KOWLOON: Falcons Women’s bowlers wreaked havoc over the Sapphires Women’s batting lineup before Chamari Athapaththu’s magnificent knock of 75 not out scripted a nine-wicket victory for the Falcons in the 12th fixture of the FairBreak Invitational.
Put into bat first, the Sapphires’ batting lineup failed completely and could only pile 131 runs before bundling out in 20 overs.
The Sapphires had a rather decent start as their openers Gaby Lewis and Katie Mack (9) added 26 runs for the first wicket before the Falcons found the first breakthrough by Marizanne Kapp, who castled the latter.
Following Mack’s dismissal, the Sapphires ran into a match-defining collapse and could not recover until the end despite Kary Chan’s fighting 32-run knock.
Shabnim Ismail also made a vital contribution with the bat; scoring 26 off 18 deliveries.
Besides them, only Lewis (20) and Tash Farrant (15) made significant contributions while the rest of their batters could not get into the double figures.
Kapp led the bowling attack for the Falcons with 3/15, followed by Sornnarin Tippoch’s 2/11, while Athapaththu, Mariko Hill and Jahanara Alam struck out a batter each.
Set to chase a modest total, the Falcons amassed 133/1 in just 13.3 overs at the back of a magnificent 44-ball 75 by Athapaththu.
The Falcons openers Suzie Bates and Danni Wyatt provided a solid foundation with a 47-run partnership for the first wicket.
Bates was the core aggressor of the opening stand while Wyatt, who was struggling to get going perished in the sixth over after managing to score just four off seven deliveries.
Athapaththu then joined Bates in the middle and outshined the latter with her belligerent knock which featured seven boundaries and six sixes.
She top-scored for the Falcons while Bates held the other end with her sensible 30-ball 42 to script a dominating victory for their side.
For the Sapphires, only Sana Mir could pick up a wicket.
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