A debutant’s 46 and Athapaththu’s 15-ball 40 hand Sri Lanka the series in Dambulla

Sanjana Kavindi walked out to bat in Dambulla on Sunday with Sri Lanka 55 for 2, a target of 176 in front of her and no international innings behind her. She made 46 from 24 balls, won the match award on debut, and by the time she was caught and bowled the game had effectively been decided. Sri Lanka won by six wickets with 14 balls to spare and lead the three-match series 2-0.

Pakistan got the start they wanted and lost the middle

Muneeba Ali chose to bat and then made the decision look right. She and Shawaal Zulfiqar put on 90 inside 10 overs, the powerplay went for 68 without a wicket falling, and Pakistan’s fifty arrived in 23 balls. For half the innings this was a total heading somewhere north of 190.

Chamudi Praboda broke the stand and then broke the innings. She had Muneeba caught by Rashmika Sewwandi for 45 from 30 balls, trapped Zulfiqar lbw for 48 from 35, and finished with 2 for 27 from four overs, the most economical spell of the match. Pakistan were 90 for 1 in the 10th over and 129 for 4 in the 16th, and somewhere in there the innings stopped moving.

Eyman Fatima gave the total a late shove with 30 not out from 19 balls, including two sixes, which got Pakistan to 175 for 5. A good score, and still a smaller one than those first 10 overs had been building towards.

Athapaththu took the chase out of Pakistan’s hands

Chamari Athapaththu has been doing this to attacks for a decade and she did it again inside five overs. Imesha Dulani, who made 101 not out in the first match of the series, went lbw to Waheeda Akhtar in the second over with 11 on the board. Athapaththu answered with 40 from 15 balls, five fours and three sixes, a strike rate of 266, and when Umm-e-Hani had her caught in the sixth over Sri Lanka were 55 for 2 and already well ahead of a required rate that had started at 8.8.

That is the innings people will talk about. It is not the one that won the match.

The debutant did the hard part

Kavindi came in with both openers gone and the powerplay nearly finished, which is the passage where chases of this size usually die. She hit six fours and two sixes, put on 53 for the third wicket with Vishmi Gunaratne, and batted until the 11th over. Sri Lanka passed 100 in 58 balls. By the time Ayesha Zafar held on to a return catch to remove her for 46, the target was down to 68 from 58.

What was left was straightforward, and Harshitha Samarawickrama treated it that way. She finished 37 not out from 22 balls with eight fours, none of them especially risky, and Kavisha Dilhari saw it home with 14 not out. Sri Lanka got there in 17.4 overs at better than 10 an over.

Umm-e-Hani was the only Pakistan bowler who looked like slowing anything down, taking 2 for 28 from her four overs. Momina Riasat conceded 22 from her three, the only other spell to go for under eight an over, and Sri Lanka went after everything else.

A series won before the third match

Sri Lanka cannot now lose the series. They have beaten Pakistan twice in three days, chasing on both occasions and winning by six wickets each time, which reads like something steadier than a hot week.

Dambulla has form for this. Sri Lanka won their first Women’s Asia Cup on this ground in 2024, beating India by eight wickets in the final, and the two players who got them home that evening were Athapaththu and Samarawickrama. Both were at the crease again on Sunday. They defend that title later this year, and a top order that now has Dulani making hundreds and Kavindi hitting 46 from 24 on debut is no longer asking Athapaththu to do it alone.

The third T20I is a dead rubber on paper. Pakistan, who put 90 on the board before losing a wicket and still finished on the wrong side of it, will want it to be something other than that.

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