Women’s T20 World Cup 2024: New Zealand’s Georgia Plimmer fashions easy win over Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka’s best performance was not enough to stop New Zealand in Sharjah
Sharjah: Georgia Plimmer’s glorious form continues to reap runs for New Zealand. Her 44-ball 53 set up the Kiwis’ eight-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the Women’s T20 World Cup and kept them in the race for the semifinals.
Saturday’s win gave New Zealand four points from three matches and lifted the net run rate to 0.282. India (four points) are second in Group A with an NRR of 0.576, and they will clash with Australia, who top the table with six points, on Sunday.
Chasing Sri Lanka’s 115/5 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, the Kiwi openers started sedately before Plimmer stepped out to loft some boundaries to get going. Her stroke-filled knock helped add 69 for the first wicket with Suzie Bates (17 off 22 balls) and 46 with Amelia Kerr (34 not out from 31 balls) before being caught at the midwicket fence.
By then, the match was in the bag, but the Kiwis could not finish the game quickly as the Sri Lankan spinners allowed few liberties. But captain Sophie Devine carted a six to midwicket to fetch victory.
Player of the Match Plimmer said the team discussed how to attack the powerplay. “Sometimes it may not come off, but if I can get my team off to such starts, I am happy… Just wanted to play my brand (of cricket).”
Captain Devine applauded Plimmer’s performance and said the NRR didn’t figure in their calculations. “We set targets at the innings break, and it was to win the game in the 17-18th over. We obviously [will] see how results play out tomorrow, and by the Pakistan game, we will know exactly (what we need).”
Opting to bat, Sri Lanka had their best start of the tournament despite losing Vishmi Gunaratne inside the powerplay. Skipper Chamari Athapaththu (35 off 41) found her touch, cracking a couple of fierce square cuts and cover drives to take Sri Lanka to 74/1 in the 14th over. After raising 26 for the first wicket, her 48-run stand for the second wicket with Harshitha Samarawickrama (18 off 29) steadied Sri Lanka but failed to infuse any real momentum as the Kiwi bowlers gave little away.
After Athapaththu fell in a bid to raise the scoring rate, New Zealand spinners Amelia Kerr and Leigh Kasperek lured the batters to their doom before Ama Kanchana and Nilakshika Silva added an unbeaten 18 for the sixth wicket. But they could not use the slog overs, failing to find the boundary in the last 22 balls.
It was Sri Lanka’s best score in the tournament, yet it was below par. Not enough to test the Kiwis, who coasted to their second win in three matches. They will play Pakistan on Monday.
Athapaththu admitted the Sri Lankans didn’t play their best cricket throughout this tournament. “We improved (the batting) a little bit today, but we needed another 20-25 runs. The bowlers did their best...We lost our first game, and then our mindset was going down. We kept trying (to turn it around), but it did not work,” she told the host broadcaster
Brief scores:
Sri Lanka: 115/5 in 20 overs (Chamari Athapaththu 35; Amelia Kerr 2-13, Leigh Kasperek 2-27) lost to New Zealand: 118/2 in 17.3 overs (Georgia Plimmer 53) by eight wickets
Player of the Match: Georgia Plimmer