New Zeeland In Galle, Sri Lanka defeated New Zealand with ease using the DLS method thanks to Chamari Athapaththu’s eighth ODI century, an unbeaten 80-ball 140. As a result, Sri Lanka won their first-ever bilateral match against New Zealand and went on to win the ODI series 2-1.
With both Vishmi Gunaratne and Harshitha Samara Vikram losing early, Sri Lanka appeared to be in trouble at 6 for 2, needing to reach a revised target of 196 in 29 overs. Athapaththu, who had last week hit a century against the same opponents at the same location, launched a counterattack, quickly reaching the three-figure mark off just 60 deliveries. She achieved a total of 13 fours and nine sixes, moving up to joint-fourth on the leaderboard.
Oman was on 246 for 6 44 overs into the chase when poor lighting forced an early end to play. Ayaan was at the crease. The Netherlands needed to hold Oman to 242 runs after choosing to bat and scoring 362 for 7 in a 48-over match for their NRR to surpass that of Scotland. If there had been a three-way tie for second place, this would have been extremely important.
Only if Scotland defeats Zimbabwe tomorrow and the Netherlands defeats Scotland thereafter can that happen. Currently, even if Scotland wins tomorrow, the Dutch must defeat Scotland by a significant margin to pass them on NRR. The Dutch are out of the running tomorrow barring a victory for Scotland.
Then, New Zeeland bowlers gave them a head start by reducing Oman to 4 for 102, but Ayaan and Shoaib joined forces for their resolute stand, which would have been especially disheartening given that Ayaan had been dropped three times throughout his innings—on 12, 20, and 33. Even though all three were of differing complexity, it would have hurt if any had been taken.
Ayaan’s knock, which included 11 fours and two sixes—one a lavish lofted straight drive and the other a strong pick-up over long-on—was unaffected by this. However, his control percentage of 77% reveals yet another area where the Dutch may have felt a little unlucky, with several mishits landing safely.
Athapaththu took the initiative, but Nilakshi de Silva also contributed with an unbeaten 48 as the duo amassed 190 runs for the third wicket—the biggest stand in ODI history—to secure Sri Lanka’s victory with eight wickets and 13 balls remaining.
New Zealand had scored 127 for 2 in 31 overs thanks to Suzie Bates’ fifty-six. When New Zealand decided to bat, they quickly lost their opener Bernadine Bezuidenhout, but Bates (63*) and Sophie Devine (38*) kept things going for them. Before the innings of New Zealand abruptly ended by severe rain, the pair compiled an unbroken 74 runs for the third wicket.
