Women`s World Cup: Sri Lanka beat Pakistan by 15 runs

Sri Lanka defeated Pakistan by 15-run in their last league match on Saturday of Women`s World Cup at Leicester. 

A sure-footed inning by Dilani Manodara of 84 runs off 129 provided an opportunity for the Lankan team to achieve a fighting total of 221 runs.  Diana Baig in her 10-over bowling spell took three wickets, while, Asmavia Iqbal, Sana Mir, Kainat Imtiaz and Saadia Yousuf bagged one wicket respectively.   

Batting second, Pakistan scored 206, courtesy a fine inning by Nain Abidi - who scored 57 off 71 before throwing wicket on a run out. 

Chandima Gunaratne took four wickets in the match, she dismissed the opening order of Pakistani team. 

Winless Pakistan and Sri Lanka were looking to end their campaign in the event on a high note by going all out for a win and in the given circumstances, the match gained a ‘special status’ for both the sides to salvage their pride.

Pakistan captain Sana Mir urged her teammates to demonstrate a higher brand of cricket to beat Sri Lanka and get a face-saving win.

“It is a sour reality that we have lost our all previous six games but still we can make a comeback and players are capable of giving their best,” she said.

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Sana said that as a captain she faces heavy responsibility to end the defeats deadlock, adding that she will be doing her best to inspire the team to achieve this objective.

“Nothing is impossible, we will be going to the field with a different mindset to utilise every talent in our side to beat Lanka,” she said.

Lankan all-rounder Shashikala Siriwardena believes a positive attitude can earn Sri Lanka the victory they crave.

Sri Lanka lost by eight wickets to South Africa last time out and despite being without a victory to their name, they are confident to beat Pakistan by demonstrating positive cricket.

Siriwardena was convinced her team is learning with each passing match and is confident of putting it all together against Pakistan.

“We will be going in with a positive attitude because, apart from against South Africa, we have done really well against good countries in this tournament,” she said.

“Our batters always try to pass 200, that’s a huge achievement for us in this kind of tournament. We are really happy with the batting performance in this tournament, we have a good combination of spinner and fast bowlers, so we will go into the game with Pakistan with a positive attitude and we would like to go back to Sri Lanka with the win.

“It’s really important that we bounce back against Pakistan because we have the ICC Women’s Championship over the next few months, so winning against Pakistan would be a big boost for us as a unit.”

Squads

Pakistan: Sana Mir (captain), Asmavia Iqbal, Ayesha Zafar, Bibi Nahida, Diana Baig, Ghulam Fatima, Iram Javed, Javeria Wadood, Kainat Imtiaz, Marina Iqbal, Nain Abidi, Nashra Sundhu, Sadia Yousaf, Sidra Nawaz and Waheeda Akhter.

Sri Lanka: Inoka Ranaweera (captain), Chamari Athapaththu, Chandima Gunaratne, Nipuni Hansika, Ama Kanchana, Eshani Lokusooriya, Dilani Manodara, Harshitha Madhavi, Chamari Polgampala, Hasini Perera, Udeshika Prabodani, Oshadi Ranasinghe, Shashikala Siriwardena, Prasadani Weerakkodi and Sripali Weerakkody.

Umpires: Sue Redfern and Kathy Cross, Match referee: Steve Davies.