West Indies beat Sri Lanka by five wickets
Sri Lanka captain Shamari Athapathu admitted her team paid the price for a poor batting display after suffering a five-wicket defeat to West Indies in a Women’s T20 World Cup match in Bristol.
Chasing just 99, the unbeaten West Indies side returned home with 23 balls to spare, leaving Sri Lanka with two losses from three matches.The damage was done early as Sri Lanka fell to 9/3 in the powerplay and never recovered, eventually being bowled out for 98. Athapathu felt the conditions were difficult, but said her team failed to adjust and execute their plans with the bat.
“The wicket is a bit sticky today, and the ball is a bit sticky too, with the bounce of the tennis ball.
So I feel West Indies are bowling according to their plans and conditions. We did not execute our plans on the power play. We lost some wickets early and struggled throughout the match as a batting unit. So I feel we need to score more than 140 runs, otherwise we won’t be able to defend against the West Indies team.
But unfortunately, we lost some wickets and suffered a lot in the middle overs,” she said after the match.Although West Indies reached the target comfortably, the Sri Lankan bowlers managed to claim five wickets and slowed the chase briefly.
Athapathu was quick to defend her bowling attack, insisting that the lack of runs was the biggest problem.“Our bowlers certainly bowled at the right line and length, but some extras were made there as well, so the thing is that 100 is not enough to defend. So we need to score more runs, otherwise we can’t blame the bowlers,” she added.
Semi-final hopes hang by a thread
Athapathu pointed to the bowling unit as one of the positives of the match but stressed that improvements with the bat are urgently needed.“Our bowling department has done a very good job for us, but we need to improve our batting before the next match,” Athapathu said.Sri Lanka now face a must-win situation, with wins over Ireland and Scotland essential to keep their semi-final hopes alive.