Chamari Athapaththu led from the front as Sri Lanka defeated South Africa to clinch a series triumph against the Proteas for the first time.
Sri Lanka’s women’s side created history in East London on Wednesday as they registered their first series triumph over South Africa in any format.
The series victory was confirmed when Sri Lanka claimed a narrow four-wicket win over South Africa in the third and final match of their series in what was their highest successful run chase of all time in T20I cricket.
Sri Lanka’s previous highest successful run chase came more than 10 years ago, when Chamari Athapaththu scored 21 to help her side sneak past India’s total of 147/3 in Vizianagaram with just one delivery remaining and the experienced opener was among the runs again this time around in South Africa.
Chamari hit a superb 73 from just 46 deliveries and No.3 Harshitha Samarawickrama chipped in with an unbeaten 54 as Sri Lanka ran down South Africa’s decent total of 155/6 with five deliveries remaining.
