Harshitha half-century leads Sri Lanka to second victory at T20 World Cup

Harshitha Samarawickrama made a composed half-century to guide Sri Lanka to a seven-wicket win over Bangladesh at Newlands in Cape Town on Sunday for their second successive victory at the Women's T20 World Cup.

Left-handed opening batter Harshitha made 69 not out and shared an unbeaten 105-run partnership with Nilakshi de Silva (41 not out).

They enabled Sri Lanka to survive an early scare in pursuit of a modest Bangladesh total of 126 for eight.

"I'm very happy about our performance," said Sri Lanka skipper Chamari Athapaththu who made 68 in the opening win over South Africa but fell for 15 on Sunday.

"We don't depend on one or batters. We have been working on our batting the last couple of months."

Sri Lanka, who beat the hosts on the same Newlands pitch on Friday, were rattled when 18-year-old medium-pace bowler Marufa Akter took three wickets without conceding a run to reduce them to 25 for three in the sixth over.

Akter, whose previous five international matches had yielded only three wickets, struck with her third delivery when she had Athapaththu caught at midwicket.

In her next over she dismissed Vishmi Gunarathne and Anushka Sanjeewani with successive deliveries.

Harshitha and De Silva had to rebuild on a pitch of uneven bounce and they took the total to 49 after 10 overs, increasing the tempo as Bangladesh were unable to make any further breakthroughs.

Bangladesh lost five wickets for 24 runs in the closing stages of their innings.

Shamima Sultana (20), Sobhana Mostary (29) and captain Nigar Sultana (28) all scored briskly but the innings crumbled after the skipper was caught at midwicket off off-spinner Oshadi Ranasinghe in the 16th over.

Ranasinghe was Sri Lanka's most successful bowler, taking three for 23.

Bangladesh captain Nigar Sultana said her team had fallen short by “15 or 20 runs” when they followed a bright start by losing five wickets for 24 runs in the closing stages of their innings.

"We had good batting in the powerplay," said Nigar Sultana of Bangladesh scoring 48 runs for the loss of two wickets in the first two overs.

"We wanted to continue with that."

Brief scores:

Bangladesh 126-8 in 20 overs (Sobhana Mostary 29; O. Ranasinghe 3-23, C. Athapaththu 2-19) v Sri Lanka 129-3 in 18.2 overs (H. Samarawickrama 69 not out, N. de Silva 41 not out; Marufa Akter 3-23).

(AFP)