Sri Lanka Women’s Captain Chamari Athapaththu
South Africa Women’s Captain Laura Wolvaardt
- Commence three-match T20I series today
By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
Sri Lanka Women led by their most experienced and versatile cricketer Chamari Athapaththu will commence a three-match T20I series against South Africa Women at Benoni today with their shock three-run defeat of the hosts in the 2023 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup opener at Cape Town still fresh on their minds.
In that game Athapaththu’s knock of 68 off 50 balls gave Sri Lanka are decent total of 129-4 which they were able to defend superbly by keeping South Africa tied down to 126-9 largely through some excellent bowling by their spinners Inoka Ranaweera, Oshadi Ranasinghe and Sugandika Kumari who took seven wickets between them. All three spinners are part of the current squad of 17 members and will be keenly looking forward to renewing their rivalry.
Despite the initial setback, South Africa, the hosts went onto…