M. Shamil Amit … in Daily Mirror, October 2025
In an unexpected but determined display, Sri Lanka’s Under 19 girls, many of them from the provinces, made a clean sweep of the five match T20 series against the visiting Australia Under-19 side. It was like putting the icing on the cake when the budding women cricketers of the island pulled off a convincing six wicket win in the fifth and last match at the Rangiri Dambulla International Cricket stadium on Monday.
They also won the one-off 50-over match against the same opposition in a telling display. Note that 99 percent of the team hailed from the districts, some from as far as Ampara, Trincomalee and Monaragala.
In the last T20 match the 16-year old left arm spinner Chamodi Praboda laid the foundation for the win with a three wicket haul which helped Sri Lanka restrict Australia U19 taking first lease of the wicket to a score of 114. The total was built around a 53 runs third wicket partnership between Lucy Finn and Emily Powell.
Sri Lanka U-19 in their run chase underwent an early setback when they lost the wicket of in-form batter Sanjana Kavindi with the score on one and lost two more wickets before two partnerships pulled the team out.
Skipper Manudi Nanayakkara, who made an unbeaten 34 in 35 balls with five boundaries was involved in both partnerships, 35 runs for fourth wicket with Nethagi Isuranjali and an unbroken 38 runs for the fifth wicket with Shashini Gimhani to help them reach the target in the 18th over.
The Sri Lanka lasses were coached by Mahesh Weerasinghe who, apart from guiding them to a T20 series triumph, also took them to a victory in the one-off one-dayer by a massive 180 runs.
Scores:
Australia U19 girls 114 for 6 in 20 overs (Lucy Finn 35, Emily Powell 33: Chamodi Praboda 3/15)
Sri Lanka U19 girls 115 for 4 in 17.3 overs (Hiruni Hansika 16, Manudi Nanayakkara 34 n.o., Shashini Gimhani 19 n.o.: Shiloh Julien 2/20)
