Captain Laura Wolvaardt’s great unbeaten innings of 184 runs was for nothing – Sri Lanka’s women’s cricket team beat the Proteas by six wickets in the third ODI at Potchefstroom.
The 24-year-old Wolvaardt played the innings of her life and she hit 27 boundaries in her spectacular performance. This is the highest ODI score ever by a South African female player.
She smashed her runs from just 147 deliveries and the aggressive approach should give her career strike rate a definite boost.
However, South Africa’s other top order batsmen struggled and Suné Luus (0) and Delmi Tucker (1) were dismissed cheaply.
At least Wolvaardt enjoyed good batting partnerships with Marizanne Kapp and Nadine de Klerk and the Proteas scored 301 runs in the allowed 50 overs.
But a brilliant performance by Chamari Athapaththu made Sri Lanka’s subsequent run chase look like child’s play and the visitors hit the winning runs in the 45th over.
Athapaththu defeated the Protea bowlers with an unbeaten innings of 195 runs and she immediately ended the showdown with a six for her team.
Sri Lanka’s score of 305/4 is the highest successful run chase in ODIs for women’s players, while Wolvaardt and Athapaththu became the first players (both women and men) to score innings of more than 170 runs together in a match.
Two of the five highest individual women’s ODI scores in one match!
Chamari Athapaththu and Sri Lanka edge Laura Wolvaardt and South Africa ????
More from #SAvSL ???? https://t.co/OqKslu5c94 pic.twitter.com/p9AeJ02aQQ
— ICC (@ICC) April 18, 2024
- Summary of the scorecard:
Proteas 301/5 in 50 overs: Laura Wolvaardt 184*, Marizanne Kapp 36 and Kavisha Dilhari 2/47.
Sri Lanka 305/4 in 44.3 overs: Chamari Athapaththu 195*, Nilakshika Silva 50* and Ayabonga Khaka 2/54.
