Sri Lankan captain needs to step up

Crucial game against New Zealand today

- BY SA’ADI THAWFEEQ

Head Coach Rumesh Ratnayake with Sri Lanka Women's Captain Chamari Athapaththu during practice session at R. Premadasa Stadium

AFTER three matches — one of which was washed out due to rain, Sri Lanka find themselves still without a win in the ongoing ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup.

Today they take on New Zealand at the R. Premadasa Cricket Stadium, a team they have beaten in both formats WODI and WT20I, and should be confident of repeating that success again.

But for that to happen they need a big innings from their Captain Chamari Athapaththu who is the only player in the side who can match up to the skills and experience of other top batters in the teams playing the World Cup.

The experience that Athapaththu has no one else in the team can come close to and at 35 she is not getting any younger and this perhaps could be her final appearance on a World Cup stage.

Athapaththu has only to take the cue from the captains of Australia (Alissa Healy — 142 v India), England (Nat Sciver-Brunt — 117 v Sri Lanka) and South Africa (Laura Wolvaardt - 70 v India) whose innings brought victory to their teams.