5th T20I: We did not play our best cricket in tournament, says SL skipper Athapaththu

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 30 (IANS) Sri Lanka skipper Chamari Athapaththu lamented that they did not play their “best cricket” against India, picking that as the reason for their debacle as visitors lost the fifth and T20I by 15 runs in Thiruvananthapuram.

The clean sweep also marked India Women’s third 5–0 victory in a bilateral T20I series, following similar results against West Indies in 2019 and Bangladesh in 2024.

However, Athapaththu was confident in her young side to do better in the future.

“Actually, we did not play our best cricket in this tournament. Especially power hitting and batting. But some positives. We were carrying a young side. Hopefully, we can be better in the future,” said Chamari Athapaththu.

Athapaththu also asked senior players, including herself, to play good and competitive cricket ahead of the Women’s T20I World Cup to be played in England.

“Some seniors are playing good cricket, but not all of us are doing very well. We need to improve in a couple of areas before the World Cup. We talk about positive things in the dressing room. We were playing good cricket 6-7 months back. Our coach is very good. He motivates us to play to our potential.”

Chasing 176 on a dry track, Sri Lanka suffered an early loss after the skipper got out early, but Hasini Perera (65) and Imesha Dulani (50) struck a good partnership, adding 79 runs for the 2nd wicket.

“Some batters executed the plans in the middle. We gave India a good fight. Thanks to the BCCI and the people of India for having us.”

Arundhati Reddy derailed Sri Lanka’s chase by removing the very threatening Athapaththu in the second over of the match, who scored just two runs on that occasion. Although Sri Lanka lost their early wicket, they began to build some valuable momentum as Hasini Perera and Imesha Dulani formed a much stronger second-wicket partnership, which contributed 79 runs.

Dulani’s innings led to her first T20I fifty and was finally stumped out by Amanjot Kaur in the 12th over after an inning of 50 runs off 39 balls.

After the two fifties, the middle and lower order crumbled as only Rashmika Sewwandi made it to double figures with an unbeaten score of 14 runs from eight balls.

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