Athapaththu confident team will bounce back

 Inoka Ranaweera struck three times in one over deep into the heart of the Indian batting 

• Says spate of dropped catches let India off the hook

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

A famous quote in cricketing parlance is ‘catches win matches.’ But that was not to be the case for Sri Lanka in their opening ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup match against India at Guwahati on Tuesday.

Sri Lanka had India fighting with their backs to the wall at 124-6 after 27 overs, but a spate of dropped catches let the host off the hook and they recovered to post a challenging score of 269-8, to which Sri Lanka could match up with only 211 to lose under the DLS method by 59 runs.

World Cup debutant Amanjot Kaur was given three lives at 18, 37, and 50, and she made Sri Lanka pay for it dearly by scoring a half century (57 off 56 balls) and featuring in a match defining stand of 103 with Deepti Sharma, who also scored a fifty and took three wickets for 54 runs, including the prize wicket of Chamari Athapaththu for 43.

Athapaththu was left to rue her side’s three dropped catches of Amanjot, but she remained confident that her team will bounce back.

“We executed our plans but we dropped a couple of catches, especially [Amanjot] Kaur’s catch. We made three mistakes and it cost us,” said Athapaththu after the match.

“As a batting unit, we lost a couple of wickets early and in the middle overs, and that is where we lost this game. After losing my wicket, our batters struggled a little bit. Chasing is not easy, but we need to execute our right plans at the right time. If we keep losing wickets, it is not easy to chase,” she added.

Athapaththu praised the bowling of Inoka Ranaweera (4/46), whom she said bowled really well, and Udeshika Prabodhani (2/55) because of her experience. The rest struggled a little bit.

Ranaweera, in particular, caused some sort of panic in the Indian dressing room when she dismissed the heart of their batting – Harleen Deol, Jemimah Rodrigues, and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur – in one over as they slid from 120-2 to 124-6.

“I had good support from the wicket-keeper, Captain, and the bowling unit in taking those wickets,” said Ranaweera.

On Sharma’s knock and their fielding, Ranaweera said: “We knew her [Deepthi’s] strength and we planned how to bowl to her, but in the execution, some changes took place and she was able to come on top today. We did well in our fielding, but in some areas, we made mistakes. I don’t think that was the turning point, but if we had done what we were expected to do, that would have given us the opportunity to win.”

Sri Lanka’s next opponents will be defending champions Australia at home. Ranaweera said: “A lot of positives came out of the match for us both in the batting and bowling to move forward. We have to take the positives to our next game against Australia. To win, you need only moment in the game. We will go with the determination of winning it.”

Athapaththu said: “We have to think about our performance today. We have to talk [with the coaches] and maybe reset our plans. We are calm, and I still have faith in my youngsters because they have won more games for us. I know the mistakes we made. If we can reset these plans, I know we can bounce back.”

“[Our partnership] was a turning point,” said Player of the Match Sharma. “Back-to-back wickets were falling so we wanted to have a long partnership. The things that we had planned, we executed it. There was no pressure at all because I am used to these types of innings and situations. I have played it in the past, and that partnership with Amanjot was important. I do not feel pressure, I enjoy my batting.”

Sri Lanka and India travelled back to Colombo where they have matches at the R. Premadasa Cricket Stadium. On Saturday, Sri Lanka meets Australia and on Sunday, it will be the big clash between India and Pakistan.