Women’s World Cup T20: West Indies beat Sri Lanka by five wickets to remain unbeaten

West Indies beat Sri Lanka by five wickets Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu admitted her side paid the price for a poor batting display after suffering a five-wicket defeat to West Indies in their Women’s World T20 match in Bristol. After just 99 runs, the unbeaten West Indies side got home with 23 balls to spare, leaving Sri Lanka with two losses from three matches.The damage was done early as Sri Lanka slipped to 9/3 in the powerplay and never really recovered, eventually being bowled out for 98. Athapaththu felt the conditions were challenging but said her side failed to adapt and execute their plans with the bat.“The wicket is a bit sticky today and the ball is a bit sticky when the tennis ball is bouncing. So I feel West Indies are bowling according to their plans and conditions. We didn’t execute our plans in the power bowl. We lost a couple of wickets early and we struggled as a batting unit throughout the match. So I feel we need to score against this West team or unfortunately we will lose by 140 runs. A couple of wickets and we struggled a lot on Wednesday.” she said after the match.Although West Indies reached the target comfortably, Sri Lanka’s bowlers managed to take five wickets and briefly slowed down the chase. Athapaththu was quick to defend her bowling attack, insisting that the lack of runs was the bigger problem.“Certainly our bowlers bowled in the right line and length, but there were some extras as well, so the thing is, the 100 is not enough to defend. So we have to score more runs, otherwise we can’t fault the bowlers,” she added.

Semi-final hopes hang in the balance

Athapaththu identified the bowling unit as one of the positives of the match, but stressed that there is an urgent need to improve the batting.“Our bowling department has done a really good job for us but we need to improve our batting before the next game,” stated Athapaththu.Sri Lanka now face a must-win situation with victories over Ireland and Scotland to keep their semi-final hopes alive.