ACC Women’s Emerging Teams Cup: Sri Lanka beat UAE in last-ball thriller with Methtananda a star in making
- Madushika Methtananda takes four wickets and then guides side to three-wicket win
- In day’s second game, Bangladesh crush Malaysia by 97 runs thanks to 44-ball half-century from Murshida Khatun
Tin Kwong Road Recreation Ground: Sri Lanka A (2pts) beat UAE by three wickets.
If Sri Lanka A’s main goal in Hong Kong this week is to unearth a potential star or two ahead of the senior team’s tour of New Zealand next month, then they could do far worse than take a closer look at Madushika Methtananda.
The diminutive slow right-armer took four wickets for 16 runs and then scored a vital 11 off 12 balls as her side eked out a last-ball T20 win over United Arab Emirates in the first game of the Asian Cricket Council Women’s Emerging Teams Cup on Monday.
Methtananda’s 21-run partnership with wicketkeeper Nilakshana Sandamini (12) rescued a dying run-chase at Tin Kwong Road Recreation Ground against a UAE side who had been bowled out for 95, losing their last eight wickets for just 32 runs.
With Sri Lanka 70 for five with four of their 20 overs remaining, the pair nudged, nurdled, cut and pulled their way towards the target, finding gaps that possibly should not have been there and – in contrast to their teammates – turned ones into scampered twos.
Sandamini even managed a rare four over square leg, and by the time she was run out by Vaishnave Mahesh at the end of the penultimate over, Sri Lanka needed five from the last six balls.
