N.U. ABDUL RAZZAK UDAYAR
The gallant women squad of the Sri Lankan Cricket who were in action in Abu Dhabi, the capital of United Arab Emirates have effectively completed their international cricket campaign in perfect success under the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier as they won all their 4 matches under the group A, thus getting maximum 8 points with the unbelievable Net Run Rate of 2.778. The final match for Sri Lanka in this T20 World Qualifier, that was against the United States of America, was not found to be a cake walk for them as the American lasses decisively got Sri Lanka restricted to 123 runs off their 20 overs. Sri Lanka who won the toss and opted to bat first today at Oval Tolerance in Abu Dhabi suffered a severe blow as the head of the Lankan Lionesses, Chamari Athathpaththu was clean bowled for 4 runs by the opening bowler of the USA, Geetika Kodali. With the early loss of the major wicket, they couldn’t smoothly build the innings though the middle order scored decently to get the total as 123. The heroine of the previous match, the opener, Vishmi Gunaratne was once again among runs scoring 25 runs off 22 balls. Then Harshitha Samarawickrama and Nilakshika Silva kept on building the Lankan innings by getting 23 and 21 runs respectively. As Sri Lanka was close to danger, losing 4 wickets, two down batter Hanshima Karunaratna and wicket keeper batter Anuska Sanjeewani played cautiously getting unbeaten 25 and 15 not out respectively giving a target of 125 runs for the USA to win the match.
Though the USA lost an early wicket when the total was on 11, their partnership for the second wicket went past 63 runs off 12.2 overs. The match seemed to be wide open as the USA were safely half way through. Determined Lankan lasses under the skipper slowly but steadily bounced back to the game tightening their overs to deny any chances for the American lasses to win this vital match. Once again Skipper Chamari showed her brilliance, not in batting this time but in bowling by claiming 3 wickets off 4 overs giving only 14 runs thus to be named as the Player of the Match. Udeshika Prabodhani and Inoka Ranaweera got one wicket each in this last encounter of the first round that was won by Sri Lanka 18 runs.
Friday 3rd May was the fifth matchday of this Women’s World Qualifier that is being staged in the UAE. There were four matches where Sri Lanka, Hosts, the United Arab Emirates, Ireland and Scotland registered wins to get themselves safely placed for the semifinals. Interestingly, the Hosts, UAE made today the most memorable day as they convincingly defeated Vanuatu by a big margin thus forcefully pushing away Netherland out of the semi-final with a better net run rate though both teams managed to win only two matches collecting 4 points each. The UAE, clashing against Vanuatu, batting first, bravely made a top total of 137 for 7 off their allotted 20 overs. In reply, Vanuatu were restricted to mere 63 for 8. The captain of the UAE, Dharnidharka, who got 4 wickets for 12 runs deservedly claimed the award of the Player of the Match.
On Sunday 5th May 2024, in the first semi-final Ireland will clash with Scotland while in the second, Sri Lanka will meet the UAE. Both the finalists will make their way to Bangladesh in September to display their excellence in the final round of the world cup.
Points Table
Group A
| SN | Country | Matches Played | Won | Points | NRR |
| 1 | Sri Lanka | 4 | 4 | 8 | 2.778 |
| 2 | Scotland | 4 | 3 | 6 | 1.473 |
| 3 | Thailand | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0.161 |
| 4 | Uganda | 4 | 1 | 2 | -2.856 |
| 5 | United States of America | 4 | 0 | 0 | -1.813 |
Group B
| SN | Country | Matches Played | Won | Points | NRR |
| 1 | Ireland Netherlands | 4 | 4 | 8 | 2.463 |
| 2 | United Arab Emirates | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0.976 |
| 3 | Netherland | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0.111 |
| 4 | Zimbabwe | 4 | 1 | 2 | -0.844 |
| 5 | Vanuatu | 4 | 1 | 2 | -2.537 |
