Sri Lanka Women’s team stretch Pakistani counterparts to the wire

The Sri Lanka Women’s Cricket Team came up with a praiseworthy performance stretching their Pakistani counterparts down to the wire with the Pakistan Women’s Cricket Team winning by one wicket in the penultimate ball at the SSC grounds yesterday.

Chasing 130 to win it took No. 11 debutant Ghulam Fatima to hit the winning run a boundary. Incidentally it was Pakistan’s highest T20 chase. At one stage Pakistan were on 5 for 96 off 13.4 overs as Sri Lanka fought back. Eventually it was to the credit of the Pakistani lasses holding on to their nerves in a tightrope like walk to victory.

All in all, the Sri Lankan lasses put up a fine all-round performance that took off with a top score of 61 by Anuskha Sanjeewani in a total of 129 for 6 off 19.5 overs. Then left-arm spinner Sugandika Kumari triggered a Pakistan collapse claiming three wickets, including that of Javeria Khan. Khan went on to hit the fastest T20 fifty by a Pakistani woman off 36 balls as the opposition was made to fight tooth and nail for victory.

When the Lankan Women batted Sanjeewani struck 8 boundaries in her 58-ball knock. She played a typical sheet anchor role as wickets toppled on the other end. Her effort lifted Sri Lanka from 5 for 38 to 122 for 6 having associated in an 84-run alliance for the seventh wicket with Nilakshi de Silva who made 35 off 34 with 2 boundaries. Sanjeewani was run out in the penultimate ball of the innings. Interestingly, Sri Lanka made several changes going into the opening encounter of the 3-match series.

Chief Scores:

Sri Lanka 129 for 6 (Sanjeewani 61, Nilakshi de Silva n.o. 35, Baig 2/18, Mir 2/25)

Pakistan 133 for 9 (J. Khan52, B. Maroof 42, S. Kumari 3/23

By Srian Obeyesekere

-The opinions expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Sri Lanka Cricket-