Sri Lanka beat England by seven wickets to win women’s T20 series – live reaction

The player of the match and series is, of course, Chamari Athapaththu

I’m really happy with my performance and the team’s performance. I’ve worked hard in the nets in the last few months. We’ve played some good cricket recently against Bangladesh and New Zealand and we continued it in this series.

We have an excellent coaching team, which has been a turning point. We always talk about positive things, never negatives, and we executed the right plans. That’s why we win. Sri Lanka Cricket have helped the girls a lot – they increased her payments and gave us contracts. That’s really good for the girls. I think we can be a good team in the future.

England’s captain Heather Knight speaks

Credit to Sri Lanka. They played brilliantly in the last two games. They had a clear plan and we need to be better in certain areas – particularly playing spin. We haven’t been at our best and we’ve been punished.

We took a risk by resting players but we want people to get experience, and they have been some really good performances. Mahika Gaur again swung the new ball today. She swung the old ball to be honest! You don’t know about players unless you see them in action.

England’s IT20 player of the summer is Alice Capsey

I’m delighted to pick up the award, though it’s a bit strange to do it in this fashion. It’s been a remarkable summer for the team. I take pride in being given responsibility at the top of the order, and the messaging I’ve had [from Jonathan Lewis and Heather Knight] has been second to none. They want me to carry on playing the same way.

It’s time for the awards ceremony. First up, England’s player of the summer…

The match was almost a replica of the second T20 at Chelmsford on Saturday. England got lost against spin, suffered a middle-order collapse, scraped past 100 and then realised, as Athapaththu smashed the ball everywhere, that it was nowhere near enough.

The Sri Lanka team charged onto the field almost before the ball had bounced over the boundary. Quite right too: this is one of the greatest moments in their cricket history. They have beaten England in a white-ball series for the first time, and they’ve done so by thrashing England twice in five days.

The victory was inspired by their mighty captain Chamari Athapaththu, who took 3/21 and then walloped 44 off 28 balls – but everyone played a part, from the lightning-fast wicketkeeper Anushka Sanjeewani to the young offspinner Kavisha Dilhari.

Sri Lanka’s win is also a great moment for women’s cricket around the world, which becomes more competitive by the year. Roll on the ODIs.

SRI LANKA WIN BY SEVEN WICKETS AND WIN THE SERIES!

16th over: Sri Lanka 112-3 (Samawickrama 22, Perera 9) Gaur is clipped sweetly over midwicket by Samawickrama, but Kemp does well to save a couple of runs on the boundary. Sri Lanka need five to win.

15th over: Sri Lanka 107-3 (Samawickrama 18, Perera 8) Perera pierces the off side again, this time to cut Capsey for three. The match is over; we’re just waiting for the Is to be crossed and the Ts dotted.

14th over: Sri Lanka 100-3 (Samawickrama 14, Perera 4) Heather Knight has brought up the field up, which has to be the right approach in these circumstances. But when Dean drops short, the new batter Perera gets off the mark with a firm cut for four. Sri Lanka are 17 runs away from making history.

13th over: Sri Lanka 94-3 (Samawickrama 14, Perera 0) Glenn finishes with 4-0-23-2. England have done well in the last few overs, but Athapaththu innings put Sri Lanka so far ahead of the game that they should be fine.

WICKET! Sri Lanka 94-3 (Gunaratne LBW b Glenn 8)

12th over: Sri Lanka 92-2 (Samawickrama 13, Gunaratne 7) Dani Gibson comes on to bowl some inswingers. She starts well but then bowls a needless short ball that is back cut for four by Gunaratne, who needed that after making 2 from her first 11 balls.

The umpire Rob White provides a bit of light relief by slipping on his derriere while trying to avoid a collision with Heather Knight.

11th over: Sri Lanka 87-2 (Samawickrama 13, Gunaratne 2) Sri Lanka need 30 from 54 balls.

REVIEW! Sri Lanka 84-2 (Gunaratne not out 1)

10th over: Sri Lanka 83-2 (Samawickrama 12, Gunaratne 1) Samarawickrama moves Sri Lanka closer to glory with three successive twos off Glenn. There have been signs of Sri Lanka’s improvement this year, including the stunning win over South Africa at the World T20. Even so, few people saw this coming. They are thrashing England, again.

9th over: Sri Lanka 76-2 (Samawickrama 5, Gunaratne 1) A couple of wides tarnish an otherwise good over from Capsey. England don’t have enough runs to be bowling wides; Sri Lanka need 41 from 66 balls.

8th over: Sri Lanka 71-2 (Samawickrama 3, Gunaratne 0) That was the last ball of the over.

WICKET! Sri Lanka 71-2 (Sanjeewani c Capsey b Glenn 20)

7th over: Sri Lanka 67-1 (Sanjeewani 18, Samawickrama 1) That wicket, welcome though it is, is surely too late for England. Sri Lanka need 50 from 78 balls.

WICKET! Sri Lanka 65-1 (Athapaththu c Dean b Capsey 44)

6th over: Sri Lanka 58-0 (Athapaththu 38, Sanjeewani 16) Sanjeewani, who has played a good supporting role, sweeps Dean for a single to bring up the fifty partnership in only 5.1 overs. The other advantage of a single is that it brings Athapaththu on strike; she cuts two of the next three balls for four.

I don’t suppose anything will top her astonishing 178 in the 2017 World Cup, but the last few days are running it close.

5th over: Sri Lanka 49-0 (Athapaththu 30, Sanjeewani 15) Sarah Glenn replaces Mahika Gaur, so it’ll be spin from both ends. As if Athpaththu cares. She launches the third ball over mid-off for another majestic boundary, and she is already the highest score in the match with 30 from 20 balls. Englare are in abundant strife.

4th over: Sri Lanka 39-0 (Athapaththu 24, Sanjeewani 11) It’s not just that Sri Lanka look set to win a series against England for the first time; they’re on course to do so with successive hammerings. I know England are without some key players but this is still pretty remarkable.

Charlie Dean is brought into the attck after just three overs. Her first ball goes down the leg side for three wides, and Sri Lanka take nine from the over in total. They are cruising.

3rd over: Sri Lanka 30-0 (Athapaththu 21, Sanjeewani 8) Gaur looks quite a find. A tall left-armer who swings the ball at good pace (high 60s) and seems to have a repeatable action.

She’s up against an all-time great tonight, though, and that means there is very little margin for error. Her second over comprises four good balls and two bad ones. Atapaththu belts the first back over her head for four and flicks the second over deep backward square for six. Marvellous batting.

2nd over: Sri Lanka 18-0 (Athapaththu 10, Sanjeewani 7) The first six of the match. Kate Cross’s second ball is on the pads of Athapaththu, who flicks it sweetly over deep backward square. There was a fielder on the boundary but Atapaththu didn’t care.

Sanjeewani, who kept immaculately during the England innings, cuffs a length ball to midwicket for four more. Cross has an LBW appeal turned down when Sanjeewani walks across; it was missing leg and Amy Jones counsels against a review.

A terrific over for Sri Lanka, 13 from it.

1st over: Sri Lanka 5-0 (Athapaththu 2, Sanjeewani 3) England know that if they don’t get Athapththu early, they can probably forget it. Gaur’s first ball is a good one that Athpaththu edges wide of slip for a single, and later in the over she beats the bat with a lovely outswinger.

Sanjeewani laps the last ball of the over to fine leg, where Glenn does very well to save two runs.

The players are back out on the field. Mahika Gaur, 17, will bowl the first over.

The innings started hideously for England, when Danni Wyatt was out first ball, and it didn’t get much better. Maia Bouchier top-scored with an elegant 23, but even she was involved in the very costly run-out of Alice Capsey. The pitch is a bit awkward, but no more than that. If Sri Lanka bat well, they should win.

WICKET! England 116 all out (Gaur LBW b Athapaththu 0)

WICKET! England 116-9 (Cross st Sanjeewani b Athapaththu 2)

Glenn is not out!

England review! Glenn given out LBW

18th over: England 112-8 (Glenn 14, Cross 1) Glenn makes room to cut Kumari emphatically for four, then slices another boundary past the fielder at short third. She plays a similar stroke next ball which lands fractionally short of Prabodhani. In the end Prabodhani did well to save another boundary.