South African captain Laura Woolvardt scored her 6th ODI century when she smashed an unbeaten 110 to lead the Proteas women to a 6 wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the second ODI.
South Africa decided to put Sri Lanka in an unfamiliar position in this tour and make the visitors bat first. Sri Lanka lost Vishmi Gunaratne early to Ayabonga Khaka for 7 runs.
For the second wicket partnership, Chamari Athapaththu and Hasini Perera put on a good 58 run partnership as Hasini fell to leave Sri Lanka on 73 for 2.
Hasani was Nadine de Klerk’s first wicket of 3 of the match. Nadine would pick up the most priced wicket of Chamari as well. The Sri Lankan captain was dismissed for 51 as she was trying to up the scoring rate.
Hansima Karunaratne (33), Kaveesha Dilhari (42) and Nilakshika de Silva (36) did a good job in the Sri Lankan middle-order but will rue the fact they could not capitalise on their decent starts especially Kaveesha who really looked good.
Ayabonga Khaka also took 3 wickets to lead the Proteas women bowling attack. Veteran all-rounder Marizanne Kapp went wicketless, but in her 7 overs, she went for 2.4 runs an over. Nonkululeko Mlaba took two good catches, one at mid-on and the other at mid-off, and both catches were of the bowling of Nadine.
Sri Lanka would post a respectable total of 229 in their 50 overs. One conserning thing for the Proteas would be the 14 wides that the bowlers bowled.
With no Taznim Brits and Anneke Bosch South Africa had an unfamiliar top 3. Lara Gooddall opened the batting with Laura, and Delmi Tucker was slotted at number 3. The Sri Lankan bowlers started well as Laura was dropped by the Sri Lankan wicketkeeper in the first over.
Laura would end up making the Sri Lankans regret not taking that catch, as she added 110 runs.
Lara and Delmi did not stay for long as the Proteas found themselves on 27 for 2 after 7.2 overs. For the third wicket partnership, Laura and Sune Luus added 59 runs, but Sune was bowled out for 21. Sune failed again to pass the 25 run mark in this tour.
Marizanne came in at number 5 to join Laura on 86 for 3. The two batters would go on and add a match winning unbroken partnership of 147. Marizanne scored her 80 runs at a strike rate of 95.
The Proteas go to Potchestroom next with the goal of winning the series 2-0. The Sri Lankans, despite the defeat, yhry still have a chance to make history if they can draw the series by winning again in Potchestroom in this tour.
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