Lewis smacks 75-ball 119 as Ireland hold off SL to level series 1-1
Written by I Dig SportsIreland 173 for 3 (Lewis 119, Prendergast 38) beat Sri Lanka 166 for 7 (Samarawickrama 65, Dilhari 51*, Prendergast 2-28, Sargent 2-36) by seven runs
Batting first in Dublin, Ireland lost Amy Hunter inside the powerplay, but Lewis kept the hosts going. She found an ally in Prendergast with the duo adding 119 runs for the second wicket off 80 balls. Lewis did the bulk of the scoring in the partnership with 78 off 49 balls while Prendergast scored 38 off 31.
Lewis reached her fifty off 40 balls with both batters upping their pace after the halfway mark. Prendergast struck Achini Kulasuriya for back-to-back fours in the 12th over before Lewis followed suit in the next striking Shashini Gimhani for two fours of her own. Even with Prendergast not finding the boundaries often, Lewis made sure to keep the scoreboard ticking.
Dilhari, however, kept finding the boundaries at regular intervals even as Sri Lanka lost wickets at the other end. The visitors required 22 off the last two overs and 16 off six. Dilhari struck a six in the final over to reach her fifty but with eight needed off two, failed to get a clean connection as the hosts managed to level the series.