Sri Lanka drop vital catches to lose second WODI to South Africa

Chamari Athapaththu top scored for Sri Lanka Women with her 16th WODI half-century

Laura Wolvaardt and Marizanne Kapp share an unbroken fourth wicket partnership of 143 to carry South Africa to victory

Laura Wolvaardt dropped behind the wicket before she had scored and Marizanne Kapp missed by Sri Lanka Captain Chamari Athapaththu off her own bowling at 25 made Sri Lanka pay dearly for the lapses as they guided South Africa to a convincing seven wickets win in the second Women’s ODI played at Kimberley on Saturday.

Wolvaardt scored her third century (110* off 141 balls, 6 fours) since taking over the captaincy and sixth overall and Kapp her third half-century (77* off 84 balls, 7 fours) in seven innings as they shared an unbroken fourth wicket partnership of 143 as South Africa chased down Sri Lanka’s total of 229 to win with 14 balls to spare and go 1-up in the three-match series. The first match affected by rain ended in a no-result. The third and final game commences at Potchefstroom on Wednesday.

On a pitch with low bounce at one end both batters were strong down the ground and Sri Lanka’s attack lacked the threat to cause them any serious problems.

Sri Lanka put into bat first lost Vishmi Gunaratne early in the sixth over, but Athapaththu and Hasini Perera put on 58 for the second wicket before Perera was dismissed for 15. Athapaththu hit the first ball she faced from Eliz-Mari Marx for four and went onto score five more boundaries off her, including four successive fours in the 14th over. She went onto bring up her 16th ODI half-century off 66 balls (9 fours) before being dismissed with more than half the Sri Lankan innings remaining.

Hansima Karunaratne (33) and Kavisha Dilhari (42) combined for 61 off 69 balls for the fourth wicket with Karunaratne hitting the only six of the innings. Sri Lanka were on track for 250-plus score at 152-3 after 35 overs. But once Karunaratne was dismissed Sri Lanka found the going hard and despite a seventh wicket stand of 41 off 51 between Oshadie Ranasinghe (20) and Nilakshi Silva (36) they were bowled out with a ball remaining for 229.

This left South Africa with the task of completing the highest successful chase in Kimberley which they did courtesy the dropped catches. Lightning strikes halted play briefly with South Africa 157 in the 35th over, 25 runs ahead of the DLS. But play resumed shortly afterwards for the match to be played to a finish.

Scores: Sri Lanka Women 229 (49.5) (Chamari Athapaththu 51, Hansima Karunaratne 33, Kavisha Dilhari 42, Nilakshi Silva 36, Oshadi Ranasinghe 20, Ayabonga Khaka 3/28, Nadine de Klerk 3/23, Nonkululeku Mlaba 2/40)

South Africa Women 230-3 (47.5) (Laura Wolvaardt 110*, Sune Luus 21, Marizanne Kapp 77*)