Sri Lanka Women clinched their three-match T20 International series against Pakistan with a game to spare, winning the second T20I by six wickets at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium on Sunday to take an unassailable 2-0 lead.
Chasing 176, Sri Lanka reached 178 for 4 in 17.4 overs — with 14 balls remaining — in a chase built around a 17-year-old playing her first international.
Sanjana Kavindi top-scored with 46 off 24 balls, striking six fours and two sixes. Her first boundary was an outside edge through deep third, but she had 14 off 10 by the end of the powerplay and hit successive sixes off left-arm spinner Nashra Sandhu in the 10th over, clearing deep midwicket and then long-on.
Captain Chamari Athapaththu set the tempo with 40 off 15 balls, including five fours and three sixes, before falling with 55 on the board. Vishmi Gunaratne made 31 and Harshitha Samarawickrama finished unbeaten on 37 from 22 deliveries with eight fours, guiding the hosts home alongside Kavisha Dilhari, who was 14 not out. Friday’s centurion Imesha Dulani fell cheaply for 5. Offspinner Umm-e-Hani took 2 for 28 for Pakistan.
Another teenager leads the bowling
Pakistan, who elected to bat, posted 175 for 5. Openers Muneeba Ali and Shawaal Zulfiqar put on 90 for the first wicket, Zulfiqar making the highest score of the match with 48 off 35 and captain Muneeba adding 45 off 30. Eyman Fatima finished unbeaten on 30 from 19.
Sri Lanka’s best figures came from another 17-year-old. Chamudi Praboda, playing only her second international, took 2 for 27 with her left-arm spin, removing both openers. Athapaththu and Kavisha Dilhari claimed one apiece.
Sri Lanka had already taken the preceding ODI series 2-1, and opened the T20Is on Friday with a six-wicket win built on Imesha Dulani’s unbeaten century.
The third and final T20I is at the same venue on Tuesday, August 4.
Sources: Daily Mirror; ESPNcricinfo match report.
