Sri Lanka’s Chamari Atapattu and Shashikala Siriwardene have been named in the playing XI for the Supernovas Team for their opening fixture of the Women’s Twenty20 Challenge fixture against Velocity Team at the Sharjah Stadium in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) today (4).
The Women’s T20 Challenge is organised and conducted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in line with the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 Tournament, which is now in progress in the UAE.
The defending champions, Supernovas will certainly benefit from the services of Sri Lankan Captain, Atapattu and dynamic all-rounder Siriwardene, who of course, announced her retirement from international cricket recently.
Atapattu (30) has represented the country in 85 T20Is and she has accumulated 1,646 runs inclusive of one century and three half centuries.
The elegant left-hander is in excellent form after having compiled two of her half centuries this year, both against England, including a fifty in the recently concluded Women’s World T20 Tournament.
Her other half century, a sparkling knock of 78 not out in 50 deliveries helped her side chase England’s modest 123 in just under 13 overs at the Adelaide Oval.
Atapattu scored her century last year, against a top team like Australia as she hammered 113 in just 66 balls,which was however, overshadowed only by Beth Mooney’s 113 off 61 deliveries.
In addition, she has captured a total of 26 wickets in T20Is including a career best three for 17 against Bangladesh which means she can show her value with the ball as well.
Meanwhile, veteran Siriwardene will have the unique experience of being part of the Women’s Twenty20 Challenge for the first time in her career.
The 35-year-old all-rounder has represented Sri Lanka in 81 T20Is, captured 77 wickets with an average of just over 20 runs per wicket and has claimed four wickets in an innings on three occasions.
Siriwardene has a career-best four wickets for just nine runs against Pakistan and signed-off quite well, picking up seven wickets in the Women’s World T20, including a four-wicket haul against Bangladesh which was also her last international game.
The stylish right-hander has also scored over 1,000 runs in T20Is including a half century, so she is quite capable of the bat as well.
The inaugurated Women’s T20 Challenge was held in 2018as a one-off exhibition match between two teams – Supernovas and Trailblazers in Mumbai and the second season, held in 2019, featured a third-team – Velocity.
