Sri Lanka and India clash of the women in the Tri Series final tomorrow at the R. Premadasa. International Cricket Stadium carries the essence of a heated face off with both sides flat out to making the difference as to which is the superior side by laying hands on the Servo Trophy.
Chamari Athapaththu’s Lsnkan lasses will carry the buoyancy of having downed the strong Indians in their last meeting by 23 runs in a high flying tussle. But their 76 run defeat to South Africa, a team with a bad winless record in the run up to overrunning the Lankans on a 315 score on Thursday was a demoraliser that would be a put down setback the Lankan camp, particularly Head Coach, Rumesh Ratnayake will have to seriously address if Sri Lanka is to recoup with their best act yet in all departments of the game having let down in both the batting and bowling against Laura Wolvaardt’s Proteas.
Firstly, the Lankan captain made the mistake of putting in the South Africans, thus needlessly pressurizing her bowlers who eere sent on a leather hunt. On the contrary, the Lankan lasses could have made use of the advantage of the toss to warming up for Sunday’s crunch final against the Indians. Still badly, Athapathu messed it up by removing her wicket taking bowler Dewmi Vihanga who had put the brakes on the Protea batting early on as her 5 for 34 indicated. Taking her off the attack was a costly move that let South Africa off the hook with lower order batters Annerie Dercksen and Chole Tryon going on to slam 123 and 74 respectively
If that was not bad enough frontline Lankan batters Harshitha Sanarawickrama on 33 and Athapaththu 52, blew up Sri Lanka’s victory prospects by half hearted strokes when well set
Probable Teams:
Sri Lanka Women
Hasini Perera, Vishmi Gunaratne, Harshitha Samarawickrama, Chamari Athapaththu (C), Nilakshi de Silva, Kavisha Dilhari, Anushka Sanjeewani (WK), Dewmi Vihanga, Malki Madara, Sugandika Kumari and Inoka Ranaweera.
India Women
Smriti Mandhana, Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (C), Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (WK), Sneh Rana, Kashvee Gautam, Arundhati Reddy and Shree Charani
