England U19 Women were defeated in their final One Day International match against the Tri-nation Series hosts in Galle, Sri Lanka.
England were ‘all smiles’ and had nothing to lose when playing the final tour match. Australia had already won the ODI series outright before a single ball was bowled. England started well, until a commentator’s gaff sensed that Sri Lanka’s fielding ’started to fall apart.’ Next ball, England found themselves ‘in deep trouble’ as Sri Lanka’s spinners Dewmi Vihanga (5-fer) and Chamodi Praboda (4-fer) spectacularly nudged Sri Lanka ‘back into the game,’ the hosts winning by a wide margin of 100 runs. Previously England won the IT20 series – please see analysis below, fielding a different skipper for each match.
*Quick and dirty analysis of the IT20 performance that had earlier sealed victory a few days beforehand for England U19’s shows that two of their three top batters played in all four innings during the twenty overs tournament. *Davina Perrin was England U19’s top batter by a wide margin. *Davina Perrin scored most runs (143 runs, 99 balls, 4 innings); with back-to-back match-winning ‘fifties’ scored against both Australia and Sri Lanka; with 2nd highest average strike rate (144) *Returning for match 6, Charis Pavely recorded the highest strike rate during a single match (266) by scoring a match-winning 24* not out from 9 balls: England beating Sri Lanka. *Erin Thomas had 2nd highest average strike rate 120 (from 70runs, 28 balls, 4 innings) and accumulated the second highest total number of runs.
*Turning to bowling, Ava Lee (pictured) was top, taking 8 wickets from 3 matches; scoring one ‘4-fer’ versus Sri Lanka (match 3.) *Best economy in a single match went to Mary Taylor 11/1 vs Sri Lanka (match 6); *Sophia Smale: was second, taking 5 wickets from 3 matches; scoring one ‘3-fer’ vs Australia (match 1); with third best economy in a single match 19/3 vs Australia (match 1.) *Tilly Corteen-Coleman was third,taking 4 wickets from 3 matches; scoring one ‘3-fer’ vs Australia (match 5); with second best economy in a single match 15/3 vs Australia (match 5.)
Speaking on TV after the match, Sri Lanka’s Head Women’s Coach (Mr Hemantha Devapriya) was delighted to see players making progress to the next level,’ as commentators lauded their home side for finishing ‘head and shoulders’ above England. Devapriya added that before the tournament, Sri Lanka’s U19’s had not played any fifty overs cricket at all. In summary, although England was exceptional, beating both opponents at 20 overs, these same players need to build more resilience as a team when playing 50 overs on England tour duty. This became especially difficult because of England’s player rotation policy.
U19 Women’s Tri-nation Series Results, (20 overs) at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium at Hambantota, Sri Lanka
28 March: (1st IT20), Sri Lanka 117-6 beat Australia 110-5; by 7 runs <3h14m43s> @URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD_ufcLDEOY
29 March: (2nd IT20), England 146 (19.3/20 overs) beat Australia 111-5; by 35 runs <3h22m44s> @URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSUXJ_-pZXQ
30 March: (3rd IT20), Sri Lanka 128-7 beat England 122-7; by 6 runs <3h35m04s> @URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnDuHsRcn0I
1 April: (4th IT20), Australia 133-3 beat Sri Lanka 132-7; by 7 wickets <3h15m07s> @URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6qUqJet6U8
2 April: (5th IT20), England 126-3 (13.3/20 overs) beat Australia 124-9 by 7 wickets <2h53m49s> @URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dieX3ht0Bo4
3 April: (6th IT20), England 127-4 (14.3/20 overs) beat Sri Lanka 126-9 by 6 wickets <3h14m50s> @URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krV0brIRG5I
U19 Women’s Tri-nation Series Results, (50 overs) at the Galle International Cricket Stadium GICS, Sri Lanka
7 April: (1st ODI), Australia 228 (48.5/50 overs) beat Sri Lanka 140 (44/50 overs) by 88 runs<6h51m09s> @URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpqIrqxGjdQ
8 April: (2nd ODI), Australia 240-8 (45.3/50 overs) beat England 239 (48/50 overs) by 2 wickets <7h12m29s> @URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQLTEjn0Ktc&t=4s
9 April: (3rd ODI), Sri Lanka 226 (48.4/50 overs) beat England 118 (23.3/50 overs) by 108 runs <5h32m45s> @URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZEziG1ubFs
With acknowledgement to Dr Juili Ball (India) for statistical methodology accessed @URL https://femalecricket.com/womens-cricket-stats/24353-who-were-top-performers-in-womens-t20-challenge-2022.html
