In what was another low scoring affair in the Women's World Cup, South Africa trounced Sri Lanka by eight wickets to make the race for semi-finals even more interesting. After winning the toss, Lankan captain Inoka Ranaweera chose to bat first, only to see her side lose all their wickets after adding just 101 runs to the board.
The Proteas women then chased down the target without much of a fuss.
Here are five talking points from the match.
#1 Shabnim Ismail's prolific bowling
Ismail, playing in her 75th ODI, gave her team another good start in the match and then came back to clean up the tail as well.Along with Marizanne Kapp, the 28-year-old struck early to derail the opposition train even before it had started its journey.
While Kapp got in-form Chamari Atapattu in the second over itself, Ismail provided another blow as she bagged number three Hasini Perera's wicket a couple of overs later.
The right-arm fast bowler then came back at the tail-end of the innings to pick the ninth and tenth wicket and help restrict Sri Lanka to a small total of 101. She finished with figures of 7.3-0-14-3.
#2 Sri Lanka fail to capitalise on a healthy third wicket partnership
After South Africa’s opening bowlers had given two early setbacks to the Lankans, Chamari Polgampola and Prasadani Weerakkody patiently added 43 runs for the third wicket.
What this partnership did was allow the Asian team a bit of breathing space. Both the batswomen had faced around 50 balls each and were looking set to make it big.
However, the 20th over saw the pair lose their wickets to a rampant Dane van Niekerk and with them, Sri Lanka's hopes of putting up a respectable score on the board went down the drain as well.
#3 Dane van Niekerk can’t put a foot wrong
Carrying on with her brilliant bit of form, the South Africa captain picked up four more wickets in the match. With 13 wickets in 6 matches, Van Niekerk sits atop the top wicket-takers list with a handsome lead of three wickets from second-placed Amelia Kerr of England.
After breaking the budding partnership for the third wicket by removing both the set batswoman in the same over, the 24-year-old bagged two more wickets, those of Harshitha Madavi and Sripali Weerakkody in two consecutive overs of her last spell of the match.
The captain has quite clearly led the team from the front in most of the matches. She will try and repeat her performance in the crunch match against Australia, which will decide South Africa’s fate in the tournament.
#4 Sri Lanka strike early but to no avail
While defending a low score, first thing in the mind of the bowling team is to strike early. And Sri Lanka did exactly that.
On the fourth ball of the innings, Sripali Weerakkody got SA opener Lizelle Lee caught behind. The 25-year-old’s wicket was a priceless one and came at a crucial juncture of the match.
However, the Lankan bowlers failed to impose themselves on the South African batting line-up and managed to bag just one more wicket before the Proteas wrapped up the match in style, winning it by eight wickets.
#5 Laura Wolvaardt and Mignon du Preez chase down the total easily
Having lost both Lee and Trisha Chetty by the end of sixth over, the SA women were on the lookout of a partnership which would stabilise the ship and help them reach the target. The duo of Wolvaardt and Du Preez did exactly that.
A 78-run partnership, which was stitched on both sides of the lunch break, saw the Proteas through with more than half the quota of overs left. While the opener Wolvdaart scored 48 runs with the help of seven boundaries, Du Preez helped the cause with 38 runs of her own.
With this win, SA women leapfrogged the Indian team, who as I write the article are not far from a defeat at the hands of Aussies, on the points table.
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