196/2 (26.5)
CR : 7.30
127/2 (31.0)
CR : 4.10
Sri Lanka Women won by 8 wickets (DLS METHOD)
Player of the Match
Chamari Athapaththu
140(80)
26.5
2
A Kerr to Silva
Full on the middle stump, Nilakshi shuffles across and pulls behind square in the leg side. Deep fine leg moves to her right and dives to stop the ball.
SLW won by 8 wickets (DLS METHOD)
5:19 PM: A famous win for Sri Lanka as they chase a tough DLS adjusted score to win by 8 wickets and also win the ODI series against New Zealand by 2-1. Heavy showers during the Kiwi innings halted the game for a long long time with the first innings score being 127/2 with Suzie Bates scoring an unbeaten 63 in 87 balls.
Chasing a steep total, opener Vishmi Gunaratne was dismissed in the very first over by Lea Tahuhu (1/29) and Sri Lanka lost Harshitha Madavi soon afterwards tottering at 6/2 in the fourth over.
Sri Lanka's skipper and savior Chamari Athapaththu then stepped up and smashed all the bowlers throughout the ground hitting 13 fours and nine maximums to bring up her quickest ODI century pushing SL over the line as they win their first ever series against the opponent.
Athapaththu registered her second highest ODI score and also surpassed Mithali Raj as the Asian batters with most number of international tons registering her 9th ton and 8th in the 50-over format.
Athapaththu was supported well by Nilakshi de Silva who stayed till the end and allowed the skipper to take the aggressor's role slowly trudging to 48 not out, her highest ODI score. After seeing off Lea Tahuhu and skipper Sophie Devine's spell, the batters went all in and smashed all the other bowlers including the spinners to all parts.
With this win, Sri Lanka have attained 10 points in the ICC Women's Championship and is only second to India who have one extra win and have 12 points winning all their six games. Sri Lanka has managed to win 4 in 10 matches with couple of games being abandoned due to bad weather.
Chamari Athapaththu is the player of the match!
Chamari Athapaththu is the player of the series as well!
Sophie Devine (New Zealand Women Captain): "I think Sri Lanka showed us how we should play here. We were disappointing. Chamari showed us the way and we need to look at the mirror and back in the drawing board. We need to train hard and field better. We have dropped catches and look at ourselves hard. I think Sri Lanka deserved the win and congratulations to them. Thank you very much."
Chamari Athapaththu (Sri Lanka Captain): "I am really happy about my performance and the team performance. I can mention my teammates and coaching staff, they really helped me a lot.
We are playing to our potential and are playing our natural game. Especially Nilakshi, she's one of the good players and now a senior player of our team. She helped me a lot as we build that partnership. We won, that's good.
I don't care about my records. I just care about my team performance and about my country.
Another format, different conditions. I know that Kiwis are a very good team. They have a very good batting line up especially 4-5 players playing franchise cricket so they know how to play T20 cricket. But we have plans which we will stick to and will try to continue this performance in T20 tournament as well."
We are playing to our potential and are playing our natural game. Especially Nilakshi, she's one of the good players and now a senior player of our team. She helped me a lot as we build that partnership. We won, that's good.
I don't care about my records. I just care about my team performance and about my country.
Another format, different conditions. I know that Kiwis are a very good team. They have a very good batting line up especially 4-5 players playing franchise cricket so they know how to play T20 cricket. But we have plans which we will stick to and will try to continue this performance in T20 tournament as well."
That's it from a historic series as Sri Lanak wrap it up against the odds winning 2-1! Ninaad Dixit here signing off on behalf of my co-commentator Ayan Chatterjee and scorers Dushyant Kumar & Bishal Mandal. Stay tuned for more cricketing action from around the world.