Women's T20 WC: All-round Sri Lanka defeat Bangladesh by nine wickets

Melbourne [Australia], Mar 2 (ANI): Sri Lanka displayed an all-round performance to defeat Bangladesh by nine wickets in the ongoing Women's T20 World Cup on Monday here at the Junction Oval.
Chasing 92, Hasini Perera and Chamari Athapaththu provided a solid start to Sri Lanka as the duo saw off the first wicket overs without any hiccups.
Both batters put on 51 runs for the first wicket, however, Bangladesh finally got the breakthrough in the ninth over as Nahida Akter dismissed Athapaththu (30).
Perera (39*) and Anushka Sanjeewani (16*) did not let the momentum slide for Sri Lanka and the duo took the side over the line by nine wickets and with 27 balls to spare.
Earlier, a spirited bowling performance helped Sri Lanka restrict Bangladesh to 91/8 in the allotted twenty overs.
Opting to bat first, Bangladesh got off to a bad start as the side lost its first three wickets with just 25 runs on the board.
Bangladesh struggled to create any sort of momentum in the middle and the Sri Lankan spinners managed to create a stranglehold.
Shashikala Siriwardene took four wickets for Sri Lanka and this helped the side in restricting Bangladesh to under 100 runs. Nigar Sultana top-scored for Bangladesh as she played a knock of 39 runs.
Brief Scores: Sri Lanka 92/1 (Hasini Perera 35*, Chamari Athapaththu 30, Nahida Akter 1-18) defeat Bangladesh 91/8 ( Nigar Sultana 39, Sanjida Islam 13, Shashikala Siriwardene 4-16) by nine wickets. (ANI)