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Sri Lanka clinch berth at Commonwealth Games 2022, defeat Bangladesh in Qualifier’s final

Sri Lanka women beat Bangladesh Women in winners’ take all round-robin clash at the Commonwealth Games 2022 Global Qualifier event hosted at the Kinrara Oval in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

This was the last round-robin clash of the tournament which began on January 18 and was played by five teams to find one team which will be part of history as women’s cricket would be included for the first time in the Commonwealth Games during Birmingham 2022. Apart from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, Scotland, Kenya and hosts Malaysia also participated in the qualifying tournament. 

Before the final games, both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh had won three matches each and thus the last game became a virtual final. In this match, the Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu won the toss and decided to bat first.

It was thanks to her innings of 48 off just 28 balls, coupled with those of Nilakshi Silva’s 28 and wicket-keeper batter Anushka Sanjeewani’s 20 that the Sri Lanka women reached a competitive total of 136 in its 20 overs. 

In reply, the Bangladeshi women started in a slow fashion as Murshida Khatun and Fragana Haque built a 50 run stand for the second wicket but fell way below the required run rate. The pressure started mounting and as a result, the team lost wickets in quick intervals at the wrong time as it went from 93-2 to 11-5 very quickly. 

In the end, Bangladesh could only make 114 at the loss of five wickets in their quota of 20 overs, eventually losing the match by 22 runs. Sri Lanka would now join hosts England, New Zealand and South Africa in Group A of the quadrennial event. 

In Group B Australia, India and Pakistan made it through on the virtue of the ICC rankings in the T20 format while Barbados was given the seat at the event to represent the West Indies as the West Indies cricket team represents a group of islands in the Caribbean seas instead of one nation. 

For Sri Lanka this victory also acts as a balm as it missed out on the World Cup 2022 berth on the virtue of rankings as the qualifier event for that was cancelled due to Omicron spread in Zimbabwe. 

This will only be the second time that cricket will feature in the Commonwealth Games after a men's 50-over competition that was played in Kuala Lumpur Games in 1998. However, the difference between that and this is the fact that this event will be contested in the shortest format i.e. T20 and only women's teams will take part in it.

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