South Africa’s Laura Wolvaardt (L) and Tazmin Brits (C) shake arms with Sri Lanka’s Harshitha Samarawickrama (R) after successful the ICC Girls’s Cricket World Cup 2025 match in opposition to Sri Lanka on the R Premadasa Worldwide Cricket Stadium in Colombo on October 17, 2025. — AFP
South Africa’s juggernaut rolled on within the Girls’s World Cup as they crushed Sri Lanka by 10 wickets in a rain-marred contest in Colombo on Friday.
In a recreation lowered to twenty overs, the Proteas first tied down Sri Lanka to 105-7 after which chased a revised goal of 121 in 14.5 overs, tightening their grip on second place within the factors desk.
The win pushed South Africa to eight factors, only one behind defending champions Australia, who’ve 9. England, the four-time winners, are third on seven factors however with a recreation in hand over South Africa.
Colombo’s fickle climate, which has already drowned out three fixtures, once more performed spoilsport. Having opted to bat, Sri Lanka had been 46-2 when the heavens opened. As soon as the skies cleared, umpires chopped the competition to twenty overs per facet.
“We just took it like a T20 game and didn’t want to leave it till the end,” skipper Laura Wolvaardt stated. “Pretty tricky with all the rain delays, but in the end it worked well for us.”
Wolvaardt led from the entrance with a glowing unbeaten 60 off 47 deliveries, whereas left-arm spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba’s tidy spell of 3-30 utilized the brakes after the rain break.
The South African bowlers tightened the screws, conceding simply 59 runs within the final eight overs whereas selecting up 5 wickets.
Vishmi Gunaratne’s breezy 34 with six boundaries was the lone vivid spark for Sri Lanka.
Chasing at six an over, South Africa’s openers made mild work of the goal, batting with the composure of a facet excessive on confidence.
Wolvaardt’s half-century was her second of the match, whereas Tazmin Brits rediscovered her contact with an unbeaten 55 from 42 balls, peppered with 4 fours and two towering sixes, the final of which over mid-wicket sealed the sport in model.
Their unbroken 125-run stand got here off simply 89 deliveries.
For a facet bowled out for 69 of their opening recreation by England, South Africa’s turnaround has been outstanding with 4 wins on the trot, together with a gritty one over India.
Sri Lanka, in the meantime, stay winless after 5 outings in a marketing campaign stricken by rain and inconsistency.
Returning to the worldwide stage after lacking the 2022 version, Chamari Athapaththu’s facet have had little luck, with two of their video games washed away.
“It’s been a frustrating campaign with so much rain,” Athapaththu lamented. “Our spinners struggled to grip the ball today, but we have two games left and want to finish on a high.”
