Athapaththu made 83 not out from 50 balls, and Pakistan’s 177 lasted 17.5 overs
Sri Lanka chased 178 with 13 balls to spare at Korogi Sports Park and are into the Asian Games women’s cricket final, where the winner of India against Bangladesh awaits.
Sep 20, 2026
Pakistan did almost everything right in the first innings of the Asian Games women’s cricket semi-final at Korogi Sports Park on Sunday. Shawaal Zulfiqar and Ayesha Zafar put on 115 together. The total, 177 for 4, was the kind of score that usually decides a knockout match. Then Chamari Athapaththu walked out to open Sri Lanka’s reply, and the contest quietly stopped being one.
Sri Lanka knocked off 178 in 17.5 overs for the loss of two wickets. Athapaththu finished unbeaten on 83 from 50 balls with seven fours and six sixes, and Sri Lanka are into the gold medal match in Nisshin. They will play the winner of the second semi-final between India and Bangladesh.
Pakistan built a total and lost the match anyway
Gull Feroza went first ball, which should have been the story of the innings and was not. Zulfiqar dug in, Zafar took the risks, and the pair put Pakistan back together with a stand of 115. Zafar’s 71 came off 40 balls, nine fours to two sixes, so most of the damage came along the ground. She was eventually run out. Zulfiqar made 54 from 50.
Fatima Sana finished it off with 20 not out from 12 and Saira Jabeen chipped in 17. Sugandika Kumari, Kawya Kavindi and Athapaththu herself took a wicket each. Anything near 180 in a T20 semi-final ought to be enough. Pakistan’s problem was that they had handed the chase to a batter who has spent a decade making totals like that look ordinary.
Athapaththu waited two overs and then took the game
The odd part is that she started slowly. Imesha Dulani did the early scoring, five fours in a 27 off 21, and the opening stand was worth 36 with Athapaththu still on single figures. Then came the eighth over, bowled by Momina Riasat: six, four, six, four. Twenty off four balls, and a chase that had been ticking along became a procession.
Hasini Perera came in and made 42 from 26, and she and Athapaththu added 95 for the second wicket. That was the match. Harshitha Samarawickrama was there at the end on 17 not out, by which point Sri Lanka had 13 balls to spare. Pakistan’s afternoon was not helped by a let-off at deep midwicket, where Fatima Sana held a clean catch off Athapaththu but stepped on the boundary rope, turning the chance into a six.
Sri Lanka get another crack at the team that beat them a week ago
Sri Lanka have been here recently and it did not end well. On 13 September in Dubai they lost the Women’s Asia Cup final to India by 72 runs, bowled out for 111 chasing 184 after Smriti Mandhana and Shafali Verma had both made fifties. That was India’s eighth Asia Cup title. Go back further and the pattern holds: at Hangzhou in 2023, Sri Lanka were 14 for 3 inside five overs of an Asian Games final, Titas Sadhu taking 3 for 6, and lost by 19 runs chasing 117.
India are the defending champions here, and they met Bangladesh in the second semi-final on Sunday morning. If they come through, Sri Lanka get the rematch they have spent a week wanting.
What is not in doubt is that Athapaththu, at 36, is still the single biggest reason opponents plan an entire bowling innings around one batter. Pakistan had 177 on the board and never bowled a ball that looked like changing the outcome.