In the rain-soaked 20-over-a-side match, South Africa easily chased down 121, the revised total, thanks to breezy half-centuries from Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits. This victory was their fourth consecutive in the ongoing Women’s World Cup in Colombo.
Before being hit by a fielder’s throw in the fifth over, which injured her left knee and required her to be helped off the field, Vishmi Gunaratne had a strong start to Sri Lanka’s batting, hitting a couple of boundaries. Masataba Klaas had two breakthroughs after a sluggish start, dismissing Hasini Perera and Chamari Athapaththu.
When showers guaranteed a lengthy pause, Sri Lanka was down to 46 for 2 at the conclusion of the 12th over. Play didn’t start for almost five hours, and both teams were only given twenty overs to bat. Following the break, Kavisha Dilhari didn’t waste any time in outlining Sri Lanka’s goals. When play resumed, she hit a six off the first ball after pulling Nonkululeko Mlaba’s half-tracker.
South Africa scored runs in consecutive overs, but Vishmi came back to bat with Nilakshi de Silva and scored most of the runs in the remaining overs. In the 18th over, she stroked the spinner for another four after edging Mlaba for a boundary. The South African captain stayed with the left-arm spinner despite the fact that she was becoming costly. In the last over, she took two wickets (aside from Anushka Sanjeewani’s run out) and gave up just four runs to limit Sri Lanka to 105 for 7.
Despite being conservative in the first over, the South African openers did a fantastic job building up the innings. They rotated the strike, worked the ball about in gaps, and continued to find boundaries on a regular basis. They did not panic throughout the run chase, and in the thirteenth over, Wolvaardt and the Brits each hit two boundaries off Kavisha Dilhari, ending any chance of Sri Lanka regaining the match.
The Brits hammered Piumi Badalge for a boundary and a six to complete the chase after Wolvaardt lifted Athapaththu’s short delivery for a boundary in the following over to raise South Africa’s score to 100. It was South Africa’s sixth 10-wicket victory in Women’s ODIs and the pair’s seventh century stand in ODIs.
Brief Scores: Sri Lanka 105/7 in 20 overs (Vishmi Gunaratne 34, Nilakshi de Silva 18; Nonkululeko Mlaba 3-30) lost to South Africa 125 for no loss in 14.5 overs (Laura Wolvaardt 60*, Tazmin Brits 55*) by 10 wickets
