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ICC WOMEN'S WORLD T20

February 29, 2020

Chamari Athapaththu

Melbourne, New South Wales

India - 116/3, Sri Lanka - 113/9

Q. With the bat, again, you've been in good form in this match. Also you were looking good. Was that short, did it come off like you wanted?
CHAMARI ATHAPATHTHU: No, actually I was trying to hit the row, but it's like a short ball for me. Because every time I go to loose ball I try to hit because I don't want to get a single for loose ball. So before that ball, that previous ball I hit six, so that the next -- that ball was like a short ball, so I tried to hit, but the thing is it start going the other row, so now I got out. Actually I tried to play my positive wicket. I don't want to stay and dot ball, dot ball, dot ball. I try to play my natural, normal game, my positive cricket. That's it.

Q. Do you think if Sri Lanka weren't dependent on you Sri Lanka would have won by 13?
CHAMARI ATHAPATHTHU: Because we have a lot of young players, so they weren't experienced. We have only one, two girls; Shashikala is allrounder; Udeshika is like an experienced bowler. So experienced batters, we don't have experienced batters. I'm only experience playing on my team as a batter, so I have to stay there and play my positive cricket. Actually the whole batting unit depends on me, so we try to improve that area the next couple of months.

Q. You mentioned Shashikala and Udeshika. Both of them have indicated they might not continue playing after this tournament. How much of an impact will that leave on your team?
CHAMARI ATHAPATHTHU: Actually Shashikala will retire after this tour but not Udeshika. She will be playing next one, two years. I want her, so I hope she will be playing. But Shashikala will retire after this tournament because she has a lot of private -- she has a lot of things to do with family, so she has to leave.

Q. Thinking about your bowling innings, some dropped catches by various teams against Shafali this tournament; how costly were those today?
CHAMARI ATHAPATHTHU: Yeah, definitely catches win matches, so Shafali is one of the young good cricketers in the world, so she gave two chances for us. We dropped that two chances, then we can't stop that type of player. We know we dropped Sophie Devine two catches in New Zealand match and Rachel Priest, two catches, and today Shafali's two chances. So catches win matches, so a lot of positive, aggressive batters give some chances, so we have to carry those chances, otherwise we can't stop them.

Q. You mentioned you have some youngsters in your team. Do you think they can learn a lot by watching what Shafali can do in the middle today?
CHAMARI ATHAPATHTHU: Yeah, definitely we have a lot of young good players, especially Kavisha, you can see she's playing really good today, and Umesha Thimashini, one of the good cricketers in Sri Lanka, very young girl. Hopefully she will be playing next couple of years, will be a good cricketer.

Q. Finally, you've played some of the big teams already in this tournament in your group. How likely do you think it is based on today that India could go on to win it?
CHAMARI ATHAPATHTHU: Yep, India is a really good team. They're leading our group, and hopefully they'll play good cricket last couple of weeks so maybe they can go to the finals, and yeah, Australia, New Zealand are the best teams in our group, so it depends on the next game who's going for the semifinals. Actually I'd love to play India -- I want to see India in finals because I'm Asian so I'd love for India to play in the finals.

Q. Chamari, with one final game to go, your takeaways from your performances? Do you still feel the team is heavily reliant on you, or do you think you have spotted batters in your lineup whom you can probably both as a captain and senior batter rely on, not in this World Cup any longer but in the next world tournaments? The ODI qualifiers are going to be beginning soon.
CHAMARI ATHAPATHTHU: Yeah, definitely I have experience, but other girls want a lot of experience, so hopefully all the young cricketers will be fine-tuning the next couple of months and we will build good teams the next couple of months. That's my target and my management targets. We have good, positive things in this team, especially Kavisha, Umesha Thimashini and Harshitha Madavi, our young vice captain, so there will be good cricketers in the next couple of months, so I want them and want to build a good team. I want to build a good team, and we want to win the World Cup qualifiers, 50-over World Cup qualifiers and then go for the World Cup.

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