Ameen's 123 & Fatima's 4-Fer Helps Pakistan Women Clinch ODI Series Against Sri Lanka

Sidra Ameen notched up just the second century of her ODI career as Pakistan sealed series win with a thumping 73-run win over Sri Lanka at Southend Club on Friday.

After Sidra's commanding batting performance of 123 took Pakistan to 253/2, young pacer Fatima Sana took four Sri Lankan wickets while conceding 26 runs in her ten overs in restricting the tourists to 180/9 in 50 overs.

Sri Lanka were never quite in the hunt of the 254-run target. Openers Hasini Perera and captain Chamari Athapaththu were sent back with only 31 runs on the board in 12.1 overs. The visitors failed to break the shackles and lost wickets as they attempted to up the scoring rate.

Hansima Karunaratne and Prasadani Weerakkody couldn't get going in the middle overs while Kavisha Dilhari, who scored an unbeaten 49 in the first match, made 32 off 35 balls. But her departure in the 39th over drew curtains on Sri Lanka's efforts. The visitors kept losing wickets as the lower-order succumbed to probing bowling by Pakistan bowlers.

Fatima, who had accounted for Perera in her opening spell, dismissed Oshadi Ranasinghe and Sachini Nisansala off successive balls in the 42nd over. With the dismissal of Nilakshi de Silva for 17, Fatima finished with 4/26 in a spell where she bowled three maidens while Omaima Sohail took 2/35 and Nida Dar had figures of 1/29.

Earlier, for the first time on the tour, Pakistan captain Bismah Maroof won the toss and opted to bat first. Sidra and Muneeba Ali combined to post Pakistan's first-ever century plus opening-stand in 50-over format.

The two were involved in a 158-run partnership which comfortably beat the previous best of 96 between Javeria Khan and Nahida Khan against England at Kuala Lumpur in 2019.

The left-handed Muneeba registered the second fifty of her ODI career but she was dismissed by Oshadi Ranasinghe for 56 off 100 balls. Her fall didn't deter Sidra from reaching the second century of her ODI career on the 137th ball of her innings.

After scoring 76 in the first match, Sidra produced another dazzling display to dominate the Sri Lankan attack, going past her previous best score of 104 before falling for 123, laced with eleven fours. Sidra added 74 runs for the second-wicket with Bismah and has now joined Javeria as Pakistan's most prolific ODI century scorer, at two centuries.

Bismah remained unbeaten on 36 off 43 balls and went past Javeria's tally of 2885 runs to become Pakistan's highest run-getter in the ODI format. Nida scored 10 off seven including a four off the last ball to help the hosts get past the 250-run mark. The third and final ODI will be played on Sunday.

Brief Scores: Pakistan 253/2 in 50 overs (Sidra Ameen 123, Muneeba Ali 56; Kavisha Dilhari 1/43, Oshadi Ranasinghe 1/44) beat Sri Lanka 180/9 in 50 overs (Harshitha Madavi 41, Kavisha Dilhari 32; Fatima Sana 4/26, Omaima Sohail 2/35) by 73 runs