Twitter reacts to Chamari Attapattu's mammoth innings against Southern Stars

It was just a cold normal day at Bristol, as Southern Stars were expected to roll over the Sri Lankan Women in the ongoing ICC Women’s World Cup. Before the commencement of the match, not many knew about the name of Chamari Atapattu. But only after the interval of the match, her name was lauded by the entire cricketing fraternity.

The white ferns of the New Zealand Women’s cricket team made the opening fixture of the ICC Women’s World Cup a one-sided contest. Atapattu was the only women standing tall against the Kiwis, as the rest of the women struggled to even time the ball. She scored a valiant half-century as the Black Caps made sure her innings didn’t threaten while dismissing her for 53 in just 66 balls.

Cut to 29th June 2017, a day which the Sri Lankan cricket would remember for a long, long time, Attapattu yet again dominated proceedings, as she single-handedly tried to pull forward the struggling Lankan lineup. Out of the 257 runs, the Lions scored, Atapattu contributed 70% of the runs as she remained unbeaten on 178 off just 143 deliveries at an explosive strike rate of 125.

She took the titans of the Southern Stars to the cleaners by scoring a whopping 22 boundaries in her innings accompanied by six maximums. The importance of the innings can be made out if we see down the scorecard to check out the second highest scorecard which comes out to be 24 from Siriwardena. Eight of the eleven batsmen could not even reach the double digits.

Except for Chamari Atapattu, the batters had no answers to the spells from Ellyse Perry, Nicole Bolton, and Beams, who had a field day claiming a couple of wickets each. With this innings, Atapattu became the third highest scorer in ODI history and also gave a huge chance to her team for overhauling the Southern Stars.

Let us look at how Twitter reacted to the superhuman knock of Atapattu

Chamari Atapattu is better than Dinesh Chandimal. #SLvAUS #SriLanka #Cricket @OfficialSLC

— Raees Ul Haq (@RaeesUlHaq) June 29, 2017

Well payed Chamari Atapatu! Great innings!

— Mahela Jayawardena (@MahelaJay) June 29, 2017

Record breaking innings from Chamari Atapattu 178*, Next highest 24, Sri Lanka ends at 257/9, 3rd highest score in Women's ODI history

— Azzam Ameen (@AzzamAmeen) June 29, 2017

Highest ODI scores with next highest less than 25 in a completed inns:

178* – CHAMARI ATAPATTU #WWC17
175* – Kapil Dev
126 – Faf du Plessis

— Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats) June 29, 2017

Chamari Atapattu 178* off 143 balls in Sri Lankan Women's total of 257/9. Now, that's a knock. Some work for Australian Women now #WWC17

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) June 29, 2017

I feel Chamari Atapattu should be promoted to Sri Lanka men's team .#WWC17 #SLvAUS

— SANDEEP YADAV (@Iamsandy_CR7) June 29, 2017

Chamari Atapattu ???? shuuu a one woman performance! ???? #WWC17

— Mondli Nhlaka Motha (@mondli_motha) June 29, 2017

In some ways, Chamari Atapattu also reminds you of Karen Rolton.

— Bharath Ramaraj (@Fancricket12) June 29, 2017

Chamari Atapattu's unbeaten 178 in 143 balls has taken SL to 257/9 v Aus at Bristol.
This is the 3rd highest in women's ODI history!#WWC17

— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) June 29, 2017

Chamari Atapattu ले आज अस्ट्रेलियालाई (?) धुस्नु चुटिछन् ।

— कोइरालो (@ShiwKoi) June 29, 2017

What a star. Take a bow Chamari Atapattu #WWC17

— J Bahubali (@secularengineer) June 29, 2017

Congratulations Chamari Atapattu @OfficialSLC #WWC2017 #SLvAus https://t.co/ygaIEIZGWM

— Russel Arnold (@RusselArnold69) June 29, 2017

Another ? in this #WWC17, this time #Athapaththu vs @SouthernStars Bravo ?? ????

— Lisa Sthalekar (@sthalekar93) June 29, 2017

What a knock! Take a bow! ?? #WWC17 https://t.co/x2ZksW7Rlf

— Danielle Wyatt (@Danni_Wyatt) June 29, 2017

Athapaththu's 178 of Sri Lanka's 257 is highest % of innings runs in a women's ODI team total (69.2). Just 0.22% behind men's mark. #WWC17

— Scott Bailey (@scottybailey313) June 29, 2017