Head and shoulders above her teammates, Chamari Athapaththu is a lone warrior of the current Sri Lanka team. Chamari who has been playing exceptionally well since the last few years is a standout performer of the team.
In the last ODI of the concluded series against Australia, which the hosts won 3-0, Athapaththu hit a century. She scored a total of 103 runs, giving her side some hope of reaching a respectable total. Earlier in the tour, she had also scored a T20I ton, hitting 113 runs off 66 balls in the first T20I match of the series.
Did you know that Athapaththu is the only Sri Lankan female batter to score an international century in ODIs? She is the only one to do so and has done this 5 times in her career. The latest being the ton which she scored against Australia in the last match of the series. She was fighting a lone battle against the mighty Australians and her brilliance didn’t wither a bit.
Chamari holds a healthy average of 31.62 in women’s ODIs, which is the best average among all Sri Lankan batters. The highest ever WODI score of a Sri Lankan was scored by Athapaththu against Australia in the 2017 World Cup when she remained not out on 178.
The T20I captain of her country, Chamari is also the highest run getter for Sri Lanka in both women’s T20Is and ODIs.
Chamari was the frontrunner in batting for her country on this Australian tour. She scored her maiden T20I century in the first match of the 3-match T20I series, smashing 113 runs. Her 60-ball hundred will always go down as one of the greatest knocks by a Sri Lankan on Australian soil. Her wonderful knock led her team to their highest T20I total. She was ruthlessly smashing down the bowlers, hitting 12 fours and 6 sixes.
Ahead of the T20I series, she had asked her players to play freely and to not get intimidated by the Aussies. She has always been an explosive batter and when she’s in the mood, there’s no one stopping her. Hopefully, the Sri Lankan team gets inspired by her and put up some praiseworthy performances in a winning cause in their future matches.
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