COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — South Africa moved closer to the Women’s Cricket World Cup semifinals after cruising to a 10-wicket victory against Sri Lanka in a rain-affected game on Friday.
Captain Laura Wolvaardt’s brisk 60 off 47 balls and Tazmin Brits’ unbeaten 55 off 42 hurtled South Africa to 125 without loss in 14.5 overs. They reached a revised target of 121 with 5.1 overs to spare and their fourth successive win.
Sri Lanka opted to bat first and was 46-2 after 12 overs when rain stopped play for more than five hours. Play resumed just before the cutoff time and was reduced to 20 overs per side. Sri Lanka added 59 runs in eight overs to offer 105-7.
“Very relieved we got a game in the end,” Wolvaardt said. “It was frustrating sitting out for four or five hours but happy with the two points. We just treated it as a normal T20 game and wanted to get ahead of the game as soon as we could and not leave it late.”
South Africa rose to second in the eight-team standings, a point behind semifinal-qualified Australia. But Sri Lanka has yet to register a win; it has two points from two rain abandoned games against Australia and New Zealand.
___
AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
The Associated Press
