Chamari Athapaththu and Kavisha Dilhari turned Korogi Sports Park into their own stage on Friday, driving Sri Lanka into the Asian Games women’s cricket semifinals with a ruthless 86-run demolition of Malaysia.
This was dominance with bat and ball, scripted by two all-rounders who never once loosened their grip.
Athapaththu flips the switch
Sri Lanka chose to bat but began in a crawl. The first four overs produced just 10 runs and the early loss of Imesha Dulani, and for a brief spell Malaysia’s discipline with the new ball forced silence from the Sri Lankan dressing room.
Then came the fifth over. Athapaththu tore up the script.
She launched into Aisya Eleesa, plundering 23 runs and ripping the momentum away in a single burst of clean, brutal hitting. Hasini Perera followed up in the next over with two boundaries, and suddenly the scoreboard looked very different: 38 for 1 at the end of the Powerplay, the shackles gone.
Athapaththu never looked back. She kept finding gaps, kept clearing fielders, and raised her fifty off just 28 balls with a six in the 11th over, the kind of shot that underlined who was in charge. By then, the partnership had swelled to 80 and Malaysia were chasing shadows.
Nurin Imanina briefly dragged them back into the contest, striking twice in three overs to remove both set batters and halt the charge. Athapaththu’s 63 had done the damage, but there was more punishment to come.
Dilhari’s late surge
With the platform built, Dilhari and Harshitha Samarawickrama stitched together another telling stand. They added 62 for the fourth wicket, calmly reasserting control after Malaysia’s mini-revival.
Dilhari saved her real fireworks for the death. All six of her boundaries came after the 16th over, a late-innings surge that turned a strong total into a daunting one. Malaysia’s bowlers, so tidy at the start, could not contain her once she opened her shoulders.
Sri Lanka closed on 160 for 4, a towering score in a pressure knockout, and one that reflected the authority of their middle order.
Early strikes end the chase
Any faint Malaysian hopes of a chase evaporated almost immediately.
A mix-up in the first over cost them Ainna Hamizah Hashim to a run-out, and when Dilhari took the ball, she made sure there would be no recovery. She removed Wan Julia and Mas Elysa off successive deliveries to close out the sixth over, slicing through the top order and leaving Malaysia reeling at 25 for 3 at the end of the Powerplay.
From there, Sri Lanka’s bowlers simply squeezed.
Malaysia managed just one boundary between overs seven and 18. Forty runs in that entire stretch told its own story: batters stuck, fielders circling, the asking rate vanishing over the horizon.
Athapaththu returned to apply the finishing touches in the 19th over, picking up two wickets and underlining her all-round authority on the contest. Mithali Ayodhya added two more in the final over, Malaysia stumbling to 74 for 7 from their 20 overs.
It was as comprehensive as the margin suggests.
Pakistan await
Sri Lanka’s reward is a semifinal showdown with Pakistan on Sunday (September 20), a clash that promises far sterner resistance than Malaysia could offer.
On this evidence, with Athapaththu and Dilhari in this kind of form, who will bet against them pushing all the way to gold?
