Ongama Gcwabe
Proteas Women: 270/6
Tazmin Brits 116, Laura Wolvaardt 41; Oshadi Ranasinghe 2/42
Sri Lanka Women: 23/0
Chamari Athapaththu12*, Vishmi Gunaratne 9*
Match abandoned due to rain, declared No Result
Inclement weather in the Eastern Cape spoiled the first One Day International between the Proteas Women and Sri Lanka Women at Buffalo Park in East London on Tuesday.
The visitors were 6.5 overs into their chase of the 271-run target – set by the hosts – when the heavens opened, bringing the match to a standstill and forcing the match officials to call it No Result. Earlier, the wet outfield led to a 45-minute delay to the start of the match which did not result in overs lost.
Sri Lanka captain, Chamari Athapaththu, called correctly at the toss and given that the wicket had been under covers for a number of days with all the rain in this part of the country, the skipper opted to bowl first.
Athapaththu gave the new ball to left-arm seamer Udeshika Prabodhani and right-arm seamer Achini Kulasuriya, while Proteas openers Laura Wolvaardt and Tazmin Brits took to the middle to get the proceedings underway.
The visitors did not claim a single wicket in the first powerplay but did a good job in controlling the run-rate as Athapaththu called on her spinners to have a crack at South Africa’s opening batters.
It was not long before off-spinner, Kavisha Delhari, got in the wickets as she broke a 94-run stand between Brits and Wolvaardt (41), accounting for the Proteas Women’s captain in the 20th over of the match.
Anneke Bosch (39) and Brits combined for a 70-run stand before spinner Oshadi Ranasinghe dismissed Bosch.
While the wickets kept tumbling at the other end, Britz (116) slowly went about her business and brought up a second career century before she too fell victim to Delhari’s spin.
Nadine de Klerk came in at number six in the batting order and put together a 22-ball 34 to push South Africa to a competitive 270/6.