LONDON: Sri Lanka’s women secured their first ever white-ball series win over England with a stunning seven-wicket victory in the third T20 International in Derby on Wednesday.

Chamari Athapaththu was the star of the show as she claimed 3-21 with the ball and then hit 44 off 28 balls to wrap up a 2-1 series win.

England, who beat world champions Australia in the T20 series that formed part of the women’s Ashes in July, were restricted to 116 all out from 19 overs.

Sri Lanka captain Athapaththu then took control, as she did with a half-century in leading her nation to a first ever T20 win over England on Saturday.

“We always talk about positive things in our dressing room, never negatives and we executed our plans - that’s why we won.

“I think we can be a good team in the future.”

England were made to pay for making a number of changes from the series against Australia.

“We played a youngish team but that’s no excuse. We felt like we had enough on the park to be successful but we’ve been a little bit off, it’s fair to admit that,” said England captain Heather Knight.

“We haven’t quite been at our best and we’ve been punished by Sri Lanka.”

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2023