New Zealand Secures Crucial Victory Over Sri Lanka in Women’s T20 World Cup 2024
New Zealand defeated Sri Lanka in a thrilling match at the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 thanks to outstanding performances from Georgia Plimmer and Amelia Kerr.
In the midst of fierce rivalry in Group A, the game, which took place in Sharjah on October 12, 2024, was essential to New Zealand’s hopes of making it to the semi-finals.
Key Performances and Match Results
New Zealand 118 for 2 (Plimmer 53, Kerr 34*) beat Sri Lanka 115 for 5 (Athapaththu 35, Kerr 2-13, Kasperek 2-27) by 8 wickets.
Match Analysis
In Sharjah, Georgia Plimmer’s 53 off 44 and Amelia Kerr’s outstanding performance all around helped the team win by eight wickets over Sri Lanka. Despite the victory, New Zealand’s margin of victory was insufficient to propel them up to second position in Group A, trailing second-placed India on net run rate. Despite having their greatest batting performance of the tournament, Sri Lanka has lost four out of the last four games; they are eliminated from the group.
Plimmer and Suzie Bates set a goal of 116, and they gave New Zealand the perfect start with a 49-run opening partnership before Kerr joined Plimmer for a 46-run partnership that assured the victory. In order to complete the chase, Sophie Devine activated the boosters, and she ended the game with a monster six over cow corner.
Earlier, in his 20 overs, Kerr had claimed figures of 2 for 13, which included the valuable wicket of Chamari Athapaththu. Sri Lanka was then limited to 115 for 5. While Kerr’s influence cannot be emphasized, Plimmer was chosen Player of the Match for breaking the back of the chase.
Plimmer finished her half-century with four boundaries, but she struck 120 at the end of her innings. That was mostly because to the lessons that many teams are currently internalizing regarding how to perform on Sharjah’s slow and low tracks.
With 26 singles and four twos in her innings, she skillfully navigated Sri Lanka’s array of spinners. This was death by thousand cuts, not death by killer blow. Just one more than Sri Lanka at the end of the power play, New Zealand was 35 for no loss, but by the tenth over, the run rate had climbed to 6.9 per over.
At 95 for 2 at the end of the 15th over, Plimmer eventually fell, holing out to deep midwicket, but her work was essentially done.
Athapaththu finally put some runs on the board after three straight failures, giving Sri Lanka their first successful start to the tournament with the bat.
Her 35 off 41 deliveries was acceptable given the circumstances in Sharjah and the batters’ lost confidence in Sri Lanka. It was by no means an express score. Athapaththu had to wait for the bad deliveries to score any early runs since the ball was still staying in the surface and staying low. Her five boundaries came from two beautiful cover drives.
Her presence enabled Sri Lanka to produce their best performance of the tournament—34 for 1, which speaks volumes about their batting difficulties—and leave them on a respectable 57 for 1 at the midpoint of the innings. She put on stands of 26 and 48 alongside Vishmi Gunaratne and Harshitha Samarawickrama.
Sri Lanka’s intention to increase the scoring rate was indicated by two boundaries off Eden Carson and Lea Tahuhu in the 12th and 13th overs, while the Athapaththu-Samarawickrama partnership was flourishing. Let’s get Amelia Kerr started.
The legspinner was coming off a four-for in her previous game, but in this one, she was forced to wait until her third over to have any real influence. What a powerful effect that had, too, as Athapaththu attempted to pull a cow corner from outside off after a period of concentrated pressure, only to have her off stump knocked back.
Looking back, that wicket was perhaps the first to disintegrate for Sri Lanka. With just over six overs remaining in the innings with 74 runs on the board at the conclusion of Athapaththu’s wicket, Sri Lanka was unable to sustain their momentum and ended up spluttering to 115 for 5.
This was largely due to Kerr, who in her four overs conceded just 13 runs and removed the dangerous Kavisha Dilhari. And just as Sri Lanka seemed to have seen her last, she used her bat to secure the victory that she had personally arranged with an undefeated 34 off 31.
