Wolvaardt relieved after South Africa beat Sri Lanka and rain

COLOMBO: South Africa skipper Laura Wolvaardt admitted that there was plenty of relief after her team secured a 10-wicket victory over Sri Lanka in a game marked by a long rain delay, as per a media release from ICC.

The win in Colombo puts South Africa on the brink of the semifinals of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025, with two group stage matches still to play. They were made to sweat after a game which was delayed by more than five hours midway through the Sri Lankan innings.

Batting first, Sri Lanka were on 46 for two after 12 overs when the rain came down, with the match shortened to a 20-over affair after the conditions improved. The home side added a further 59 runs upon the resumption, with the revised total set at 121 for South Africa.

That proved a comfortable chase, with Wolvaardt leading the way with an unbeaten 60, alongside Tazmin Brits’ 55 not out, the captain named Player of the Match for her performance.

A masterclass from the skipper!

Composed, classy, and relentless! Laura Wolvaardt’s brilliant innings guided #TheProteas Women to a memorable victory, earning her Aramco’s Player of the Match award. #Unbreakable #CWC25 pic.twitter.com/8TGxkjwb3S

— Proteas Women (@ProteasWomenCSA) October 17, 2025

She said, “I’m very relieved we got a game in the end. 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,” as quoted from a media release by ICC.

“We went at it with the same intensity as a T20 game. That ball was a bar of soap when we were bowling, but it came on nicely, so it was good when we were batting,” she added. “Our normal death bowlers were bowled out already so we had to bowl some spin at the end but they did really well,” she noted.

“In a World Cup it’s a bit different, lot of preparation as a captain. But when I’m out there, I’m just watching the ball and trying to hit it as well as I can,” she remarked.

South Africa had been reliant on their middle and lower order in previous wins over India and Bangladesh, with their previous best opening stand in the tournament sitting at just 26. Wolvaardt and Brits were rarely troubled on this occasion and ensured that there would be no late drama as they cruised to the required total.

The captain added, “It’s something we’ve definitely been speaking about. We haven’t had the best tournament as an opening pair, so it was great to put on a 100-run stand. I think we are still searching for that perfect game as a team.

“Sometimes the top order has fired, sometimes the middle order. We need to come together,” she noted. “We’ve been a bit loose with the ball in the death overs but we did that better today. It’s tough to stay switched on, you could see we weren’t as switched on when we just came back after the break but we were able to regroup,” she added.

Sri Lanka’s defeat leaves them still without a win after four matches, with two of those having been abandoned due to rain. Their cause was not helped here by the weather, with their spinners struggling in the wet conditions as they tried to break the opening partnership.

Skipper Chamari Athapaththu admitted, “The ball was too hard to grip, especially for the spinners. And we are dependent on spin so we struggled. These kind of things happened in the middle unfortunately.”

“We have two more games and we want to play well and win those and finish as high as possible. We discussed that we had a good game in the last game so we decided to bat first and unfortunately the rain affected the game,” she said.

“As a team we’ll stick with our plans in the next game. As a team we have to play positive and fearless cricket. And we need to take the smart options as a batting unit,” she added. (ANI)