Poor scores in Women’s NSL T20 a concern

Wednesday, 14 January 2026 03:51 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Harshitha Samarawickrama captain of unbeaten Team Blues batting against Team Greys

Captain of Team Green Hasini Perera gets runs on the leg side during her knock of 44

Rested senior players brought back to make it more competitive

The original intention was to rest several of the senior players and give the younger players an opportunity to showcase their talent in the ongoing Women’s National Super League (NSL) T20 tournament.

But after just two rounds of matches the selectors had a change of plans and brought back the experienced hands into the tournament.

National women’s selector Rasanjali de Alwis explaining the move said that with the impending tour to West Indies next month followed by Bangladesh’s visit to Sri Lanka in April and the Women’s T20 World Cup in England in June-July, they were keen to see how the younger players perform with and against the senior lot in competition.

As a result, eight of the players who were rested have been included among three of the four competing sides in the Women’s NSL T20 tournament.

Sri Lanka women’s national captain Chamari Athapaththu and Inoka Ranaweera appear for Team Blues, Inoshi Fernando, Anushka Sanjeewani and Achini Kulasuriya for Team Greys, and Udeshika Prabodhani, Oshadi Ranasinghe and Sugandika Kumari for Team Green. Team Red comprises virtually Sri Lanka’s U19 World Cup cricketers and does not include any seniors.

Rasanjali said Team Red has been given the opportunity to test their skills against experienced opposition. So far they have found it tough going winning one out of 4 matches.

Meanwhile, unbeaten Team Blues with three wins under their belts had their winning spree curbed by bad weather which forced a no-result against Team Greys at the BRC grounds. In the 14.3 overs possible Team Blues scored 93-5 with contributions from Chamari Athapaththu (29), skipper Harshitha Samarawickrama (31*) and Shayani Senarathna (20). Kaveesha Dilhari took the wickets of Chamari and Shayani conceding just nine runs.

In the first match played for the day, Team Green secured their second win to move to second spot in the standings behind Team Blues. They beat Team Red by 44 runs. Team Green scored 116-6 with captain Hasini Perera making a top score of 44 off 41 balls (5 fours) and restricted Team Red to 72-9. Udeshika Prabodhani and Kawya Kavindi took two wickets apiece.

A disappointing feature of the matches played so far is that only once has a team got beyond the 150-run mark which speaks of how low the standard of women’s cricket is at domestic level. It is one of the reasons why they struggle to compete with strong teams on the international stage. – [ST]