Sri Lanka shot out for lowest total – 47

Friday, 5 August 2022 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Loses to South Africa by ten wickets in final CWG match

South Africa ended an eight-match losing streak, and five in the T20I format, with an emphatic win in their last outing of a long England tour.

They finished third in Group B at the Commonwealth Games and will not feature in the medal matches. Sri Lanka have been left at the bottom of the points table, with losses in all three of their group games and much work to do ahead of qualifiers for next year’s T20 World Cup, specifically in their batting.

In this match, Sri Lanka were bowled out for their lowest total in T20Is with only one batter - Chamari Athapaththu - getting into double figures. They had four ducks on the scorecard and only one partnership over 10 runs, and were overly aggressive in their approach, with plenty of loose drives. Shabnim Ismail challenged them with pace, Masabata Klaas’ lengths proved difficult to get away and Nadine de Klerk moved the ball both ways to leave Sri Lanka without many answers.

Apart from carrying the flag at the opening ceremony, Athapaththu had a tournament to forget with only 25 runs from three innings. She stood batter alone as the top six fell around her but as the halfway stage of the Sri Lankan innings approached, with only 27 runs on the board, she decided to take on the bowling.

Though Klaas was not bowling particularly short, Athapaththu swiveled around her back foot but didn’t get enough on the stroke and top-edged to give Klaas an easy catch. Klaas was included in South Africa’s XI in place of Ayabonga Khaka and finished with 2 for 7.

Overall, they had the lowest aggregate score across the group stage of all teams in the tournament, including Barbados, who did not cross 100 in two innings. Sri Lanka scored 106 for 9 against England, 102 for 8 against New Zealand and 46 in this match to total 254. Barbados scored 270 in the tournament. With not many to chase, South Africa eased their way to an incident-free victory in 6.1 overs, their first win since beating Ireland on 17 June.

Scores:

n Sri Lanka Women 46 (17.1) (Chamari Athapaththu 15, Masabata Klaas 2/7, Nadine de Klerk 3/7)

n South Africa Women 49-0 (6.1) (Anneke Bosch 20*, Tazmin Britz 21*)