Prolific Chamari keeps Falcons on top in Dubai tourney

Chamari Athapaththu of Falcon celebrating the wicket of Kavisha Egodage in their match against Barmy Army

Sri Lanka Women’s cricket captain Chamari Athapaththu continued her fine run of form in the ongoing Fairbreak Invitational Women’s T20 cricket tournament in Dubai by helping her team Falcon to secure their second successive win.

Chamari followed her century in the first match against Warriors with 42 off 31 balls (6 fours, 1 six) for Falcon to beat Barmy Army by eight wickets chasing down a target of 153. She shared an opening stand of 67 off nine overs with Falcons skipper Danni Wyatt who made 76 off 49 balls. Chamari also captured a wicket with her off-breaks conceding 33 runs.

However, in their third game of the tournament Falcon’s suffered their first defeat by 27 runs to Spirit despite Chamari making a top score of 42 off 28 balls (6 fours, 2 sixes) and taking one wicket for 17 runs off four overs that of 19-year-old UAE born all-rounder Kavisha Egodage for 24.

Falcon kept Spirit down to a total of 147-3, but their batting faltered against the slow left-arm orthodox spin of 40-year-old Shizuka Miyaji of Japan who finished with figures of 4 for 18 as Falcon responded with only 120-9.

Despite the defeat Falcons headed the standings with nine points from three matches closely followed by Tornadoes with seven from two matches. Sri Lanka’s medium fast bowler Udeshika Prabodhani continued to finish on the losing side as her team Warriors suffered their third successive loss to remain bottom of the table with one point.

Having lost to Falcon in their first match, Warriors were beaten by Tornadoes (by 13 runs) and Sapphires (by 10 wickets) despite Udeshika bowling a tight spell in both matches. Although going wicketless, Udeshika opening the bowling conceded 25 runs off four overs against Tornadoes and 21 off four overs against Sapphires. (ST)