Chasing a modest 131, Athapaththu slammed a 61-ball 106, which accounted for 79.1% of the total innings contribution, the most in a T20I innings of more than 100 runs. She hit 17 fours, including eight through or over the covers and six pulled or flicked leg side, and two sixes in a brutal display that combined her lets-get-on-with-it attitude to get the team over the line with her I’m-still-here mission for herself.

Given Sri Lanka’s position in the tournament – one win from three matches – they needed a big win. Given Athapaththu’s recent record, she needed a big performance. They both came in one. “In the last 18 months I haven’t score a hundred, so a lot of bad comments came to me,” she said. “I love those comments because otherwise I won’t improve. Sometimes healthy criticism is really good for a cricketer. That’s why I played a good game today and I showed my jersey and my name because I said to the others, ‘I’m still alive.'”

At 36 years old, there are always questions about when she may decide to stop playing and even though she has hinted at it with social media posts in the past, her actions on-field suggested the answer is not anytime soon. Athapaththu brought up her hundred with a celebration that was muted at first as she acknowledged the crowd and then turned around and pointed at her name and number on her jersey, almost football-player style.

“We don’t have three or four world-class players in my team,” she said. “The team is very young and they don’t have franchise exposure and the experience. We find good players but it’s too hard to build a good team without good world-class players. Other teams – Australia, New Zealand, England – have world-class players.”

She didn’t mention India, perhaps by accident, which is where she has played in the WPL for UP Warriorz (albeit briefly) but spoke about the importance of franchise opportunities in developing players. “Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka – we don’t have world-class players because these players can’t get any opportunity to play in franchise leagues in any other country. That’s the sad part,” she said. “I got that opportunity and I played around the world franchise cricket because I score runs and I perform. I’m continuously performing so that’s why I get the opportunity to play around the world. I’ve learned a lot of things when I was playing franchise because I share the dressing room with some of the world-class players and share the knowledge with them.”

Athapaththu’s commitment to continuing to help Sri Lankan women’s cricket means that she is likely to continue playing for as long as there is a not challenger but there is also a collective goal. Her own accolades pale in comparison to her desire to take the team to the knockouts of a World Cup and that has not dimmed despite her own achievements.

She reiterated she is “still sad” about Sri Lanka’s tournament fortunes in the time she has been involved even though she did not go as far as using the word failure this time. “I know we won this game and I scored a hundred but I am still worried about the game against West Indies. We had a pretty good chance to make the semi-finals and we lost that opportunity,” she said. “As a captain, as a player. I’m really worried about that. I played 10 World Cups as a player and I captained in this team five World Cups but still we have not made the semi-finals. It’s a huge loss for us. As a player I’m really worried about that.”

Mathematically Sri Lanka are not out yet of the tournament but need another strong result against Scotland, and for other results to go their way, so it seems unlikely they will advance. However, as long as they finish in the top four of the group, they will automatically qualify for the 2028 tournament in Pakistan although their ranking should see them safe. They are also hosts of next year’s inaugural Champions Trophy, a six-team event, which could give Athapaththu and Sri Lanka the chance to lift a trophy.