Sri Lanka women down Bangladesh in opener

Half tons by Harshitha Samarawickrama and Imesha Dulani paved the way for Sri Lanka to record a comfortable 25 runs win over Bangladesh in the first match of the women’s three T20 encounters played at Sylhet, Bangladesh yesterday.

Harshitha made a 35 ball knock of 61 which had five boundaries and two sixes while Imesha hit 55 in 40 balls with seven boundaries and the pair associated in an 80 runs stand in 54 balls for the third wicket after Imesha had put on 42 runs for the second wicket with skipper Chamari Athapaththu which helped Sri Lanka to make a challenging score of 161 for 4.

Bangladesh in their run chase too had an early setback as they lost the top four wickets with the score of 44 in the sixth over.

Despite a brief partnership of 39 runs for the fifth wicket between Sobhana Mostary and Shorma Akter who made a top score of 60, they lost wickets at regular intervals and was able to muster a score of only 136 runs.

Sri Lanka with this win take a 1-0 lead and the two teams will play their second match on April 30 at the same venue.

Scores:

Sri Lanka 161 for 4 in 20 overs (Harshitha Samarawickrama 61, Imesha Dulani 55, Chamari Athapaththu 32: Sultana Khatun 2/29)

Bangladesh 136 for 7 in 20 overs (Shorma Akter 60, Dilara Akter 23, Juairiya Ferdous 16, Sobhana Mostary 16: Chamari Athapaththu 2/19, Malka Madara 2/31, Mithali Ayodhya 2/33) - MSA