High riding Sri Lankans shot down in T20 World Cup. Disappointing campaign sends them home winless. – BY TREVINE RODRIGO IN MELBOURNE. (eLanka Sports Editor)
Sri Lanka’s women basked in the glory of an Asia Cup triumph, then were rudely awoken to the reality of the fluctuating fact of life, by being dumped out of the World Cup winless.
The high riding Lankans began with a shock loss to Pakistan then were thrashed by top contenders Australia and India before their fate was sealed by New Zealand, all but Australia, who they beat on previous tours recently.
Chamari Athapaththu failed in this instance and all around her crashed in domino effect to end a campaign high on expectation and anticipated but disappointing in the end.
The brains thrust of Sri Lanka’s campaign failed when it mattered in their ‘group of death’ where their recent success was under the microscope to perform.
Back to the drawing board for the winless Lankans who set the barrier high for their male counterparts who have followed their run of success with a welcome return to the upper rungs of Test cricket.
Australia, India, and New Zealand have raised the bar with careful preparation as have West Indies, South Africa and England, and it points to a riveting contest for this edition of the women’s World Cup.
Sri Lanka’s recent success prior to the tournament obviously had the rest take notice and plan their counter to a team that had to be nullified. They executed their plans to perfection to snuff out any aspirations of a potential challenger.
Chamari Athapaththu and her team return home with lessons learnt and the experience will obviously help in their future campaigns as they face up to teams that have a comprehensive game plan.
