By Srian Obeyesekere
Sri Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu decorated herself as the golden girl of Sri Lanka cricket on Monday when she became the country’s first woman cricketer to reach the 4000 ODI run milestone by her 43 ball 46 against Bangladesh which Sri Lanka won by seven runs in registering its first triumph in the 2025 ICC Women’s World Cup at the DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai.
The 35 year old Lankan Captain, who needed one run for the milestone ahead of the game against Bangladesh, also became the fourth Asian female batter to 4000 runs in the format as well as the 20th overall.
If the day marked a summit in the career of the Lankan captain, who went on to round off a champagne day from a hollow of three defeats by a superb 4 for 42 all-round display, it turned out to be a neck to neck as far as the player of the Match with one drop Hasini Perera getting the nod for her 99 ball 85 scorcher in arresting the 1 for 0 first ball dismissal of Vishmi Gunaratne sword edged by 13 boundaries and a six in posting 72 for the second wicket with Athapaththu off 74 balls. She was eighth out putting the side in the winning position with Sri Lanka on 182 after 35 3 overs to a final score of 202 off 48.4 overs with Nilakshika Silva adding the fire by a run a ball 37 cameo ringed with 2 sixes and a boundary.
Yesterday’s triumph that fetched the Lankans 4 points, gave them an outside fourth place chance of the last four of the semi finals from 6th position in a tussle between current 4th placed India and 5th placed New Zealand with all three having 4 points each.
Sri Lanka won the match by 7 runs scoring 202 off 48 4 overs with one drop Hasini Perera top scoring a compelling Player of the Match 85 off 99 balls lit up by 13 boundaries and a six while the Lankan captain’s innings contained 2 over the ropes and 6 to the ropes as Bangladesh was checkmated by the Lankans for 195 for 9 wickets off 50 overs despite two forceful innings by the skipper Nigar Sultana 77 off 99 with 6 boundaries and Sharmin Akhter 64 with 4 boundaries and a six.
Sugandika Kumari chipped in with 2 wickets for 38.
Sri Lanka 202 (Hasini 85, Athapaththu 46, Shorna 3-27, Rabeya 2-39) beat Bangadesh 195 for 9 (Sultana 77, Sharmin 64*, Athapaththu 4-42) by seven runs
