Colombo, Oct 14 (IANS) Sri Lanka have won the toss and elected to bat first against New Zealand in the 15th match of the ICC Women’s World Cup, here at the R. Premadasa Stadium.

New Zealand have made one change to their lineup, with Bree Illing coming in to replace Lea Tahuhu. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, made two alterations to their side; Malki Madara and Piumi Badalge included in the playing XI, replacing Dewmi Vihanga and Udeshika Prabodhani.

Sri Lanka captain Chamari Athapaththu said, “Last two games we struggled to chase and conditions are good for batting. We have to play positive cricket in the middle and as a batting unit we have struggled to do that.

“I told them we’re playing good cricket in the last 12 months against the best teams, but this is the biggest stage, so we don’t want to put too much pressure on our shoulders. Just play your natural game, that’s the important thing, because there are a lot of youngsters in my batting unit, I don’t want to put too much pressure on their shoulders”

New Zealand captain Sophie Devine said, “We don’t mind bowling first. The bowling attack was fantastic against Bangladesh. It’s going to be similar here, in slightly different conditions potentially, but we’re really pleased that we finally got a win on the board, we know today is a new challenge. The match-up with Illing against Chamari is obviously a key one, some of the stats suggest that she goes okay, so we’re really excited to be able to bring in Bree again.”

Playing XIs:

New Zealand: Sophie Devine (c), Suzie Bates, Eden Carson, Isabella Gaze (wk), Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Amelia Kerr, Jess Kerr, Rosemary Mair, Georgia Plimmer, Bree Illing

Sri Lanka: Chamari Athapaththu (c), Vishmi Gunaratne, Hasini Perera, Harshitha Madavi Samarawickrama, Kavisha Dilhari, Nilakshi de Silva, Anushka Sanjeewani (wk), Piumi Badalge, Sugandika Kumari, Malki Madara, Inoka Ranaweera

–IANS

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