ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 Match 3, New Zealand vs Sri Lanka: Preview, prediction, likely XIs

After a couple of matches of the Women’s World T20 on day one, New Zealand Women’s team will go face-to-face against Sri Lanka Women. The Kiwis are clear favourites but as Sri Lanka showed in the warm-up games, they are not pushovers.

On paper, New Zealand Women are much stronger between these two teams. They are missing their regular captain Amy Satterthwaite who is out due to maternity leave but still, they have enough firepower in their side. The captain for this tournament, Sophie Devine is in brilliant form. In the recently concluded home series against South Africa Women, in every T20 Internationals, she has given blistering start to her team which eventually helped them achieve a 3-1 scoreline. They also have Suzie bates, Leigh Kasperek, and Amelia Kerr who can provide a match-winning performance any day. New Zealand have won their warm-up match against Thailand comfortably after losing to England. They will clearly be in a better zone for the fixture against Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka are one of the least fancied teams in this tournament and do not expect to make the top four after the group stage. However, a 10-wicket win over England Women in a warm-up game surely turned heads to make them notice. The main strength of the team is their inspiring captain Chamari Atapattu. Her batting and occasional bowling would be a key factor for Sir Lanka’s success. The all-rounder duo Shashikala Siriwardene and Udeshika Prabodhani is also quite experienced now in the international circuit and expected to deliver if Sri Lanka want to start the tournament with a massive statement by beating the White Ferns.

Head to head

All the seven previous matches ended in a win for the Kiwis.

Key Players

Sophie Devine (New Zealand): New Zealand is one of the most destructive batters in world cricket and her all-around skill is also impressive as she displayed many times in the past. The added responsibility of the captaincy is not bothering her and on the contrary, it gives her a license to go on attacking immediately from the start. Still, now this tactic is working.

Chamari Athapaththu (Sri Lanka): In the last few years, Sri Lankan Women’s cricket developed around Chamari Atapattu who is the captain of the Island nation. Her century during 2017 50-over World Cup is one of the greatest innings in women’s cricket and she has already hinted of her form with an unbeaten 50-ball 78 in their 10- wicket win over England in the warm-ups. She needs to contribute if Sri Lanka wish to start with an upset.

Likely XIs

New Zealand: Sophie Devine (c), Suzie Bates, Laura Down, Maddy Green, Katey martins (wk), Hayley Jensen, Amelia Kerr, Anna Peterson, Lea Tahuhu, Rosemary Mair, Leigh Kasperek.

Sri Lanka: Chamari Athapaththu (c), Dilana Manodara, Udeshika Prabodhini, Shashikala Siriwardene, Nilakshi de Silva, Anushka Sanjeeani (wk), Ama Kanchana, Achini Kulasuriya, Harshitha Madavi, Hansima Karunaratne, Hasini Perera.

Prediction

New Zealand Women to start the tournament with a strong win.