Sri Lanka 129 for 4 (Athapaththu 68, Gunaratne 35, Kapp 1-15) beat South Africa 126 for 9 (Luus 28, Ranaweera 3-18, Ranasinghe 2-20, Sugandika 2-28) by three runs
South Africa’s extremely anticipated house Women’s T20 World Cup acquired underway in probably the most dramatic vogue with Sri Lanka securing a giant upset in opposition to the hosts, profitable by three runs earlier than a document crowd in Cape Town.
Sri Lanka preserve their cool
Tazmin Brits by no means actually acquired going after being struck on the helmet making an attempt a pull shot off Achini Kulasooriya and fell slicing Ranasinghe to further cowl. Kapp scored solely 12 earlier than she holed out to mid-on and when Ranaweera struck once more to take away Wolvaardt with 77 wanted off 10.2 overs, South Africa have been nonetheless forward of Sri Lanka on the identical level however certainly not protected.
However, with Luus and an in-kind Chloe Tryon on the crease, there appeared no cause to panic. But then Tryon and Anneke Bosch fell within the house of three balls, and Luus, who was saved by a wayward throw after a horrible combine-up with Sinalo Jafta, was stumped as Ranaweera claimed her third and put her aspect inside attain of victory. Needing 13 off the final over, Ismail was run out and Sugandika yielded simply two runs off the subsequent three balls, which means that Nonkululeko Mlaba’s 4 off the final was not sufficient.
Athapaththu to the rescue (once more)
The match was virtually 4 overs previous earlier than Sri Lanka discovered the boundary, by way of Athapaththu’s slash by means of further cowl off Kapp. She reeled off two extra again-to-again with a slog sweep after which a pull as Mlaba bowled first too full, then too brief. Nadine de Klerk entered the assault within the seventh over with fast impact although as Samarawickrama spooned the ball straight to brief midwicket.
Athapaththu knew she needed to get transferring and he or she unleashed three fours in a row off de Klerk, twice by means of further cowl earlier than pulling a brief ball over deep sq. leg. Gunaratne, Sri Lanka’s Under-19 captain, then piled on three extra in a row, dispatching Ismail by means of deep midwicket, slicing previous deep third and clearing wicketkeeper Jafta’s head.
Gunaratne added 35 off 34 balls earlier than a direct hit from Brits ended her stand with Athapaththu after she had nudged Kapp in the direction of brief cowl for a fast single. But then Kapp made the main breakthrough, as Athapaththu picked out de Klerk at deep-backward sq. leg.