Australia Women beat Sri Lanka Women by 4 wickets in the 1st ODI

The 1^st ODI between Australia Women and Sri Lanka Women, that is a part of the Australia Women tour to Sri Lanka, was won by visitors by a comfortable margin of six wickets. The reigning women’s world champions made a cake walk of the competition presented by the hosts, as Holly Ferling, Kirsten Beams and Megan Schutt dismantled the Sri Lankan batting line-up by picking up eight wickets amongst themselves as the home side was bowled out for just 76 runs in 24.5 overs in Dambulla.

In reply, Australia Women, after surviving a minor hiccup, got home with 4 wickets in hand and more than 34 overs to spare. Australia did lose six wickets in their pursuit of the small target, but Sri Lanka just didn’t have enough runs on the board to put the Australian eves under any sort of pressure.

Inoka Ranaweera picked up 3 wickets for the Lankan women, while Inoshi Priyadarshini, the captain, Chamari Atapattu, and Eshani Lokusuriyage picked up one wicket each. Australia captain, Meg Lanning, top scored with 27, while wicketkeeper batswoman Alyssa Healy remained unbeaten on 12 and guided her side home.

After winning the toss and batting first, the hosts lost their first five wickets inside the first five overs as Atapattu was made to rue his decision of batting first by the Australian bowlers. At one stage, SL Women were 3/5 in 4.4 overs and were staring at an even worse collapse than what eventually transpired. However, small partnerships of 17, 18 and 25 runs for the sixth, seventh and ninth wickets respectively, took the Sri Lanka total past the 50-run mark.

The Australian reply saw an early hiccup when opening batswoman Elysse Villani was trapped leg-before-wicket on the first ball of the second over with the score still being zero. However, captain Lanning combined with Nicole Bolton for a 45-run second wicket stand to steady the ship and reduce the chase to a mere formality.

And while the aforementioned players, as well as, Ellyse Perry and Alex Blackwell were dismissed in quick succession, reducing Australia to 50/5, the lack of enough runs on the board ended up costing Sri Lanka the game as Healy and Erin Osborne took Australia past the target.

The second ODI of the four-match series will be played on September 20 in Dambulla.

Brief Scores: Australia Women 79/6 in 15.4 overs (Lanning 27, Bolton 19, Ranaweera 3/20) beat Sri Lanka Women 76 all out in 24.5 overs (Ranaweera 32, Kaushalya 14, Beams 3/16) by 4 wickets.