Triumphant Sri Lanka grab a piece of history with first ever emphatic series win over England. – BY TREVINE RODRIGO IN MELBOURNE (Elanka Sports Editor)
Sri Lanka’s women continued a rampant run as they shocked England and threw down the gauntlet to the men’s team currently in the top four in the Asia Cup, that nothing is unsurmountable.
Chamari Athapaththu’s ladies swept past England to claim a historic series 2-1 win and announced themselves as big time competitors against anyone.
Beating England in England makes this triumph even more special and goes down as the best effort yet by the rapidly rising Lankans who under new coach Rumesh Ratnayake are making giant strides.
From a team mostly dependent on Skipper Athapaththu, and perhaps a couple of handy allrounders, a different mindset has breathed belief into the group as they now perform as a perfect fighting unit.
Yes, they rode on Athapaththu’s brilliant batting skills, but there is more than just the Skipper contributing to the team’s sudden success right now.
Athapaththu led from the front with both bat and ball to be named player-of- match and player of the series in Sri Lanka’s landmark series victory.
The Sri Lanka skipper stole the series in the decider with a fantastic allround performance smashing 44 off 28 balls with 2 sixers and 5 fours, then followed it up grabbing 3 for 21 in her allotted overs.
They have lifted in all departments, batting, bowling and fielding with a new tenacity. And Athapaththu’s post match interview confirmed the coaching strategy under the new team in charge laid heavy emphasis on self belief and focus on not rolling over when under pressure.
She was humble in taking the top prizes, citing team effort as the key to her success.
This Sri Lanka team have set the benchmark for noticeable improvement.
Athapaththu reiterated that appreciation and unstinted support by Sri Lanka Cricket through incentives and increased player payments, have spurred the ladies on and their path at the moment sees continued momentum which closes the gap on the best.
