Sri Lanka 181 for two (Athapaththu 83*, Hasini 42) beat Pakistan 177 for 4 (Zafar 71, Zulfiqar 54) by eight wickets
Athapaththu was quiet at the beginning of her innings, and he or she might afford it as a result of her opening accomplice Imesha Dulani gave Sri Lanka instant impetus of their chase, hitting 5 fours within the first 4 overs earlier than falling for a tone-setting 21-ball 27. At that time, Athapaththu was batting on 4 off 9. By the tip of the powerplay, she had moved to 7 off 12, and hadn’t hit a single boundary.
The change of drugs passed off in a 20-run eighth over, during which she tonked Momina Riasat for six, 4, 6, 4. The second six was a fortuitous one, a slog-sweep that Fatima Sana caught at deep midwicket solely to step on the rope whereas making an attempt to toss the ball again into the sector of play. A clear catch would have despatched Athapaththu again for 18 off 19 balls.
As an alternative, the left-handed Athapaththu continued to take full toll of her match-up in opposition to left-arm spin, hitting two fours and a six off Nashra Sandhu within the tenth over to deliver the equation all the way down to 90 off 60 balls.
When Hasini fell, Sri Lanka wanted 47 off 36 balls; Athapaththu and Harshitha Samarawickrama wanted simply 23 of these balls to complete the job.
Despatched in to bat, Pakistan posted their highest-ever T20I complete in opposition to Sri Lanka, however they could have ended their innings feeling they’d left a couple of runs out within the center. Zulfiqar scored her second T20I half-century, however her 54 consumed as many as 50 balls. The impetus for Pakistan’s complete got here from Zafar, who got here in at No. 4 and smacked 71 off simply 40 balls, hitting 9 fours and two sixes.
Zafar and Zulfiqar placed on 115 for the third wicket in 70 balls, and almost all of the heavy hitting got here from one finish, with Zulfiqar contributing 37 off 30 to the partnership.