Bristol, June 21 (IANS) Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu admitted her side’s batting unit failed to adapt to the conditions after suffering a five-wicket defeat to the West Indies in their ICC Women’s T20 World Cup clash at the County Ground in Bristol on Sunday.

Speaking after the loss, Athapaththu said early wickets and an underwhelming total of 98 left Sri Lanka with too much to do against an unbeaten West Indies side, despite a disciplined effort from the bowlers.

Sri Lanka never recovered after slipping to 9/3 in the opening overs and were eventually bowled out for 98 before West Indies chased down the target with 23 balls remaining.

Assessing her team’s batting display, Athapaththu acknowledged that the surface offered assistance to the bowlers but felt Sri Lanka failed to respond effectively during the crucial opening phase of the innings.

“The wicket is a little bit sticky today, and the ball is a little bit sticky too, with the tennis ball bouncing. So I feel the West Indies are bowling according to their plans and to the conditions. We have not executed our plans in the power play. We lost a couple of wickets early, and throughout the game we struggled as a batting unit. So I feel we need to score 140 plus, otherwise we can’t defend against this West Indies team. But unfortunately, we lost a couple of wickets and we struggled a lot in the middle,” she said post-match.

Although Sri Lanka’s bowlers picked up five wickets during the chase and briefly slowed West Indies’ progress, Athapaththu refused to place the responsibility for the defeat on the bowling attack. Instead, she pointed to the lack of runs on the board as the decisive factor.

“Definitely our bowlers bowled in right line and length, but some extras also given there, so the thing is, the 100 is not enough to defend. So we need to score more runs, otherwise we can’t blame the bowlers,” she added.

The captain also chose to highlight one encouraging takeaway from the contest, praising the bowling department for competing despite having a below-par total to defend. However, she stressed that improvements with the bat would be essential ahead of Sri Lanka’s next fixture.

“Our bowling department done a really good job for us, but we need to improve our batting before next game,” Athapaththu stated.

With two losses in three games, Sri Lanka will have to win their remaining two games against Ireland and Scotland to keep their semi-final hopes alive.

–IANS

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