SL Women’s Cricket quietly becoming world beaters

Sri Lanka women’s cricket team’s historical series win in England on Wednesday (6) has to go down as one of country’s greatest ever achievements in sports.

Heather Knight led an English team consisted of so many superstars and with Sri Lanka’s defeat on the opening match, it looked like it was going to be another one-sided series, but then the iron women of Sri Lanka Cricket goes by the name of Chamari Atapattu decided to rewrite the history in front a brilliant crowd in London.

The Sri Lankan Captain – Atapattu led from the front with two Player-of-the-Match Performances in the second and third T20 matches which saw Sri Lanka absolutely thrashing England on their home soil.

Atapattu made 55 runs on the second T20 and picked up a wicket for 11 runs before producing another world class performance in the third T20 in which she bagged three for 21 before smashing a match-winning 44 off just 28 balls in a chase of 117 runs. She ended the series with 114 runs and 5 wickets.

Despite her outstanding performance over the last few years, Atapattu has not been given an opportunity to play in the leading women’s franchise competitions such as Women’s Premier League (WPL), Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) and The Hundred (women’s) this time around. Atapattu who was clearly disappointed by this left a note on her social media which read “rejection is some kind of a motivation for me.”

In fact one of England’s best fast bowlers, Katherine Sciver-Brunt stated that “Based on current form, Chamari not getting picked for Women’s Big Bash League is criminal.”

Atapattu’s idol growing up Sanath Jayasuriya in a recent interview said that Atapattu is the greatest asset Sri Lanka has ever had in women’s cricket and that the women’s cricket should be given more support.

In terms of her impact she has had on the game, Atapattu must be right up there with the likes of Sanath Jayasuriya, Kumar Sangakkara, Muttiah Muralitharan, Aravinda de Silva and Lasith Malinga because none of the Sri Lankan male cricketers frankly did not have to shoulder the team as much Atapattu has.

On the other hand, Sri Lanka women’s cricket coach Rumesh Ratnayake has observed other players stepping it up when the team needs it the most.

Middle order batter Nilakshi de Silva has been playing well for Sri Lanka. Particularly against New Zealand and Bangladesh during the last series, she was able to finish games strongly while Harshitha Samarawickrama and Vishmi Gunaratne have played some vital innings up top.

With the ball biggest revolution has been the leg spinner 22-year-old Kaveesha Dilhari who was able to capture five wickets in the 2-1 series win against England while the senior left-arm spinner Inoka Ranaweera has also been brilliant with the ball.

Sri Lanka women’s team certainly have the potential to go a long way in big ICC event should they work on few areas such as finding an express pace bowler which is a huge advantage even in the men’s game. (Harsha Amarasinghe)