During Sri Lanka’s clash against Malaysia Women on July 22, Chamari Athapaththu achieved a rare feat by scoring the first century in Women’s Asia Cup history.
Earlier to Chamari Athapaththu’s century, former Indian captain Mithali Raj’s unbeaten 97 against Malaysia Women scored in 2018 remained the highest score in the T20 Asia Cup history.
Chamari Athapaththu’s unbeaten 119 came at a strike rate of 172.46 which included 14 boundaries and seven maximums.
𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 🤩
Chamari Athapaththu records the first hundred in Women’s T20 Asia Cup history 🇱🇰💛#WomensAsiaCup2024 #ACC #HerStory #SLWvMALW pic.twitter.com/ZrfPZmZEDX
— AsianCricketCouncil (@ACCMedia1) July 22, 2024
Speaking of the match, Sri Lanka women won the toss and elected to bat first where Vishmi Gunaratne and Chamari Athapaththu opened the inning.
The opening duo failed to lay a strong foundation as Suabika Manivannan made an early breakthrough by dismissing Vishmi Gunaratne for just one run. Following her dismissal, the Sri Lanka captain took responsibility on her shoulder and started to smash the Malaysia Women’s bowlers all around the stadium.
With the comfort of home ground, Athapaththu seems more dangerous than normal. She went on to score a century and become the first batter to score a hundred in the history of the tournament.
With the century, Sri Lanka ended up coming 184 runs after losing four wickets at the end of 20 overs.
While chasing, Malaysian Women made a terrible start and lost their wickets without making an impact on the scoreboard. Sri Lankan bowlers load pressure on the batters, and prevented them from building a partnership.
Malaysia Women lost all their ten wickets after scoring just 40 runs with a ball left to bowl. With the defeat, Malaysia Women pushed to the bottom of the women’s Asia Cup 2024 points table with a negative NRR of 1.100.
Malaysia Women will play their next match of the tournament against Bangladesh Women on July 24 while the hosts will play their next match of the tournament against Thailand Women on the same day.
