Sri Lanka’s Chamari Athapaththu becomes first centurion in Women’s Asia Cup

Sri Lanka's Chamari Athapaththu has made history by becoming the first player to score a century in the Women’s T20I Asia Cup. She achieved this milestone in Match 7 of the 2024 Women’s Asia Cup against Malaysia. Opening the innings, Chamari remained unbeaten on 119 off 69 balls, hitting 14 boundaries and seven sixes. Her impressive strike rate of 172.46 helped Sri Lanka set a formidable target of 185.

Chamari broke the previous record for the highest individual score in the Women’s Asia Cup, which was held by former India captain Mithali Raj, who scored an unbeaten 97 against Malaysia in 2018. With this century, Chamari also became the first player from a full-member nation to score multiple centuries in a calendar year.

Sri Lanka's innings was further supported by Harshitha Madavi and Anushka Sanjeewani, who scored 26 and 31 runs, respectively. However, Vishmi Gunaratne and Kavisha Dilhari did not contribute much, with only one and zero runs, respectively.

In their chase, Malaysia's batters struggled against Sri Lanka's strong bowling attack. Malaysia managed only 37 runs, losing seven wickets in just 15.3 overs.

Sri Lanka's dominant performance follows their seven-wicket victory over Bangladesh in their first game of the tournament. A win against Malaysia will put Sri Lanka in a strong position for the playoffs due to their superior Net Run Rate. Their next game is against Thailand, who have already defeated Malaysia. Sri Lanka will aim to secure consecutive victories and solidify their spot in the playoffs.