Led by Harshitha Samarawickrama’s unbeaten 45-ball 86, Sri Lanka kicked off their Ireland tour with a comfortable seven-wicket win against Ireland. Despite the absence of their skipper Chamari Athapaththu, the visitors chased down the 146-run target with 20 balls to spare at the Pembroke Cricket Club in Dublin.
Put into bat, Ireland made a steady start to the innings. A 59-run stand in 49 balls between Gaby Lewis and Orla Prendergast laid the foundation for a reasonably strong total. Laura Delany and Rebecca Stockell then took advantage in the death overs with a couple of handy boundaries each even as Sri Lanka chipped away with regular wickets.
However, they couldn’t control that momentum with the ball as Sri Lanka blazed away to a strong start. Vimshi Gunaratne took the attack to Ava Cunning in the second over, hammering her for a boundary and a six in a 15-run over, and keeping that attack going against Predergast and Arelene Kelly. Soon after Vimshi slowed down at the end of the powerplay, Samarawickrama went after the Irish bowlers.
By the time Ireland could strike a few blows, the contest had slipped out of their grasp courtesy of the 83-run opening stand. Samarawickrama powered away to her personal best to help Sri Lanka go one-up in the series.
Brief Scores: Ireland 145/6 in 20 overs (Gaby Lewis 39, Laura Delany 25; Inoshi Praiyadharshani 2-35) lost to Sri Lanka 149/3 in 16.4 overs (Harshitha Samarawickrama 86, Vimshi Gunaratne 30; Laura Delany 1-16) by 7 wickets (Cricbuzz – TOI)