bowling performance before Sana played the defining knock of the game right at the end. True to their recent style, Pakistan tried to go hard while the fielding restrictions were in place but were constantly pegged back by wickets falling at regular intervals. Sugandika Kumari struck with the last ball of the second over thanks in large parts to a sharp catch behind the stumps by Anushka Sanjeewani to dismiss Gull Feroza.

Muneeba Ali swung left-arm medium-pacer Udeshika Prabodhani for a six before becoming the second batter to fall to Sugandika. This time too, it was Sanjeewani behind the stumps who held on to a tough catch after Muneeba got a big edge on an attempted cut to an arm ball from the left-arm spinner. Pakistan were three down for 32 inside the PowerPlay with Athapaththu completing a return catch after getting Sidra Amin to miscue an attempted slog.

Nida Dar and Omaima Sohail set about putting the innings back in order with a steady 25-run stand but just as Pakistan could begin to harbour hopes of pushing up the scoring rate they were pegged back once more. Kavisha Dilhari, who had been slog-swept for six earlier in the over, bowled a floaty delivery to Omaina, who ended up playing the sweep shot way too early and toe-edged a catch to square leg.

Prabodhani then returned to the attack and cleaned up Dar for 23 with a change-up around the wicket angle. In the next over, Athpaththu dismissed Tuba Hassan and Aliya Riaz off successive balls in the 14th over, the former to another excellent catch behind the stumps and the latter to a straightforward LBW decision.

At 74 for 7, which soon became 84 for 8, Pakistan seemed unlikely to even get to 100. But captain Sana led a fine rearguard with Nashra Sandhu for company. The ninth-wicket pair added 28 of which Sandhu contributed only 4 runs off 12 balls. Sana on the other hand struck three fours and a six and farmed strike expertly before she fell for a 20-ball 30 to the first ball of the final over. Pakistan managed to add only four more singles before they were bowled out off the last ball of the innings.

Pakistan lost Baig to an injury after just one ball of the second innings but once again had their captain stepping up and making a mark. After bowling a pair of length balls, Sana slipped in a fuller delivery and got her opposite number, Athapaththu, to chip a catch to extra cover. Omaima took over and dealt a double strike by cleaning up the in-form Harshitha Samarawickrama and Hasini Perera to leave Sri Lanka reeling at 35 for 3. The second of those dismissals was an off-spinner’s delight. It drifted into the left-handed Perera and then turned 4.7 degrees to spin past the bat and hit the top of off-stump.

Sandhu added two of her own wickets while Sadia Iqbal picked up three lower-order wickets as Sri Lanka’s batters struggled to find a way to force the pace. In fact, Sri Lanka managed only three boundaries in their innings and none at all after the eighth over as the game petered off to a predictable and insipid finish.

Brief scores:

Pakistan Women 116 in 20 overs (Fatima Sana 30; Chamari Athapaththu 3-18, Sugandika Kumari 3-19, Udeshika Prabodhani 3-20) beat Sri Lanka Women 85/9 in 20 overs (Sadia Iqbal 3-17, Fatima Sana 2-10, Nashra Sandhu 2-15) by 31 runs.

[Cricbuzz]

Under 19 Cricket

by Reemus Fernando

Abheeth Paranawidana took five wickets for S. Thomas’ to fight back after being bowled out for 99 runs, but St. Anthony’s Katugastota were ahead as they posted 129 runs on day one of their Under 19 cricket encounter at Mount Lavinia on Friday.

In a Tier ‘A’ match played at Campbell Place, Nalanda scored first innings points against Gurukula as Malsha Fernando took five wickets to restrict the visitors to 154 runs. In their second essay the home team were 187 for seven wickets at stumps.

At Thurstan ground, Thurstan earned first innings points against Mahinda as Sethru Fernando with five wickets and Thanuga Palihawadana with three wickets restricted the visitors to 205 runs.

In the other Tier A match which commenced at Moratuwa, St. Sebastian’s were in the box seat as they reached 243 for two wickets at stumps after restricting Royal to 222 runs. Ryan Dissanayake top scored with an unbeaten 92 runs inclusive of six sixes and seven fours.

Match Scores At Mount Lavinia

Scores:

S. Thomas’ 99 in 42.2 overs (Avinash Fernando 21, Sadev Soyza 15, Dineth Goonewardene 31; Charuka Ekanayake 4/27, Dinura Ganegoda 2/16, Imeth Rajapakshe 2/27) and 27 for 1 in 13 overs

St. Anthony’s 129 all out in 39.1 overs (Sanuka Kalpana 31, Kaushika Kumarasinghe 33; Abheeth Paranawidana 5/42, Aaron de Silva 2/17, Anshen De Silva 2/06)