Sri Lanka qualifies for ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024

Sri Lanka has qualified for this year’s ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, which will be played in Bangladesh from October 3 to 20.

Sri Lanka defeated hosts United Arab Emirates (UAE) by 15 runs in the second semi-final of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. With this win, Sri Lanka qualified for the T20 World Cup 2024 as the second qualifier along with Scotland.

The Sri Lankan team will now play Scotland in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier final on the same ground on Tuesday, May 7.

In the match, UAE won the toss and asked Sri Lanka to bat first. Opener Vishami Gunaratne and captain Chamari Athapaththu gave a good start to the Sri Lankan team by making a partnership of 52 runs in 7.2 overs. Athapaththu (21) played some big shots including two consecutive sixes, however, UAE leg spinner Vaishnav Mahesh (2/33) gave a sigh of relief to UAE by dismissing him.

After this, Gunaratne added 44 runs for the second wicket with Harshita Madavi (24), this partnership was broken by Mahesh, who sent Madavi to the pavilion in the 16th over. Gunaratne, who overtook Katherine Bryce as the tournament’s leading run-scorer with her 45 (180 runs in five innings), was stumped by Isha Oza (2/27) on a wide ball . This right-handed batsman hit five fours in her 44-ball innings.

After Gunaratne’s dismissal, middle-order batsmen Hasini Perera (15), Kavisha Dilhari (17) and Neelakshi de Silva (18) hit eight fours in the death overs and helped the team reach a competitive total of 149 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in 20 overs. Reached the score.

Captain Isha Oja played the best innings of the tournament for UAE while chasing the target and UAE gave a tough fight to Sri Lanka. UAE lost Tirtha Satish in the first over itself without scoring any runs. After this Oja made a partnership of 66 runs with Khushi Sharma (22) for the second wicket. He kept his team in the match by adding 37 runs for the third wicket with Kavisha Agodej (16).

Oja played a explosive inning of 66 runs in 44 balls, which included four big sixes. Sri Lanka got the needed success when the right-handed batsman was bowled by Udeshika Prabodhini at the score of 108 in the 16th over. During his brilliant innings, Oja scored 189 runs at an average of 47.25, surpassing Gunaratne as the tournament’s all-time leading run-scorer.

Due to the dismissal of the captain, the UAE team derailed, the lower order batsmen could not do anything special and the UAE team could only score 134 runs for 7 wickets in the stipulated 20 overs.

For Sri Lanka, Chamari Athapaththu took two wickets for 28 runs in four overs. Sugandhika Kumari, Inoshi Priyadarshini and Udeshika Prabodhni took one wicket each.