By Srian Obeyesekere

Sri Lanka scored 258 for 6 wickets against New Zealand opting to bat on the toss with Nilakshi Silva, a stand out 27 ball unbeaten 55 with 7 boundaries and a six, and skipper Chamari Athapaththu coming out of a form rut to to scoring a fluent 53 off 72 balls hitting 7 boundaries in what was eventually rained yesterday at the R. Premadasa International Cricketh Stadium with a point each shared in the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025 Sri Lanka segment of the extravaganza that left the Lankans in seventh place of the points table
behind sixth placed Bangladesh.

Australia leads the pack with a resurgent England and South Africa, the tournament shocker in flattening hosts India though looking secure in 4th place.
New Zealand lie 5th with 3 points from 4 games.

England would count themselves lucky by that great escape against unlucky Bangladesh, thanks to the erroneous decision by Indian match referee Gayathri Venugopalan calling back match winning ultimate half centurion Heather Knight for a deep catch which Knight herself post match said, “I thought it was a clean catch.’

Sri Lanka’s rehashed batting order with Vishmi Gunaratne pairing off with Athapaththu paid off in a 101 stabilisation of a hitherto unsettled batting line up with Hasini Perera, dropped down to No 3, 44 off 61 with 6 boundaries a muscling 183 for 3 pay off when Harshitha Samarawickrama, moved to 4 from 3 exited by a 31 ball 26. It set the platform for Nilakshi Silva at No 7 to cut loose, yet raising questions why she came after a negative Piumi Wathsala who managed just 7 runs.

No result: Sri Lanka 258 for 6 (Nilakshika 55, Athapaththu 53, Devine 3-54) vs New Zealand