Chamari Athapaththu's 83* leads Sri Lanka into final

Athapaththu was quiet at the start of her innings, and she could afford it because her opening partner Imesha Dulani gave Sri Lanka immediate impetus in their chase, hitting five fours in the first four overs before falling for a tone-setting 21-ball 27. At that point, Athapaththu was batting on 4 off 9. By the end of the powerplay, she had moved to 7 off 12, and hadn't hit a single boundary.

The change of gear took place in a 20-run eighth over, in which she tonked Momina Riasat for 6, 4, 6, 4. The second six was a fortuitous one, a slog-sweep that Fatima Sana caught at deep midwicket only to step on the rope while attempting to toss the ball back into the field of play. A clean catch would have sent Athapaththu back for 18 off 19 balls.

Instead, the left-handed Athapaththu continued to take full toll of her match-up against left-arm spin, hitting two fours and a six off Nashra Sandhu in the 10th over to bring the equation down to 90 off 60 balls.

When Hasini fell, Sri Lanka needed 47 off 36 balls; Athapaththu and Harshitha Samarawickrama needed just 23 of those balls to finish the job.

Sent in to bat, Pakistan posted their highest-ever T20I total against Sri Lanka, but they may have ended their innings feeling they had left a few runs out in the middle. Zulfiqar scored her second T20I half-century, but her 54 consumed as many as 50 balls. The impetus for Pakistan's total came from Zafar, who came in at No. 4 and smacked 71 off just 40 balls, hitting nine fours and two sixes.

Zafar and Zulfiqar put on 115 for the third wicket in 70 balls, and nearly all the heavy hitting came from one end, with Zulfiqar contributing 37 off 30 to the partnership.