Chamari Athapaththu helped Sri Lanka beat New Zealand in one of the most incredible series triumphs in the history of international cricket.

Until a week ago, Sri Lanka had won a total of seven ODIs against the ‘Big Five’ of women’s cricket – Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa, and India – and that included three in their stunning run in the 2013 World Cup.

None of these had come against New Zealand (or, obviously, Australia) across 10 ODIs. Worse, when New Zealand had batted first, their margins of win had been at least 96 runs each times. When they chased, each victory margin had been a minimum of seven wickets as well as 74 balls.

In other words, it had been a string of one-sided defeats, and that was the history Sri Lanka were up against when they hosted New Zealand for the three ODIs in Galle.

Sri Lanka reduced New Zealand to 170-5 in 28 overs in the first of the three ODIs. They needed to score at 6.14 runs per over. Only twice in their history had they scored a quicker rate in ODIs – against the Netherlands (8.30 in 2011) and Bangladesh (6.20 in 2023). Against the Big Five, that cap stood at 5.64.

They got the runs with an over to spare. Athapaththu blasted 108 of them, her – and staggeringly, Sri Lanka’s – seventh ODI hundred, in 83 balls. She hit 10 fours and five sixes. At 79 balls, this was her fastest hundred.

Yet, this was nothing comparable to what was about to follow.

New Zealand had their revenge, of course, piling 329-7, getting Athapaththu first ball, and bowling out Sri Lanka for 213. And in the third ODI, they reached 127-2 in 31 overs, on course for a well in excess of 275.

Then it rained, and Sri Lanka’s target was adjusted to 196 in 29 overs – at 6.76 an over. After five overs, Sri Lanka were 7-2: the asking rate had soared to 7.88. It seemed beyond the scope of even Athapaththu, who had ambled to a 10-ball three.

It took four overs to change that, for Athapaththu hit five sixes off the 14 balls she faced. The fifty took her 30 balls – the joint-fastest in Sri Lankan history and the third-fastest against New Zealand.

Athapaththu continued with the carnage. In the 19th over, she hit Lea Tahuhu for four to reach 91 (off 55 balls) to go past Vasanthi Ratnayake’s 88. It was not a multiple of fifty – that would come later in the innings – but it ensured Athapaththu held each of the ten highest scores for Sri Lanka in women’s ODIs.

The hundred – the fourth-fastest in the history of the format – took her five more balls. If anything, she accelerated after that, finishing in a canter with 13 balls to spare. Athapaththu’s 80-ball 140 not out is her (and obviously, Sri Lanka’s) second-biggest score in the format. No batter has made a score as big in the format at a rate as quick.

Athapaththu’s nine sixes are also the joint-most in an innings, along with Sophie Devine’s onslaught against Pakistan at Taunton in the 2017 World Cup. Her 14 sixes in the series are five clear of anyone else’s in a bilateral series – and that includes some seven-match contests as well.

Athapaththu finished the series with the most runs (248), not only the most but the only Sri Lankan in the top four – all that despite her duck. She got dismissed once, and while she struck at 151, none of her teammates with 25 runs managed to score at even 86. And her 14 sixes were not merely the world record: only five other sixes were hit in the entire series, none of them by a Sri Lankan.

Cricket is a sport of 22 individuals, 11 on each side, and the outcome of matches – or series – depends on how all of them perform. It is not fair to expect one one person to outdo an opposition on their own. Against New Zealand, Athapaththu came very close to achieving that.

Yet, that does not seem unbelievable, for since her debut, she had scored 20 percent of Sri Lanka’s ODI runs, hit 25 percent of their fours and 53 percent of their sixes, and – as mentioned above, holds their ten highest scores including every single hundred.

After the series, she achieved another first, rising to the No.1 spot in the ICC Women’s ODI Batting Rankings, the first Sri Lankan to achieve the feat.